Beyond the paradox of celebrating a bygone Islamic civilization at the height of Islamophobia in the United States.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has just opened a magnificent exhibition of Islamic art of the Seljuqid period. That sentence would or should probably cause a double-take for right at the artistic and intellectual heartland of this beleaguered empire, Americans are celebrating one of the highest summits of Islamic civilization at a time when US Muslims are subject to one of the ugliest phases of Islamophobia in their recent history.
Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs (April 27 to July 24, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Iris and B Gerald Cantor Exhibition Hall) is curated with admirable care, competence, and grace. Along with the exhibition, scholars affiliated with the Met have published a beautifully edited volume under the same title, with insightful essays by the leading social and art historians.
"Approximately 270 objects," as the curators of this rare exhibition explain, "including ceramics, glass, stucco, works on paper, woodwork, textiles, and metalwork - from American, European, and Middle Eastern public and private collections are shown."
No comments:
Post a Comment