"Les Coquecigrues" 1780 - 1790

Curator: Here we have "Les Coquecigrues", a textile crafted by the Oberkampf Manufactory sometime between 1780 and 1790. It resides here at the Met. What's your first take on this intriguing piece? Editor: The dense, almost overwhelming pattern feels both exotic and familiar. There’s a kind of organized chaos to it, with bursts of color against that earthy, mustard-colored ground. Curator: That’s a good observation. It's a perfect example of the Chinoiserie craze that swept Europe. We see fanciful creatures mingling with stylized flora, a hallmark of the Rococo period, adapted for textile design. It served a function, providing both aesthetic appeal and a representation of exotic locales, even for those who may not have experienced them directly. Editor: Absolutely, this pattern served to construct an idea, or a fantasy, of "the Orient," filtering otherness to a Eurocentric gaze, it’s about commerce as much as aesthetics. Do you agree this work is a potent visual signifier that encoded social and economic hierarchies within its threads? Curator: Yes. The Oberkampf Manufactory played a significant role in democratizing access to these "exotic" designs via mass production. Textile printing made such imagery widely accessible, adorning middle-class homes. These pieces moved social ideals. The politics of imagery were strong, just as you alluded to. Editor: Precisely. And beyond just Rococo or even the social politics, look closely—isn't there something visually overwhelming, an accumulation almost to the point of absurdity? Considering contemporary "pattern-and-decoration," that celebrates ornamentation for its own sake and rejects minimalist austerity as a gendered power play? I think we must consider all these contextual layers. Curator: It’s a wonderfully rich artwork that opens a lot of thought processes! Editor: Yes, the way it merges whimsy and production invites many narratives. A little window to understand power structures and fantasies still in play today.