California weaver James Bassler adapts textile traditions from around the world, exploring issues of global exchange, politics, and other aspects of contemporary life. An influential educator, Bassler taught at the University of California, Los Angeles for twenty-five years, and led workshops at prestigious programs such as the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, and the Penland School of Crafts.
In the 1970s, Bassler and his wife Veralee, a ceramist, ran a summer program for American teenagers in Oaxaca. Awed by the region’s indigenous textiles, Bassler incorporated many local techniques and forms into his own work. The three-panel structure of this 1974 hanging references a ubiquitous Mesoamerican tunic called a huipil. The piece exemplifies Bassler’s cross-cultural melding: he acquired the native silks from a Zapotec artisan and dyed them using materials gathered both in the Santa Monica Mountains and in Mexico.
Staci Steinberger, Associate Curator, Decorative Arts and Design, 2021
