William Poundstone blogs about the exhibition Second Skins: Painted Barkcloth from New Guinea and Central Africa at the Fowler Museum, UCLA, on view through August 26, 2012.

Poundstone writes: "Painted barkcloths were originally clothing, to be worn and discarded. Many of the designs draw on tattooing (in New Guinea) or skin painting (in the Ituri rainforest of Central Africa). The African side of the show fits a more familiar template. Ituri cloths (one example at left) have been prized and collected by big-name Western artists – including Brice Marden and Terry Winters – yet most of the names of the Ituri artists are lost."