About The Book: Carol Summers' A TREASURY OF INDIAN FOLK TEXTILES is a 64-page, four-color book showing a wide spectrum of colorful antique and vintage folk textiles from India created primarily between 1900 and 1950. The stunning photographs were taken of items from Carol Summers' own personal collection which he has painstakingly acquired over the last three decades and which today is worth several hundred thousand dollars. The catalog measures 11” by 9” in size and has been personally signed by Summers. There are 58 full color photographs in this book which was published in 2002; the Library of Congress Catalog Number is 2002093405. It is Catalog #455 from a limited edition publication of 1,500.

In the book’s opening essay, Carol Summers writes about how the collection came about. Over 30 years ago he was hired by the U.S. Information Agency as part of a master craftsman exchange program to travel to India to hold printmaking workshops at several universities. There, he says, he found the folk arts of India and their rich textile heritage that used weaving and needlework skills unknown on the continent even then. Summers was also dazzled by the uninhibited love of color and playfulness in the things villagers made for everyday living and he began collecting exceptional early 20th century clothwork typically made with dyes and materials that were no longer in use anywhere in India. The collection shown in this catalog includes shawls, wall-hangings, quilts, blankets, articles of clothing for men, women and children and other textiles. There are images of trees and plants, elephants, birds, princes, princesses, dancers and a multiutude of abstrract patterns and colors that dazzle the senses. Summers says that he “looks upon these objects as works of art that pay homage to the vitality and imagination of their creators.”

Carol Summers (Am: b. 1925- ) is considered by many art historians to be among only a handful of master printmakers alive today as well as one of the most notable woodcut artists to have worked throughout the entire second half of the 20th century. It is not surprising that Carol Summers has a special affinity for the early folk textiles of India. His own art is also known for bold, flowing designs and vivid, saturated colors. He portrays the natural in world in a quintessential simplicity in part by mixing geometric shapes such as as squares, triangles and circles with organic shapes that are irregular in outline. Summers is also known as a pioneer in the creation of oversize images referred to today by museum curators and collectors as "monumental" woodcuts. His work is unique, his methodology his own invention and today the "Carol Summers Technique" is taught in art schools and universities throughout the world.

Note: Available here at Peggitys.com is a second catalog, ANOTHER TREASURY OF INDIAN FOLK TEXTILES. It is a 64-page, four-color book with photographs of additional antique and vintage folk textiles from India created primarily between 1905 and 1952. This second catalog, published in 2006, includes three wide centerfold pages showing brilliant wall-size textiles that have images and desings from the folklore of India.

Also available is the four-color, 48-page Carol Summers CATALOG RAISONNE which includes detailed information and an image of each woodcut created by the artist since he began working in the early 1950s. There is also the four-color, 64-page Carol Summers Woodcuts 50 YEAR RETROSPECTIVE CATALOG which features full size photographs of the woodcuts displayed in Summers’ various museum retrospective exhibitions in 2000. In addition, this book includes sample mini-woodcuts bound in front and back. All of the catalogs cited above have been personally signed by Carol Summers. For more details simply enter the word "Catalogs” in Peggity’s Home Page search box.