Traditions & vernacular · 1900–present · Latin America & Caribbean

Guna Mola

Also known as Mola, Kuna mola (pre-2010 spelling), Guna reverse appliqué

The reverse-appliqué blouse panels of Guna women in Panama, made by cutting through two to seven stacked layers of cotton so that every shape is ringed by echoing bands of the colours beneath. Fields are packed with filler slits, sawtooth edges and mazes. The imagery runs from abstract ancestral designs and animals to Bible stories, cartoon characters, brand logos and party slogans, all redrawn in the same contour-echo idiom.

Get advice in this style Mix it with another style

A sample layout drawn from the style’s design choices. Its AI image is held back until someone who knows the tradition has checked it.

Use it with care

The mola is the everyday and ceremonial dress of Guna women and an emblem of Guna identity and autonomy, defended in the 1925 revolution against a Panamanian ban on Guna dress; many motifs draw on Guna cosmology and oral history, and early sergan designs have been studied and reclaimed by Guna representatives. Treat it as a community's living dress, not a decorative print: buy or commission molas from Guna makers and cooperatives, credit them, keep paired panels together, and do not print imitation 'mola' patterns on merchandise. In Panama, Law 20 of 2000 protects Guna dress as collective intellectual property and bars its industrial reproduction, in whole or in part, without official authorisation and the prior consent of the Guna general congresses.

How it works

Cut the shape out of the top colour and let the layers beneath show as concentric echo bands, so every contour becomes a multiple outline.
Fill all remaining ground with cut slits, sawtooth edges, maze lines or appliquéd triangles (das-das, ada-ada, bisu-bisu, wawa-naled) so no area stays empty.
Set saturated reds and oranges against black or navy edge to edge, inlaying patches of other colours for full polychrome.
Make panels as front-and-back pairs that answer each other without mirroring exactly.
Absorb any image, from ancestral designs to logos, cartoons and party slogans, by redrawing it entirely in the contour-echo idiom.

Guna Yala (formerly the San Blas archipelago), Caribbean coast of Panama

Its design choices

From Stylogeny’s vocabulary of design choices: defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

Layout & composition: Central symmetry characteristic
Framed panels characteristic
All-over field characteristic
Space & hierarchy: Horror vacui defining
Repetition & rhythm characteristic
Single focal point occasional
Typography: Hand-lettering occasional
Ornamented display occasional
Colour: Full polychrome defining
Flat fields defining
Complementary clash characteristic
Limited spot colours occasional
Dark ground occasional
Form & shape: Stylised figuration defining
Biomorphic curves characteristic
Angular & zigzag characteristic
Optical pattern characteristic
Non-representational characteristic
Surface & texture: Flat characteristic
Hard offset shadow characteristic
Ornament: Abundant decoration defining
Folk & sacred symbols characteristic
Borders & frames occasional
Geometric tessellation occasional
Imagery: Pattern & repeat characteristic
Found & vernacular imagery characteristic
Comic & cartoon occasional
Medium & production: Textile & craft defining
Tone & intent: Communal & popular defining
Playful & witty characteristic
Rebellious & subversive occasional
Warm & approachable occasional
Avoids: Gradients, Generous white space, Naturalistic depiction, Illusion of depth, Straight photography, Ornament-free, Pastel

Palette

#c8262e
#ee7a1f
#121212
#1f2a5c
#f2c12e
#2e8b4a

Typefaces

Letters cut through the cloth layers and outlined by echo bands, as in political and lettered mola panels
Brand wordmarks and cartoon lettering redrawn in reverse appliqué

Known for

Labyrinth and Letters mola panels (1920s–1930s), Cleveland Museum of Art, 'Fashioning Identity: Mola Textiles of Panamá'
Bullwinkle J. Moose mola panel (c. 1960s) and Santa Claus mola pair (c. 1986), Cleveland Museum of Art
Liberal Party political mola panels (mid-1980s), Cleveland Museum of Art
RCA Victor logo mola panel, RISD Museum

Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

Before it

The style it grew out of, and the styles it borrowed from.

Nothing earlier is recorded: in the atlas it is a starting point.

This styleGuna Mola1900–present · Latin America & Caribbean

After it

The styles that grew out of it.

No later style in the atlas grew out of it yet.

Alike in its design choices

Styles that make many of the same choices, related or not, besides those above.

Real works

Artefacts in museums, libraries and archives that show the style, linked at their source.

Flower, Birds, and Profile Animal Mola PanelGuna woman artist (unrecorded) · 1900s · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Birds and Fish Mola Panels (Pair)Guna woman artist (unrecorded) · 1900s · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Mola Panel ('Partido Laborista Agrario')Guna woman artist (unrecorded) · mid-1900s (acquired 1965) · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Mola Panel (turtle)Guna woman artist (unrecorded) · mid-1900s (acquired 1965) · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Labyrinth Mola PanelGuna woman artist (unrecorded) · before 1960 · The Cleveland Museum of Art

Sources

Cleveland Museum of Art, 'Fashioning Identity: Mola Textiles of Panamá': https://www.clevelandart.org/articles/fashioning-identity-mola-textiles-panama
Wikipedia: Mola (art form); Guna people
Panama, Ley 20 de 26 de junio de 2000, régimen especial de propiedad intelectual sobre los derechos colectivos de los pueblos indígenas (arts. 3 and 20): https://panama.justia.com/federales/leyes/20-de-2000-jun-27-2000/gdoc/

How Stylogeny researches and checks a style: where the facts come from.