Manjari Sihare in a tête-à-tête with Imran Qureshi and Ian Altaveer about Qureshi’s Roof Garden Commission at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York: In the recent past, we have brought to you news and snippets about Imran Qureshi’s Roof Garden Commission at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. On the eve of the press launch, I had the pleasure of speaking with Imran Qureshi as well as Ian Altaveer, Associate Curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art about this Commission.
In conjunction with the installation, the museum has brought out a comprehensive publication, The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi, which features a preface by Sheena Wagstaff, the Leonard A. Lauder Chairman of the Museum’s Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, and an interview with the artist by Navina Najat Haidar, Curator in the Department of Islamic Art, and Ian Alteveer, Associate Curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, both of the Metropolitan Museum, exploring Qureshi’s creative process and the artistic traditions that have informed it.
Manjari Sihare shares some snippets of Imran Qureshi’s work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
New York: The Imran QureshiRoof Garden Commission at the Metropolitan Museum, New York is now on view. Entitled The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi, the project represents the artist’s emotional response to violence occurring across the globe in recent decades and his earnest hope for regeneration and lasting peace in the aftermath of man-made disasters. Here are some snippets from the special Frieze Art Fair VIP Preview held on Friday, May 10th. Watch this space for more on this spectacular exhibit. For all New Yorkers and those visiting for the Frieze Fair, this is a must-see!
Imran Qureshi Roof Garden Commission, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
All images are courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Tarika Agarwal attends a talk by Dr. Thomas P. Campbell, Director of New York’s Metropolitan Museum, in Mumbai
Mumbai: On March 29, Jnanapravaha hosted a talk by Dr. Thomas P. Campbell, the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in Mumbai. Dr. Campbell is the ninth Director of the Metropolitan Museum. Before becoming Director in 2009, he worked at the Met’s Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts for fourteen years, rising steadily through various curatorial ranks.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Dr. Campbell spoke about the beginnings of this iconic institution, its history, current program and future plans. An idea, that’s how the Metropolitan Museum started out. They owned nothing and all they had was a basic social and moral premise that the world should have access to great art. They believed that anyone that came to the Met should leave with a heightened sense of thought and as the world developed so would the Met. The story of the museum is a tale of determination, civic responsibility and profound generosity. What was perhaps a wildly ambitious concept in 1870, in 143 years it has grown into the greatest encyclopedic museum in the world today. The Met’s concept was to collect, preserve, study, exhibit and stimulate appreciation for and advance knowledge of works of art.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1870
Some of the phenomenal achievements the museum has had over the years include acquiring J.P. Morgan’s collection in 1914, the Mona Lisa exhibition in 1963, which attracted over a million visitors during its course, and a Picasso Show in 2010 which was entirely drawn from a personal collection. The Met also has a comprehensive collection of art from the Indian sub-continent, collected since 1891, from the early beginnings of the museum. The holdings include sculpture, painting, textiles, and various other media that span from about 2500 B.C. to modern times. A small part of this collection is exhibited in the Herbert and Florence Irving Galleries of South and Southeast Asian Art as well as the new Islamic wing titled Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia. Click here to learn more about this wing.
Dr. Campbell was in India to facilitate a path breaking partnership with the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Last week, the Met Museum and the Ministry signed a memorandum of understanding expressing mutual willingness to establish a long-term relationship of cooperation. This cooperation will extend in the areas of conservation, exhibition, academic research, sharing of information and published resources, public education, promotion, publications, museum management, and short- and long-term loans. Read more about this partnership here.
Josheen Oberoi of Saffronart explores the stunning new galleries of Islamic art at the Met, a few centuries at a time.
New York: This is the last in a series of posts that came out of my visit to the Islamic Art collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and a consequent conversation with Dr. Maryam Ekhtiar, an Associate Curator in the Department of Islamic Art there. This art collection is presented in fifteen new galleries that opened to the public after an eight year renovation in November last year.
The galleries are titled Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia. Dr. Ekhtiar, in speaking of the nomenclature of the collections, said, “the name of the galleries speaks to the parameters of our collection, our department’s collection”. Instead of the overarching phrase “Islamic Art” that suggests a monolithic construction of an Islamic culture; this title is in fact a clue to the physical and historical reconfiguration of these galleries, and a particularly apt one in these times of misleading narratives of Islam worldwide.
Through the course of my conversation with Dr. Ekhtiar we walked chronologically through the numbered galleries (Galleries 450 – 464) that are organized by geographical regions and time periods (from ca. 7th century AD through ca. 20th century). I have followed the same chronology here, bringing us today to the last two galleries 463 and 464 showing Mughal and later South Asian art.
Here’s the very useful museum map again, to help follow the information:
Floor Plan of New Galleries
Image courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
We haven’t discussed South Asia previously but the time period (16th – 20th centuries) that we will look at today is contemporary to the arts of Safavids and later Iran and the overlap and exchange of culture is visible in the artistic forms of the time as well. Gallery 463, for example, presents the arts of the Sultanate, Mughal and Deccan courts from about 1450 through the nineteenth century. This gallery contains an extensive selection of jeweled arts that were practiced in South Asia, including jade carving (which was highly prized in China and was part of a commercial exchange with it). But like in Gallery 462, the two object forms that immediately capture attention are the carpets and the illustrated manuscripts’ folios.
