New Gallery of Islamic Art opens at Detroit
Institute of Arts, Feb. 28
The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) will open its long-awaited
new gallery of Islamic art on Sunday, Feb. 28, 2010. The new
gallery includes works of art from the Mediterranean region, the
Middle East, Central Asia and India, and spans the 7th–early
20th centuries.
The gallery was initially to be part of the museum’s renovation
and reinstallation project that was completed in 2007, but was
delayed until funding could be secured.
The Islamic collection will be on view in a larger space than
was previously allocated. In addition, the new gallery
incorporates significant works of art on loan from nine public
and
private collections.
Most of these are long-term loans to the DIA, but manuscripts
from collections including the University of Michigan’s
Special Collections Library
will be rotated in regularly.
DIA Director Graham W. J. Beal believes that giving
attention to the collection of Islamic art is crucial for the
museum given that the
Detroit
metropolitan area is home to the largest Middle Eastern
population in the United States.
“The DIA’s collection of Islamic art allows us to display and
teach about the artistic achievements of a great and
multifaceted civilization,” said Beal. “We’re excited to
highlight some of our Islamic masterpieces and to display some
works of art that have never before been on view.”
Planning the gallery
provided the opportunity to study the collection and to carry
out conservation treatments and scientific analysis, which
resulted in a new understanding of some works of art and the
rediscovery of important objects that had remained unrecognized
for decades.
Among them are a
very large, rare, early Ottoman mosque candlestick from around
1500, and a 15th-century Timurid cut-tile panel in the shape of
a star.
In 2005 the DIA hired Heather Ecker, a specialist in
Islamic art, as the curator of Islamic Art and head of the
Department of the Arts
of Asia and the Islamic World. Among other projects, Ecker has
been responsible for researching the collection and planning and
installing the new gallery together with a team of interpretive
specialists.
“The DIA has some superb works of Islamic art—to work with the
collection has been a great honor. In the new gallery, visitors
will have an opportunity to discover some outstanding treasures,
as well as to view some objects that we could not display
previously because of their size, such as large carpets,” said
Ecker.
In the new galleries, the museum uses the term
Islamic art
to refer to works of art created in areas governed by Muslims
and where Islamic culture has had significant influence. As
Islamic art comes from a vast area that includes peoples of
diverse cultures, languages, and faiths, both Christian and
Jewish sacred manuscripts from the Islamic world will also be
exhibited alongside exquisite Islamic manuscripts in an area
devoted to sacred writings.
As with the rest of the museum, the galleries are arranged
according to the thematic stories the art has to tell. These are
expressed in seven major themes: The Silk Road;
Masterpieces
of Carpet Weaving; Art of the Great Empires: Ottoman, Safavid,
and Mughal; The Medieval Islamic World: Urban Settings and
Goods; Art of the
Mamluks;
Mediterranean Trade and Spanish Lusterware 1250–1500; and Sacred
Writings from the Islamic World.
In keeping with the museum’s visitor-centered approach,
multi-layered labels and other interpretive devices will be
interspersed in the galleries to help visitors engage with the
art. Among these are an interactive “carpet-making” activity, a
video of a master calligrapher at work, a large map of the areas
represented in the galley and the popular Eye Spy labels.
The DIA began collecting Islamic art in the 1890s. Some of the
most important masterpieces in the collection were acquired
under
Wilhelm Valentiner,
director from the 1920s to the 1940s. These works include an
exceptional Timurid Qur’an, a splendid enameled bottle made in
Syria in the Mamluk period, the largest surviving 17th-century
Ottoman velvet summer carpet in the world, and an exquisite,
all-silk animal carpet probably made for the Safavid ruler, Shah
Tahmasp (r. 1524-76).
Recent acquisitions include an impressive early Iznik blue and
white charger from Ottoman Turkey,
a Qur’an taken by the
Mughal Emperor
Shah Jahan
from the library of the Uzbek ruler Nadhr Muhammad Khan in 1646,
an unusual
Mughal painting
of mystics seated by a lake, and a small, personal Qur’an,
copied by the Ottoman royal calligrapher Mehmed Rasim in 1730,
which once belonged to Princess Nazimah Sultan.
Hours and Admission
Museum hours are 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10
a.m.–10 p.m. Fridays, and 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors, $4 for ages 6-17,
and free for DIA members. For membership information call
313-833-7971.
On the Internet:
www.dia.org
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