Fugitive beauty and magical intrigue of Jan Kath Contemporary Rug Art

Today’s blog post is a taster. Embarrassment of riches may mean an overabundance of a good thing, but when your scribe is presented with the exquisite contemporary rug collections of German company Jan Kath, the more accurate description is a cornucopia – a horn of plenty. Confronted with too much...

Today’s blog post is a taster. Embarrassment of riches may mean an overabundance of a good thing, but when your scribe is presented with the exquisite contemporary rug collections of German company Jan Kath, the more accurate description is a cornucopia – a horn of plenty. Confronted with too much choice and unprepared to attempt to grab every treasure for today’s post (for a more prosaic image, picture your scribe in a frenzied bid to grab money in a Vegas casino cash cube), more Jan Kath designs will follow tomorrow.

The Erased and Evolution collections feature rugs in various stages of change or evolution. Imagine walking through a grand enfilade where the rugs “dissolve” and shift from room to room. Magical. From an art historical perspective, your scribe prefers the term pentimenti, meaning the rugs suggest evidence of previous work where the painter (or painters) have altered or overpainted the design during the life of the work. So too the term is a better fit with some of the Jan Kath titles. Doesn’t “Verona Vendetta” conjure in your mind Medici mayhem and court intrigue? Or is your scribe simply over inspired by hand knotted trove? Either way, pentimenti is treasure beneath the surface, and with Jan Kath rugs the treasure is beneath your feet. DJ