Category Archives: Tech is Beautiful

Rugs are ancient technology, but this category focuses on the beauties of the modern world.

Cityscape in Springtime Rug

This is a rug that was sold before being properly inventoried, and recently I found these photos from 2004. If you happened to have bought this rug from me at the showroom in Long Island City, please contact me, for it would be good to get better quality photos.



What makes this rug so great? First, its depiction of spring in a city. The colors are lively and fresh. Second, it is a well drawn and clear Modern City Landscape, and maybe a key to identifying the location. Third, the drawing is very good with wonderful details: the plane, the motorcycle, the blooming trees. Fourth, the border is festive with strong rhythm. Enjoy!

That Rug Really Tied the Room Together, Did it Not?

Warrug.com gets a lot of traffic, but what was the most viewed file in September 2018? A blog post from 2006 about regular rugs we were selling  at the flea market entitled contained one photo that has achieved an obscure internet fame.  The Mashad rug we were selling looked just like the rug which The Dude took of the Big Lubowoski (and Maude stole back.)

Well here it is again:

Funny thing is, I do not know who is using the photo, or where on the internet is posted.

Tyne Bridge with Newcastle Swing Bridge



For some years there has been speculation about the location depicted in a group of landscape rugs showing a through arch bridge similar to the beautiful Sydney Harbour Bridge. The rugs in question though show a distinctive clock tower. Nigel Lendon was onto it in the post above (the ads and broken image links are unfortunate). These rugs show River Tyne with the Tyne Bride (through arch) and the Swing Bridge (at leftmost foreground in red and white.)



David R. Williams has a good
photo on Flickr from a similar vantage point showing both bridges


Abstract rug from the Textile Museum of Canada


Notice in the left foreground the white arch supported by red lines of the Swing Bridge.



This one is reversed (note the white arch on right) with warehouse building in foreground.

UPDATED, April 23, 2019
From Luca Brancati’s Pinterest board I discovered this beautiful and interesting rug. It is a grand Tyne Bridge rug, as seen by the double warehouse at the bottom right, and the little white line of the swing bridge above it. Oddly, it has heavy armor integrated into the streets of Newcastle.

More info here . I especially like the white rectangles with drooping pomegranates. The inner border is Mushwani, and the the burgundy background on the outer border also looks Mushwani. The reversal of the image and the abstraction of some buildings in the top panel is interesting.

NPR Coverage on Impressions at Mike Weiss Gallery, NYC

npr-home

Not only am I into the art of presenting and selling war rugs but, I’m also a rock sculptor, reviving the original carvings through impressions presented at the Mike Weiss Gallery. Check out this write up on NPR, written by contributor,  Alva Noe : http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/04/23/474717276/making-art-from-life

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Afghan War Rug Exhibition at Temple University

War rug art is fascinatingly educational friends! Temple University’s Samuel L. Paley Library, in room 309, is currently holding a Afghan war rug exhibition that contains 14 of my Afghan war rugs. These rugs tell stories and contain history which, ” helps contextualize a group of people that many Americans know very little about.” Theirs so much to be learned and talked about. Go check it out!

Video on vimeo (embed removed to stop unwelcome third party javascript from running on Warrug)

This show has curated by Alicia Cunningham-Bryant and student assistant curators, Ilana Napoli, and Rachel Morin.

Rugs shown are documented here

Super Mario Rug

This Mario Rug in the style of Super Mario Brother 3 shows Mario riding a white horse.

The horseman is the original figurative image found in carpets. Horsemen are found in the wolrd’s oldest carpet, the Pazyrik, from the 5th century BC. This ancient image, the horsemen, coupled with an icon of digital culture, Mario, is beautiful.

More images of the Mario Rug here.

The original post of this rug, years ago, including size, structure, photos, and description is here.

This rug is on loan to an exhibition at The Miami University Art Museum. The exhibition will feature approximately 70 war rugs that warrug.com is honored to have lent to the museum. More exhibition information, including dates for symposium and gallery talk by Kevin Sudeith, here

Note: This is a tribal rug, reflecting one weavers artistic vision. This rug was selected, with 25-30 others, from a collection of traditional design Afghan Baluchi rugs from Herat and Farah. All the other rugs were of traditional designs bearing no war motifs or western images.

More rugs here.