Carpet with Scrolling Vines and Blossoms Object Name: Carpet Date: ca. 1650 Geography: Northern India or Pakistan, Kashmir or Lahore Image courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The scrolling vegetal designs that we saw in last week’s post are visible in the image on the left as well. The carpet below, on the other hand, with a niche that nestles a flowering plant, appears to be designed vertically and possibly for hanging on the wall rather than laying on the ground.
Carpet with Niche and Flower Design Object Name: Carpet Date: mid-17th century Geography: India or Pakistan, Kashmir or Lahore Image courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Interestingly, these styles remained active in the Iranian and South Asian regions. The early 20th century example below, from a Saffronart auction in March this year displays a combination of these design details – the visible Arabesque niche in the carpet is occupied by intricate and delicate flora and fauna, surrounded by a border.
“Akbar Hunting with Cheetahs”, Folio from an Akbarnama Painting attributed to Manohar (active ca. 1582–1624) Object Name: Illustrated album leaf Date: ca. 1604 Geography: India Image courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Illustrated manuscripts, similarly, remained an active part of the region through the 20th century as indicated by the folios on display in this gallery and in Gallery 464. Akbar, considered the greatest Mughal rulers (r. 1556 – 1605), established royal ateliers and commissioned illustrated manuscripts, including the Akbarnama that was a chronicle of his reign.
His successors Jahangir (r. 1605-27) and Shah Jahan (r. 1628-58) continued this patronage,an example of which is the exquisite Padshahnama, or the Shah Jahan Album illustrated through the 1640s. These reigns saw a diversity of manuscript production that included Indian, Persian and European elements (like linear perspective and European motifs). A few of the folios shown below evidence this multitude of subjects like studies of animals, flora and fauna, portraiture,mythological narratives that were produced simultaneously at that time. It also underlines the development of a unique idiom within the South Asian region in the arts of the book both linking it to and distinguishing it from the Safavid and later Iran workshops.
Madonna and Child in a Domestic Interior Painting by Manohar (active ca. 1582–1624) Object Name: Illustrated single work Date: early 17th century Geography: India Image courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
“Shah Jahan on a Terrace, Holding a Pendant Set With His Portrait”, Folio from the Shah Jahan Album Painting by Chitarman (active ca. 1627–70) Object Name: Album leaf Reign: Shah Jahan (1628–58) Date: recto: 1627–28; verso: ca. 1530–50 Geography: India Image courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
“Black Buck”, Folio from the Shah Jahan Album Painting attributed to Manohar (active ca. 1582–1624) Object Name: Album leaf Reign: Jahangir (1605–27), recto Date: recto: ca. 1615-20; verso: ca. 1530–50 Geography: India Image courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Adventures of Hamza or the Hamzanama was another narrative commissioned by Akbar that recounted the stories of Hamza, an uncle of Prophet Mohammad.
“Misbah the Grocer Brings the Spy Parran to his House”, Folio from a Hamzanama (The Adventures of Hamza) Attributed to Dasavanta Artist: Attributed to Mithra Object Name: Folio from an illustrated manuscript Reign: Akbar (1556–1605) Date: ca. 1570 Geography: India Image courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Both Galleries 463 and 464 also have folios from the Islamic Deccan courts and later 19th century court arts of the Jain, Rajput, Pahari and “Company” style paintings. These are placed in conjunction with the Islamic art galleries to accurately represent the continuum of South Asian art, not compartmentalized by religion. There was a rich dialog between the two contemporaneous traditions that is visible throughout these galleries.
For example, the image below on the left, of a nobleman on a terrace is an 18th century folio from a late Islamic Mughal center in Bengal, and on display in these galleries. The image on the right, from a Saffronart auction in April this year is the portrait of a Hindu Bikaneri maharaja. Such cross currents in portraiture, amongst other subjects, is a constant in these artistic traditions.
Portrait of a Maharaja Late 17th Century Bikaner School
Nobleman on a Terrace Object Name: Illustrated single work Date: ca. 1780 Geography: India, Murshidabad Image courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Ragamala paintings, also available for viewing, are a pictorial narrative mode for musical notes (ragas) that originated in the Islamic Deccan kingdoms but found their way to the ateliers of princely states in Rajasthan.
And finally, the “Company” school paintings, shown in Gallery 464 often documented the flora, fauna, topography and people of the land. These watercolors were commissioned by the British and executed by Indian painters in a European style.
Chronologically the last space in the newly configured galleries that we have been visiting over the last few posts, Gallery 464 can also be physically entered and understood independent of the remaining galleries.However, that is true of any of the fifteen galleries. Choosing your personal path through these spaces engenders a distinct experience each time.
