Legacy
Max Tilke’s talent, his wide range of activity, and his exquisite workmanship secure for him a pre-eminent place among artists and ethnographers alike. Additionally, as the years pass, these works take on an added value. As examples of ethnic costume are less and less frequently seen, and as more and more people forsake their national dress for westernized clothing and costume, these paintings stand as a record and a testament to a bygone, more colorful time.
Max Tilke stands out in that he chose the complicated and unexplored path of being both a scientist and an artist. In his view, the study of historical costume was indispensable to the study of cultural history. It was Tilke’s aim to show the unique importance and significance of individual ethnic groups and his work reflects this aim.
Toward the end of his life, he lent his name to a collaboration with Wolfgang Bruhn. (Bruhn, Wolfgang, and Tilke, Max, Kostümwerk, Verlag Ernst Wassmuth, 1955, as translated into English as A Pictorial History of Costume and republished in 1973 by Hastings House). This work has come under criticism as being inauthentic and error-ridden and has tarnished Tilke's reputation.
A copy of one his books has been digitized and is online at the Indiana University Libraries.
Some years ago there was small exhibition on Lydia Bagdasarianz, Tilke's assistant, at the Völkerkundemuseum Zürich (Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zürich), Switzerland.
Recently, there was an exhibition on Max Tilke's work at the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi, Georgia. A publication is available, but rare.
At the Lipperheidische Kostümbibliothek, Berlin, a large collection of pictures and drawings is available for research.
Read more about this topic: Max Karl Tilke
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“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)