7 / Domestic Life

• • Bag (taghrek)Andi Ouhoulou (Tuareg, Kel Ewey, n.d.), Agadez, Niger	Tar Beach 2Faith Ringgold (American, b. 1930)	Blocks, Strips, Strings, and Half-Squares QuiltMary Lee Bendolph (American, b. 1935), Gee’s Bend Quilter’s Collective, Gee’s Bend, AL	Brush HolderKorean artist	Grapevine in the WindKorean artist	Bud (William) Fields, Lily Rogers Fields, and Lilian FieldsWalker Evans (American, 1903–1975)
    “Wassily” ChairMarcel Breuer (American, born Hungary, 1902–81). Manufactured by Standard Möbel, Germany	Theatrical decoration with figuresUnknown artist, Pompeii, Italy	TablePhilip Speakman Webb (British, 1831–1915)(designer)	The Orchard (also called The Seasons)William Morris (British, English, 1834–1896) and John Henry Dearle (British, 1860–1932) (designers)	Dutch Family in an InteriorJan Olis (Dutch, ca.1610–76)	Fallingwater (exterior)Frank Lloyd Wright (American, 1867–1959)
    Villa SavoyeLe Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret) (Swiss, 1887–1965)	Tent Door Cover (ensi)Turkmen (Turkoman) artist	Kirghiz YurtKirghiz maker(s)	Honeycomb QuiltElizabeth Van Horne Clarkson (American, 1771–1852)

expert perspective

Jeff Spurr Islamic and Middle East Specialist, Harvard University Fine Arts Library

“

Nomadic peoples have to be able to carry the complete cultural repertoire with them. So everything that they use has to be able to be put largely on camel back, if not horseback, and therefore there are limits to the kinds of objects that they will be interested in owning. And the heaviest things they are libel to take with them are the felt covers for the yurts, and the poles that hold the whole structure up, and this elaborate lattice screen that typically goes around the interior of the yurt, decorated or not.

The portable house—the yurt—would, for any given tribal group, have a form characteristic of it and distinct from other groups and, much like everything else in the culture, would therefore be a point of recognition for other people who might encounter this group. And so it would be one of the repertoire of signs of the identity of a particular people.”