The enduring appeal of textiles from India
This exhibition examines the rich world of handmade textiles in India, including those made for the royal Mughal and Deccani courts. Featuring about 200 objects, the exhibition includes ancient ceremonial banners, modern saris, sacred temple hangings and a spectacular tent used by Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore during the 18th century. It also looks at attempts to revive traditional methods from the 1950s and includes pieces from Hermes and Isabel Murant to show the global impact of these designs. The Fabric of India runs at the V&A in London until January 10. For more information visit www.vam.ac.uk.
Women of the German avant-garde
The STURM, or storm, was a magazine founded in Germany in 1910 to promote expressionism. A gallery in Berlin soon followed and around this space a movement developed. Artists of the STURM generally urged total freedom, rejected the establishment and opposed the bourgeois character of society at the time. This exhibition features art from women associated with the scene, including Sonia Delaunay, Alexandra Exter and Marianne von Werefkin among others. Storm Women: Women Artists of the Avant-Garde in Berlin 1910 to 1932 runs at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt until February 7. For more information visit www.www.schirn.de.
Last chance to see works from a Syrian master
Moustafa Fathi, who died in 2009, was a pioneering Syrian artist. Much of his works are inspired by the geometric patterns of folk art from a country now devastated by years of civil war. But, unsurprisingly for an artist who admired Jackson Pollock and Paul Klee, he does not follow rigidly the symmetry of these geometric designs and favours a free-form approach. His canvases are often scattered with motifs, teeming with forms that resemble the congested city of Damascus, where he had a studio in the Old City. Towards the Absolute of Nature concludes at the Ayyam Gallery on November 12. For more information visit www.ayyamgallery.com.
