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Houston Museum to display Indian textiles in new exhibition
The textiles are part of a collection gifted to the museum by New York-based Indian American collectors Banoo and Jeevak Parpia.
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Staff Reporter
- Tue, 10, Jun 2025
- 16:58 EDT
- 31
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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 Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is set to open a new exhibition on June 22, showcasing a selection of Indian textiles.
Titled ‘From India to the World: Textiles from the Parpia Collection,’ the collection features 67 works drawn from a recent acquisition of 187 Indian textiles gifted by collectors Banoo and Jeevak Parpia.
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Based in Ithaca, New York, the Parpias have been assembling their renowned collection since the 1980s. Banoo Parpia recently retired as director of Asian and Middle East Alumni Affairs and Development at Cornell University, while Jeevak Parpia is a professor of physics at Cornell.
On view until Sept. 14, the exhibition highlights textiles produced between the 17th and early 20th centuries, offering insight into India’s long and dynamic history of textile artistry, trade, and cultural exchange.
The acquisition is regarded as a landmark moment for MFAH, positioning the museum among the leading public institutions for Indian textile collections outside of India. The Parpias spent over four decades assembling what is considered one of the most significant private holdings of Indian textiles globally.
“The Parpia textile collection is a pivotal addition to our collections,” said 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.”
Curated by Rosemary Crill, former senior curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and Amy Poster, consulting curator at MFAH, the exhibition distinguishes between textiles intended for India’s domestic market and those created for export.
Each category reflects different aesthetic and functional priorities—from intricate dyeing techniques and regional embroidery styles to adaptations for European, Southeast Asian, and Middle Eastern patrons.
Included are finely woven muslins, tie-dyes, ikats, block-printed cottons, and embroidered domestic textiles. Among the export works are brilliantly colored chintzes made for Britain and the Netherlands, and complex dyed and painted fabrics from the Coromandel Coast produced for Indonesian markets. A standout example is an 18th-century textile depicting the Ramayana, made for ceremonial use in Southeast Asia.
Other pieces once destined for elite courts include opulent silks sent to Thailand, where royal approval was required for imports, and a rare embroidered quilt with Biblical and classical scenes, likely made for the Portuguese market.
The exhibition follows the museum’s 2023 loan presentation Woven Wonders: Indian Textiles from the Parpia Collection, which introduced audiences to the range and richness of the Parpias’ holdings. Their collaboration with MFAH began in 2018 and culminated in this significant acquisition, advancing the museum’s broader commitment to South Asian art.
Presented across MFAH’s main campus in Houston’s Museum District, the exhibition offers visitors an opportunity to explore the craftsmanship, global influence, and cultural resonance of Indian textile traditions.
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