In the world of rugs and carpets, it is generally recognised that there are 2 types of buyers: The first purchases rugs and carpets to complete a decor. The second considers them investments in fine art.
It is increasingly being acknowledged and recognised that antique oriental rugs were a precursor to modern Western art. Jan David Winitz of Claremont Rug Company notes that the Cubists and individual artists like Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky, studied the abstract forms of tribal rugs as they created “a new, non-representational artistic aesthetic”. Winitz goes on to point out that others, including Gauguin and Matisse, “were enthralled in the rug’s inventive use of colour”.
