Delight in Discovery: The Global Collections of Lloyd Cotsen

Over his lifetime, Lloyd Cotsen was known as many things: a philanthropist, the CEO of skin- and hair-care company Neutrogena, and a world-renowned collector of textiles, basketry and folk art. 

Delight in Discovery: The Global Collections of Lloyd Cotsen brought together extraordinary works from Cotsen's collections that reflected his eclectic taste: a Bible published in England in 1617, a 21-foot-long ceremonial dance skirt from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an iridescent textile by contemporary Japanese artist Junichi Arai, and much more. Most works came from two textile collections assembled by Cotsen and gifted to GW by his wife, Margit Sperling Cotsen, in 2018. 

More than 90 fragments from the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection, part of the 2018 gift, were included. Cotsen created this collection of nearly 4,000 global fragments as a resource for scholars, artists, students and curators. The entire collection is accessible on our collections website.

Delight in Discovery is accompanied by a gallery guide.

 

Robert Barker, Bible, London, 1617, T-3086, photo by Bruce M. White.

 

Mantle, Peru, Inca culture, 9th/11th century, NT-0963.

 

Ritual textile, Fiji, Cakaudrove district, c. 1900, T-3133.

 

Shawl fragment, Coptic culture, 3rd/5th century, T-1070, photo by Bruce M. White.

 

Shihoko Fukumoto (Japanese, b. 1945), Shade of the Sun, 1995, photo by Bruce M. White.

 

Woman's fichu, India, 18th century, T-3083, photo by Bruce M. White.

 

Textile fragment, Hudson Valley, New York, late 18th century, T-0450, photo by Bruce M. White.

 

Vest, United States, Eastern Sioux people, 1890-1910, T-0845, photo by Bruce M. White.

 

Textile fragment, Central Asia, Sogdian people, Tang dynasty (618-907), T-2540, photo by Bruce M. White.