Islamic Art And The Museum

A unique, multi-authored volume on the issues and politics of curating Islamic art in the twenty-first century.

Published in conjunction with the reopening of the Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia on November 1, 2011.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition The Art of the Qur'an: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, Istanbul, held at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C., October 15, 2016-February 20, 2017.

Deconstructing the Myths of Islamic Art addresses how researchers can challenge stereotypical notions of Islam and Islamic art while avoiding the creation of new myths and the encouragement of nationalistic and ethnic attitudes. Despite its Orientalist origins, the field of Islamic art has continued to evolve and shape our understanding of the various civilizations of Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Situated in this field, this book addresses how universities, museums, and other educational institutions can continue to challenge stereotypical or homogeneous notions of Islam and Islamic art. It reviews subtle and overt mythologies through scholarly research, museum collections and exhibitions, classroom perspectives, and artists’ initiatives. This collaborative volume addresses a conspicuous and persistent gap in the literature, which can only be filled by recognizing and resolving persistent myths regarding Islamic art from diverse academic and professional perspectives. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, museum studies, visual culture, and Middle Eastern studies.

The collection of Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan contains some of the world's finest examples of painting and calligraphy and is perhaps the most important private Muslim collection of Islamic art. This volume, richly illustrated with 24 color plates and 101 black-and-white photographs, provides a brief history of the collection and offers a generous selection of paintings, manuscripts, calligraphies, bindings, and drawings that spans the geographic range of Islamic art from North Africa to India. Detailed discussions of each illustration introduce readers to the major patrons and artists in the development of the arts of the precious book. Anthony Welch and Stuart Cary Welch have selected the most magnificent pages from the prince's collection for this volume. Included are portraits of the great Mughal rulers of India, paintings from the pages of a sixteenth-century Shahnamah (Book of Kings) of Iran, and stunning examples of calligraphy. Among the Muslim manuscripts represented are Qur̕ans from North Africa, Ottoman Turkey, Iran, and India; historical works such as the Ottoman illustrated manuscript of the Tuhfet ul-Leta̕if; philosophical treatises such as the Ethics of Nasir al-Din Tusi of India; and literary works such as the late-sixteenth-century Anvar-i Suhayli, commissioned and probably illustrated by the leading Safavid Iranian painter Sadiqi Bek. -- Inside jacket flap.

Provides an accessible walking tour of the Metropolitan Museum's world-famous Islamic Art Galleries Features the popular Damascus Room and many other highlights of the Metropolitan's collection Only guide available to the Islamic galleries of The Metropolitan Museum of Art The museum's superlative collection of Islamic art, from as far west as Spain and as far east as India, ranges in date from the 7th to the 19th century and reflects the diversity and scope of Islamic cultures and the richness of their artistic traditions. This essential guide to the collection is organized into four thematic tours.

An annotated index and general orientation of Islamic art collections in museums, libraries, other institutions and on private hands. Includes a short description of each collection, its main characteristics, documentation, publications and exhibitions.

Family guide, Dazzling details in folded front cover.

A full-color guide to one of Egypt's leading museums. The Museum of Islamic Art, established in Cairo in 1881, houses one of the world's richest collections of artifacts from all periods of Islamic history and all parts of the Islamic world. Structured as a guide, but fully illustrated with superb color photographs, this book suggests a simple but comprehensive itinerary through one of Egypt's most fascinating museums. Taking readers through the various exhibits, this useful guidebook explains and illuminates the aesthetic and historic importance of the museum's main works on display, including metalwork, textiles, woodwork, glass, carved stone and ivory, and the art of the book. Also included are sections on two other small but important Cairo museums: the Islamic Ceramics Museum and the Islamic Textiles Museum. Written by one of the leading authorities on Islamic art and architecture, and lavishly illustrated throughout with specially commissioned color photographs, this is the definitive guide to Egypt's great collections of Islamic art.

