Uuk kap ilgich 1920 - 1950

Kungrat made this striking textile, Uuk kap ilgich, with thread on cloth. Look at that red! It’s like the whole thing is vibrating. The stitching is so dense it creates a wonderful texture, like tiny ridges, and the way the colors are built up is super intuitive. I love how Kungrat uses the thread not just to depict forms, but to create them. Notice the stylized flowers and the geometric borders, each stitch carefully placed, building up a surface that’s both decorative and deeply expressive. There's a playful tension between the flatness of the cloth and the almost sculptural quality of the embroidery. It’s a kind of drawing with thread, an embrace of the materials. This piece reminds me of the work of Sophie Taeuber-Arp, who explored similar ideas about abstraction and craft. Like Taeuber-Arp, Kungrat seems to be suggesting that art is an ongoing conversation, a dance between form and feeling, and that meaning is always in motion, never fixed.