The Parker & Neal Mola Collection - Part 1
Lot 234:
Description
Panama (Guna Yala), circa 1970s
17 × 15 inches
Complete Guna mola blouse featuring a boldly worked reverse appliqué and appliqué front and back panel set into a pink and white circle-print cotton yoke with gathered short sleeves, a gray horizontal band at the panel junction, and a navy and yellow floral-print cotton hem border. The mola panels present a striking all-over composition of large interlocking arrow and triangle forms, each triangular unit outlined in yellow and gray on a deep red ground and filled with a dense grid of alternating yellow and gray vertical bar cutwork. The interstitial fields between the arrow forms are similarly saturated with the same bar grid, creating an unbroken optical texture across the entire panel that reads simultaneously as figure and ground. The close detail photographs reveal the precision of the cutwork — each bar neatly trimmed and turned — and the consistency of the grid spacing throughout. Front and back panels repeat the composition with variation in the rotational orientation of the arrow units. Worked in two layers of red, yellow, and gray cotton.
Provenance: From the Parker & Neal Collection.
Condition report:
Minor wear and fading consistent with age. Small hole in yoke. In house Flat Rate US Shipping of $15 for 1 -10 molas, $5 each additional 10 molas. Insurance is additional and required.
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