Dedicated to the topic of eroticism and sexuality in the visual production of the medieval and early modern Muslim world, this volume offers new insights and methodological models that extend our understanding of erotic and sexual subjects in the Islamic tradition. The essays shed light on the diverse socio-cultural milieus of erotic images, on the motivations underlying their production, and on the responses generated by their circulation.

This richly illustrated book allows readers to identify the elements and themes of Islamic art forms, and to examine them in works of painting and metalwork, in calligraphy and manuscripts, ceramics, glass, wood, and ivory.

Traces the development of classic Islamic art from the seventh through the twentieth century, and looks at its aesthetic principles, themes, and imagery

This book examines British collectors of so-called Persian art (a broad umbrella term then covering a large portion of Islamic art) in the late 19th century, including ceramics, metalwork, carpets, textiles and woodwork. Based on a foundational event, the very first exhibition of “Persian and Arab Art” held by a London Gentlemen’s Club in 1885, this book follows one generation of men, retracing the subtle shades of difference among “amateurs,” “connoisseurs,” “experts” and “collectors,” and exploring all the mechanisms of the construction of a collective fascination for the Orient. Isabelle Gadoin uncovers some of the first “scientific” analyses of Islamic objects and of the first private notebooks or exhibition catalogues, to provide an in-depth study of the way Westerners talked about Islamic objects and began to define what would become Islamic art history. All the while, Gadoin unravels the skein of Western prejudice, Romantic fancy, sincere admiration and ruthless appropriation, in art collecting, to write a new chapter of Orientalist history. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, history of collecting, colonialism and postcolonialism, and Orientalism.

Published in paperback for the opening of the new Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art at the V&A, this fascinating introduction to Islamic art and culture draws on examples from its magnificent collections. It is an invaluable overview of a complex subject, exploring the cultural significance of objects in different media, from ceramics, miniature painting and textiles to wood-carving and metalwork, while the superb photographs highlight their unique craftsmanship. From the Middle East came the earliest astrological clocks, the finest ceramics and lustreware, the development of calligraphy and Arabic scripts, and the intricate skills of carpet-weaving, among many other profoundly significant cultural developments. This cradle of empires was also a vibrant commercial centre, exporting raw materials, skills and techniques to surrounding lands, and spreading its web of influence from Southern Spain to Northern India. Palace and Mosque distills a rich and vibrant culture, and will be of lasting value to all those interested in the glories of the Islamic world.

Ink, Silk, and Gold explores the dynamic and complex traditions of Islamic art through more than 115 major works in a dazzling array of media, reproduced in full color and exquisite detail manuscripts inscribed with gold, paintings on silk, elaborate metalwork, intricately woven textiles, luster-painted ceramics, and more. These objects, which originated within an Islamic world that ranges from Western Europe to Indonesia and across more than thirteen centuries, share a distinctive relationship to the materials they are made of: their color, shape, texture, and technique of production all convey meaning. Enhanced by texts from an international team of scholars and drawing on the latest technical information, Ink, Silk, and Gold is an inviting introduction to the riches of the Islamic art collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a window into a vibrant global culture.

The Bruschettini Foundation is world - renowned for its collection of Islamic and Asian art. This fine publication reproduces a fascinating selection of 13th - to 17th - century carpets, textiles, polychrome Iznik wares, paintings, and precious inlaid metalwork chosen from the collection, revealing the enduring allure of Islamic masterpieces. Handpicked by Alessandro Bruschettini in conversation with Aga Khan Museum curator Filiz �akır Phillip, this impressive arr ay of works, each equally astonishing in vibrancy and technical perfection, has origins spanning the Islamic world from China to Spain. Bruschettini's ongoing love of seeking out exquisite examples of such art represents the epitome of the collecting spiri t and comprises the essence of the collection. The reader will experience the extraordinary aesthetics of Islamic and Asian art and will be introduced to one of its most perceptive collectors.