The MFAH Has Acquired 187 Superb Indian Textiles from the Renowned Collection of Banoo and Jeevak Parpia
Ramayana Textile (detail), Coromandel Coast, India, for the Indonesian market, 18th century, cotton, hand-drawn and mordant-dyed, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Banoo and Jeevak Parpia Collection, museum purchase funded by the Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Accessions Endowment.
Ceremonial Textile (detail), Gujarat, India, for the Indonesian market, c. 1600, block-printed, hand-drawn, resist-dyed, and mordant-dyed, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Banoo and Jeevak Parpia Collection, museum purchase funded by the Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Accessions Endowment.
These Recent Acquisitions Go on View in June, with the Exhibition From India to the World: Textiles from the Parpia Collection
HOUSTON—May 21, 2025—In June, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will present the exhibition From India to the World: Textiles from the Parpia Collection, featuring 67 pieces from a significant group of 187 superb Indian textiles that the museum has recently acquired from the collection of Ithaca, New York–based Banoo and Jeevak Parpia. The Parpias have, over more than 40 years, assembled one of the most significant holdings of Indian textiles in private hands outside of India. The exhibition will be on view June 22 through September 14, 2025.
Following on the loan exhibition Woven Wonders: Indian Textiles from the Parpia Collection, presented at the MFAH in 2023, From India to the World: Textiles from the Parpia Collection celebrates this major acquisition by highlighting a new selection from the collection, of textiles that were produced between the 17th and the early 20th century. The exhibition is curated by Rosemary Crill, former senior curator at the V&A, London, and Amy Poster, consulting curator, MFAH.
“The Parpia textile collection is a pivotal addition to our collections,” commented Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH. “Showcasing both trade and domestic textiles from India, it represents over 40 years of dedicated collecting by Banoo and Jeevak Parpia, who have assembled one of the foremost private collections of this material globally. The Parpias’ focus on singular works exemplifying traditional forms and techniques offers a comprehensive view of Indian textile history. With this acquisition, the MFAH collection now ranks among the top public Indian textile collections outside of India.”
Over five centuries, a prosperous maritime trade in Indian textiles supplied these fabrics to Southeast Asia, Europe and Japan. Initially led by Arab, Persian and Indian merchants, that trade was later dominated by Portuguese, Dutch, and British traders who bartered Indian textiles for spices in Southeast Asia, and who expanded the market for Indian chintz and embroideries in Asia and Europe.
The exhibition highlights the distinctions between fabrics made for the India market and those produced for export to Southeast Asia and to Europe; their striking differences in color, pattern and format attest to the versatility with which Indian textile artists adapted designs to different markets.
Traditional pieces made for the home market over two centuries include fine woven silks and muslins, rustic domestic embroideries, dazzling tie-dyes and ikats and bold block-printed cottons. Textiles for export markets from the 16th to 19th centuries include intricately patterned silks and cottons sent to the “spice islands” of Southeast Asia, where they were highly prized as a form of wealth and often kept for centuries as sacred heirlooms. The elaborate textiles sent to the Thai court during the 18th and 19th centuries are some of the most beautiful and meticulously made Indian fabrics: reserved for use by only those of the highest status, the Thai king himself oversaw the trade in these precious goods.
India’s textiles were in high demand in Europe, as well, and the exhibition includes colorful chintzes made for export to Britain and The Netherlands, as well as a historic quilt embroidered with Biblical and classical scenes, made for export to Portugal. Whether made for domestic use or traded across Asia and Europe, the pieces in the exhibition all represent the astonishing range of craftsmanship and pattern for which India has been renowned for centuries.
About the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Spanning 14 acres in the heart of Houston’s Museum District, the main campus comprises the Audrey Jones Beck Building, the Caroline Wiess Law Building, the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden and the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building. Nearby, two house museums—Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, and Rienzi—present collections of American and European decorative arts. The MFAH is also home to the Glassell School of Art, with its Core Residency Program and Junior and Studio schools; and the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA), a leading research institute for 20th-century Latin American and Latino art. www.mfah.org
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