Review of Peter ten Hoopen’s Ikat Textiles of the Indonesian Archipelago

Two published reviews (Danerek & Danerek 2019; Buckley 2020) of the book Ikat Textiles of the Indonesian Archipelago by Peter ten Hoopen (2018) failed to adequately address a number of serious problems with this publication. The current review, co-authored by a group of five specialists in Indonesian textiles whose careers in the field span decades, focuses first on the issue of ten Hoopen’s shortage of appropriate scholarly citations. The review further considers his overstated belief that “nearly every motif stands for something” (2018:66) and his inclusion of many other personal musings unsubstantiated by adequate documentation. Ethical issues are examined, particularly with regard to the museum practice of hosting exhibitions based on single privately-held collections and to the publication of pseudo-scholarly catalogs authored by collectors about their own collections. A series of seven appendixes (including contributions by two additional scholars) is intended to counter damage to the existing body of literature potentially caused by the future proliferation of numerous errors found in the book.