Islamic Art: A Global View

WONDROUS WORLDS: ART & ISLAM THROUGH TIME & PLACE

January 26 – May 26, 2019 Phoenix Art Museum

When the Newark Museum first conceived of an idea for a new exhibition exploring the intersections of art and Islam, the goal was to showcase the diversity of its own significant collection. As the global political climate shifted and as the collection yielded more and more extraordinary objects, the idea’s scope and scale expanded. The resulting exhibition spans a millennium and represents nearly every continent on the globe, with the hope that it helps to build awareness and create cultural common ground by celebrating love, faith, family, and creativity through art.

Man’s Necklace with Crescent Moon Motif, Morocco, late 18th century. Gold, emeralds, sapphires, tourmalines, rubies, garnets, enamel inlay. Newark Museum Purchase.

Wondrous Worlds: Art & Islam Through Time & Place features more than 100 artworks, including handwritten texts, ceramics, textiles, jewelry, photographs, and paintings from across the Islamic world. On view from January 26 through May 26, 2019, it is the first exhibition on Islamic art presented at Phoenix Art Museum since the 1980s.

“We are excited to welcome Wondrous Worlds to Phoenix,” said Janet Baker, PhD, the Museum’s curator of Asian art. “Because of its dramatic scope, this exhibition will offer our community a global view of Islam and may help to redirect the national conversation.”

Molded Eight-Pointed Star Tile with Wild Ass (Onager) Leaping a Fishpond Surrounded by Calligraphic and Floral Motifs, Iran, late 13th– early 14th century. Molded fritware polychrome painted over white slip under transparent glaze. Newark Museum Purchase.

Curated by a team led by Katherine Anne Paul, PhD, curator of the arts of Asia at the Newark Museum, Wondrous Worlds is organized around the Five Pillars of Islam—shahada (declaration of faith), salat (daily prayers), zakat (almsgiving, or charity), sawm (fasting for Ramadan), and hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). Each section of the exhibition features a range of artworks from various countries and centuries, illustrating how Islamic art transcends any one place and time to connect people.

According to Paul, this organizational strategy was a purposeful departure from the usual structure of Islamic art exhibitions she’s seen through the years.

“Most special exhibitions and permanent collection installations around the world have divided Islamic works of art by geography, material, or time period, but these categories are often divisive as viewers gravitate to areas they prefer,” she said. “We organized Wondrous Worlds to echo the Five Pillars to emphasize a holistic approach.”

Portrait of a Beauty (detail), India, late 19th century, late Mughal Period (1526–1857) or British Raj Period (1858–1947). Colors and gold on ivory (painting), ebony, copper, glass (frame). Newark Museum Gift of Dr. J. Ackerman Coles, 1920.

Objects on view hail from every continent (with the exception of Antarctica) and were created as early as the ninth century up through 2016. They include not only works created in the service of Islam—by Muslim artists for Muslim patrons—but also items created for purposes that are not explicitly religious. Additionally, there are works by non-Muslim artists created for both Muslim and non-Muslim patrons that demonstrate profound connections to aesthetics and techniques from the Islamic world.

With its breadth of objects and artworks, Wondrous Worlds offers guests a global and dynamic view of Islam rarely seen in national or international exhibitions.

“A global exhibition like Wondrous Worlds can connect and gather people rather than divide them,” Paul said. “It can help people understand where they stand in the continuum of global history and what diverse roles Islam plays throughout.”

And the biggest surprise for guests of Phoenix Art Museum, she said, maybe how deeply they connect with much of the material, whether it’s a coffee cup representing hospitality and friendship, or a decorative plate depicting two hunting falcons circling a sitting duck.

In that way, the visiting exhibition does more than simply provide a global survey of Islamic art through the ages. It aspires to build bridges and remind viewers that regardless of background or faith, there is always more that unites than divides us. By displaying artworks that span centuries and continents, from Africa and Europe to Asia and the Americas, Wondrous Worlds reveals how faith and art can connect people across borders and generations, and how shared values—like love, friendship, charity, and community—can connect cultures that seem disparate to their core.

Wondrous Worlds: Art & Islam Through Time & Place is organized by the Newark Museum. Its premiere at Phoenix Art Museum is made possible through the generosity of the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust Exhibition Endowment Fund, and supported by the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation and APS.