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Mbuti Barkcloth — Cover

About Mbuti Barkcloth

Men pound the inner bark of six forest tree species into a soft fibrous sheet. Women then draw on it with a twig, a stem or a fingertip — line networks, hatch fields, dotted runs, blotted forms — improvised once and never repeated.

This system takes the sheet as the page: khaki-oatmeal ground, olive-black ink that soaks and feathers into the grain, uneven density on purpose. A crowded corner beside a bare one is the composition, not a mistake to be corrected.

Learn more about the Mbuti Barkcloth style

Origin
Ituri rainforest, north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
Era
pre-1900 and continuing; the museum-collected corpus is largely twentieth century
Key figures
Mbuti women painters · Efe forest painters · Hamill Gallery · Smithsonian National Museum of African Art
Movements
Central African barkcloth · forest-dweller material culture · mid-century Western abstraction

Mbuti Barkcloth design spec

Colors

Background
Surface
Primary
Secondary
Accent
Text

Typography

Libre FranklinHeadings
Noto SerifBody
Archivo NarrowMono
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Styles similar to Mbuti Barkcloth

Also inspired by crafts & folk art, with a close feel.

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