April 28, 2018
"The Ottoman Heritage in Austro-Hungarian Costume and Textiles"

Talk by Joyce Corbett

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This talk will illuminate the influences on costume and textiles resulting from the Ottoman Turkish occupation of the greater Austro-Hungarian Empire for one hundred and fifty years, (1541-1699). This area extended from the periphery of Vienna east and south, including the present day region of Transylvania, Romania. Despite constant warfare and turmoil, Ottoman occupation brought many cultural innovations to the region.

We will examine traditional royal embroidery and the evolution of court dress in Hungary, votive carpets in Transylvanian churches, and further adaptations of Ottoman textile culture extending west across Europe in later centuries. Finally, discovering vestiges of Ottoman cultural heritage still found in the Carpathian basin presents an intriguing opportunity for inquiry.

Joyce Corbett is an independent scholar speciallizing in folk art and cultural history in Central Europe. Her areas of research include folk art, historic court costumes and textiles, and early 20th century design in Hungary.

Her curatorial history includes "Between East and West: Folk Art Treasures of Romania” (co-authored catalog), at Mingei International Museum, San Diego, CA. in 2011. Other exhibitions at Mingei International Museum, San Diego, CA and Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA include:Hungarian Folk Magic: the Art of Joseph Domjan" where she directed a documentary video accompanying the exhibition)."Eva Zeisel: Extraordinary Designer Craftsman at 100”, “Dowry: Eastern European Painted Furniture, Textiles and Folk Art”, for which she co-authored the catalog, and organized a symposium, and “Wearable Folk Art”.

She also co-authored the catalog to the exhibition: “Resplendent Dress from Southeastern Europe: Central European Embroidery”, at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, in 2013.

Joyce is the founder of The Ethnic Textile Council of San Diego. She is on the International Advisory Board of Mingei International Museum, and has held a Woodrow Wilson Scholarship while doing her MFA. She received International Research and Exchanges Board grants for Romania and Hungary and was a Fulbright Research Scholar for Slovakia and Hungary.










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