Batik in America: Javanese to Javanesque, 1893 to 1937

This research examines the influence of the Javanese art of batik in American textile arts from 1893 to 1937 to recognize its presence, transformation, and meaning. The foundations of batik's entry, its entry, emergence, and spread are examined through publications, archival materials, and extant objects. Four elements are identified as re-expressions of Javanese batik in American textile arts: painting dye inside a wax outline, en forme printing of designs, the line quality of wax flowing from a canting, and crackle effects. The Dutch practice of batik was examined demonstrating linkage to the American Arts and Crafts movement. Batik textiles in the Dutch ethnographic collections were readily interpreted in the development of Nieuwe Kunst style. Dutch investigators in the 1890s were C. A. Lion Cachet, and H. Berlage and H. A. Baanders. Later, batik technique also appealed to the American Arts and Crafts movement since batik easily reflected Arts and Crafts tenets. Baanders' partnership with the Koloniale Museum led to the Haarlem batik technique, described by Theo. Neuhuys, in his introduction of batik technique to America in Keramic Studio in 1907. The role of the national infrastructure of Arts and Crafts and affiliations of people responding to the Arts and Crafts movement, are presented as the earliest mechanisms of the spread of batik and the basis of the breadth of its practice. Examination of higher education textile programs, influenced by Arts and Crafts, revealed the critical role of Charles E. Pellew of Teachers College. The artist Marguerite Zorach's involvement in batik is expanded to examine two commercially produced textile designs. Pieter Mijer is examined through his education, immigration from the Netherlands in 1909, and career in commercial textile products for John Wanamaker Store, C. A. Frutchey, and in theatre design. Described in textile promotions as batik effects, or Javanesque effects, the distinctive canting line of flowing liquid and crackle became new elements in American design vocabulary. Crackle, the signature element in American imitation batik, provided abstraction and thus related batik to emergent modernist styles in American textiles. The spread of the batik technique in America and the promotion of traditional Javanese batik are recognized as developments of divergent aspects of Orientalism. Appearing to be an elision of Javanese batik's formal elements, the popular spread of batik technique and interpretation of visual elements was an egalitarian expression that demonstrated appreciation of the Javanese batik art. However, traditional Javanese batik was linked to racist constructions of Javanese females as sources of exotic sensuality, seen in batik's first appearance in America in 1893 at the Java Village, Midway Plaisance, Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. Eva Gauthier's national vaudeville tour (1915 to 1916) of her modernist act "Songmotion" was publicized by newspapers linking Gauthier, Javanese women, and traditional batik to Moslem harems, which ensured the perception of exotic sensuality for traditional batik.