Text (calligraphy), shapes (geometric, vegetal, figural, flora, fauna, zoomorphic), materials (ceramic, wood, metals, paper, textile), techniques (luster-painted, gilded, enameled, painted, carved), objects (utilitarian, luxurious, decorative, religious) – these are just a few of the forms that can be conceptually and visually followed through these galleries. Recurring, in various ways, in various objects, they tell a story of a cultural continuum, not an overarching structure – this is a testament to the impeccably curated experience of these new galleries.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this ride with me. The Saffronart blog hopes to keep taking you along for more of these!
Josheen Oberoi of Saffronart explores the stunning new galleries of Islamic art at the Met, a few centuries at a time.
New York:Last month I had started posting about the Islamic Art collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that opened to the public after an eight year renovation in November last year. For those reading this series for the first time, here is a little introduction to these new galleries. Organized by geographical regions and time periods (from ca. 7th century AD through ca. 20th century), these fifteen new galleries (Galleries 450 – 464) present historically rigorous exhibits of arts that flourished under the aegis of Islamic rulers through many centuries. These galleries are also incredible in representing the diversity of mediums and contexts of these artistic practices.
In my last post, I had described the highlights of Galleries 459 through 461, that present the arts of the Ottoman Empire (ca 1299 – 1922), as shared with me by Dr. Maryam Ekhtiar, an Associate Curator in the Department of Islamic Art. Here’s the very useful museum map again, to help follow the information:
Floor Plan of New Galleries
Image courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Today, I look at Gallery 462 and its arts of Safavids and later Iran (from the 16th – 20th centuries). We have followed Iran from the 7th century onwards from Galleries 451, 453 and 455 and this gallery brings our understanding of art from the region almost to contemporary times.
Iran was united and ruled by the Safavid dynasty from 1501 -1722. Shah cAbbas who ruled from 1587–1629 was an important patron of the arts and this period saw an expansion and revival of production in arts for local consumption and commercial exchange with Europe. Ceramics in the style of Iznik pottery from Turkey that we saw in the last post and luster ware that has also been discussed previously were both encouraged extensively as is visible in the objects in this gallery. But when you enter this space, there are a few works of art that dominate the conversation – the carpets and the illustrated manuscripts.
Persian Garden Carpet Object Name: Carpet Date: second half 18th century Geography: Iran, Kurdistan Image courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Under Shah cAbbas, carpet weaving and textile production was transformed into a state industry, designed and produced in royal workshops at the new capital of Iran – Isfahan, in southern Iran. There are many different types and styles of carpets on exhibit here – medallion, garden, a possibly royal carpet, the “Polonaise” and carpets known as ‘Portuguese carpets’.
The Persian garden carpet or the char-bagh, (on the left) represented a bird’s eye view of a traditional garden, which included water channels, fish swimming in these channels, birds and trees.
The “Seley Carpet” below, in style of a medallion carpet, is an exquisite example of the combination of medallion and vegetal motifs. These carpets centered around a medallion, similar to what appeared on book covers and texts, suggesting a cross pollination of designs between different art forms. These medallions were then surrounded by scrolling vegetal designs.
The Seley Carpet Object Name: Carpet Date: late 16th century Geography: Iran Image courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
This ‘Portuguese’ carpet below shows the central medallion with floral vines combined with explicit maritime scenes with ships sailed by Europeans in the four corners, possibly testifying to an active export and mercantile exchange between Europe and Iran at this time. Just these few examples of the pieces exhibited in this gallery showcase the complexity and diversity of carpet production in Iran at this time, especially under Shah cAbbas.
“Portuguese” Carpet with Maritime Scenes Object Name: Carpet Date: 17th century Geography: Northeastern Iran, Khurasan Image courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The other highlight in Gallery 462 are the intricate folios of the Shahnama or “Book of Kings”. This is one of the great treasures from the rule of Shah Tahmasp (r. 1524 – 1576) the second ruler of the Safavid dynasty. It was commissioned and made in the royal workshop. The Shahnama is a Persian national epic based on an oral tradition that dates back to pre-Islamic times and was versified by Firdausi in the early 11th century. It contains within many Zoroastrian threads with the ideas of polarities, of good and bad – an illustration also intended as education to the rulers and princes. This particular manuscript of the Shahnama is the most luxurious Persian manuscript ever produced and the best artists were employed by the royal workshop – painters, calligraphers, binders, illuminators with two generations of artists working on these manuscripts. The Met has 78 illustrations out of a total of 258 illustrated folios, presenting epic love scenes, battles of fantastical creatures with humans or among animals. There are multiple folios on display at any time in the gallery, with seating available to engage with them at leisure.
If you visit please do set aside some time for these folios. They are intimate in size but so detailed and beautifully rendered. I find myself noticing new details in them with each successive visit. I have also been linking the title of each work (immediately under the image) to it’s individual museum page. This allows you to zoom in and look at enlarged sections clearly. If you cannot visit the museum, I would recommend using this feature to do the images justice, especially for today’s post.
Next week, in the last post in this series, we will visit the remaining two (out of fifteen) galleries, showcasing Mughal and later South Asian art. Stay tuned!
