Work of Art

Byzantine-Timurid prototype

Carpet Collection

13th to 16th century, reconstructed rug fragment, 114cm x 195cm, Istanbul; bought in 1983 and sold on 2018, at Sotheby’s auction.

Content of

Work of Art

Christopher Alexander's carpet collection, at its final state included about 80 carpets, most of them Turkish carpets, or carpets with a pronounced "Turkic" character

Carpet Collection

Christopher Alexander started collecting carpets because of his desire to learn from them. He felt that they had something to teach him. He was never interested in the classification of carpets, where they came from, or on their type. He ...

Contents

Drawings

Timurid carpet pattern painting: Sketches with color 01/01/1990

Sketches

Designers:

Christopher Alexander, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Medium:

Original on Paper

Size:

8 1/2"x14"

Three color studies of the Timurid carpet pattern, one using black ink and two using color markers, together with the free-hand sketch used for the color studies.

Photographs

References

Scientific Research

Geometry and Fifteen Fundamental Properties

Areas of focus:

Structure of Space

Guiding idea:

Centers and Fields of Centers

Christopher Alexander recognized the importance of the geometry of centers and for years he was looking for the common structural features among buildings, paintings, streets, carpets, doors, windows, etc. which have "life" and "wholeness". He identified fifteen structural features which ...

Books

A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art - The Color and Geometry of very Early Turkish Carpets 1993

Authors:

Christopher Alexander

Publisher:

Oxford University Press, New York, NY, U.S.A.

No of pages:

351 pp

The seventh volume of “The Center for Environmental Structure Series” on architecture published by Oxford University Press is a book about carpets. Alexander assembled what many believe to be one of the finest collections of early Turkish carpets in the ...

Public Events

"Ancient Color and Geometry: Anatolian Pile Carpets from the Christopher Alexander Collection" exhibition in M.H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco 10/11/1990 to 17/02/1991

M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.

Exhibition

C.E.S. staff:

Christopher Alexander, Bob Theis, Annie der Bedrossian

Organized by:

M.H. de Young Memorial Museum and The Center for Environmental Structure

The exhibition of the Christopher Alexander collection of 80 Turkish carpets in the de Young Memorial Museum was held during the 6th International Conference on Oriental Carpets. Alexander designed the exhibit in all its detailing personally with one thing in ...