Spirit & Life: Masterpieces of Islamic Art from the Aga

kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Islam recaptures Spain
Stunning exhibition from Aga Khan Museum Collection in Madrid


Fourteen centuries of a breathtaking history that extends from the Iberian Peninsula to the Far East unfold in Madrid these days, thanks to the stunning exhibition hosted at the CaixaForum Madrid, at the Paseo del Prado. This amazing exhibition that was inaugurated June 4 by the King and Queen of Spain, is jointly organized by the "la Caixa" Social and Cultural Outreach Projects in cooperation with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture –the cultural arm of the Aga Khan Development Network.

http://www.onculture.eu/story.aspx?s_id=897&z_id=25
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum. Masterpieces of Islamic Art
Exhibition

17 March to 6 June 2010


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Organizer
Berliner Festspiele. An exhibition of the Aga Khan Foundation.
Curator Benoît Junod
Media partners rbb Kulturradio


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://berlinerfestspiele.de/en/aktuell ... _14170.php
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

VIDEO

The Worlds of Islam in the collection of the Aga Khan Museum December 21, 2009
Posted by ismailimail in Art and Culture, Exhibition-World of Islam, Museum, Trust for Culture, Video.
trackback

The Worlds of Islam to the Caixa Forum in Barcelona. The Caixa Forum Barcelona hosts until 17 January the worlds of Islam exhibition, masterpieces from the collection of the future Aga Khan Museum, which will be built in Toronto. The exhibition includes nearly a thousand works that span a thousand years of history. Manuscripts, miniatures, capitals, beams, jewelry and glass and ceramic vases are some examples.

http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2009/1 ... tent=Gmail
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum - Masterpieces of Islamic Art

Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum - Masterpieces of Islamic Art
17. März 2010 - 06. Juni 2010


An exhibition of the Aga Khan Foundation. Organizer: Berliner Festspiele

Ein Katalog liegt vor.

This is the first time the Aga Khan’s collection has been exhibited in Germany. More than 200 masterpieces have been chosen to document more than one thousand years of cultural history. The works on display in Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau are from the collection of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Karim Aga Khan IV is the spiritualhead of the Ismaili Muslims. He is also regarded as a direct descendent of the Prophet Mohammed. His collection is considered to be one of the world’s largest and most valuable collections of Islamic art and will be housed from 2013 onwards in the new Aga Khan Museum in Toronto.

The Berlin exhibition will show some of the most important works of art from traditionally Islamic countries, including pages from the Persian heroic epic“Shahnama”, or “Book of Kings” by the poet Firdawsi. The miniatures are among the most remarkable in the world. Furthermore there is the oldest known Arabic manuscript of the later translated “Canon of Medicine” by Ibn Sina (Avicenna). Abu Ali Ibn Sina was a philosopher and physician. For over 500 years his magnum opus served as a standard work and textbook for physicians in Europe. Other outstanding cultural artefacts are a very well preserved Mongolian robe of silk damask from the 13th century and a double page of the “Blue Koran” from the 9th century. The blue parchment sheets are written in golden letters in the Kufi script and are among the most valuable and elaborate Koran manuscripts in the world.

In general the artworks on display– paintings, drawings, book illustrations, manuscripts, inscriptions, metalwork vessels, ceramics, and wood carvings – make one realize the extraordinary variety and overwhelming richness of an Islamic culture which from the 8th to the 18th centuries stretched from the Maghreb and the Iberian Peninsula all the way to China.

Wo finden Sie die Themen dieser Ausstellung noch?
Aga Khan, Baghdad, Damascus, Egypt, Islamic Art, Islamic Culture, Koran, Manuscript, Moghul Empire, Persia

http://www.museumsportal-berlin.de/auss ... useum.html
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Exhibition: Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum
by Jeff Black on March 11, 2010

The Aga Khan’s treasures are coming to Berlin. This is great news.

Having seen evidence of the Ismaili leader’s hand in rebuilding, preserving and advertising Islamic culture in Pakistan and in Egypt, I am pretty sure that this will be an impressive, meticulously curated show.

I can scarcely think of another organization that has done more to improve the visibility of Islamic cultural history in the Western eye than the Aga Khan Development Network, the foundation run by the current Aga Khan (when he’s not raising racehorses).

Part of that network, The Aga Khan Trust for Culture, has taken its collection of Islamic art on the road for the past several years ahead of the completion of a new museum home in Toronto.

From March 17 the touring collection will be exhibited in Germany for the first time, at the Martin-Gropius-Bau. I missed this exhibition in London in 2007, and I’m particularly looking forward to the scrollable digitised illustrations from the work of Iran’s national poet Firdousi.

This is what the trust says about museums:

Museums can testify to the existence of other cultures and faiths in ways that go beyond the written or spoken word. They provide evidence of other realities, other histories and other influences beyond the ones we might have learned or perceived.

More here when the exhibition opens.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

Berlin: Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum. Masterpieces of Islamic Art Exhib…
Exhibition from Aga Khan Museum Collection

http://jeffreyblack.co.uk/2010/03/11/ex ... an-museum/
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Video about the exhibition in Berlin....

http://english.cctv.com/program/culture ... 1326.shtml
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum
20/03/2010 by Elvira
Exhibition

Exhibition: 17 March - 6 June 2010. This is the first time the Aga Khan’s collection has been exhibited in Germany. More than 200 masterpieces have been chosen to document more than one thousand years of cultural history. The works on display in Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau are from the collection of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

Karim Aga Khan IV is the spiritual head of the Ismaili Muslims. He is also a direct descendent of the Prophet Mohammed. His collection is considered to be one of the world’s largest and most valuable collections of Islamic art and will be housed from 2013 onwards in the new Aga Khan Museum in Toronto.

The Berlin exhibition will show some of the most important works of art from the Islamic world, including pages from the Persian heroic epic “Shahnama”, or “Book of Kings” by the poet Firdawsi. The miniatures are among the most remarkable in the world. The exhibition includes the oldest known Arabic manuscript of the “Canon of Medicine” by Ibn Sina (Avicenna). Abu Ali Ibn Sina was a philosopher and physician. For over 500 years his magnum opus served as a standard work and textbook for physicians in Europe. Other outstanding cultural artefacts include a very well preserved Mongolian robe of silk damask from the 13th century and a double page of the “Blue Qur’an” from the 9th century. The blue parchment sheets are written in golden letters in the Kufi script and are among the most valuable and elaborate Qur’an manuscripts in the world.

The exhibition is arranged under two main headings: “The Word of God”, concerning Qur’an manuscripts, illustrated sheets and objects that deal with the pilgrimage to Mecca or Islamic mysticism and have served many artists and architects as a source of inspiration. “The Route of the Travellers” takes the visitor on a journey through the Islamic world, which once stretched from Al-Andalus, the Muslim part of the Iberian Peninsula, through the Maghreb and Sicily, Fatimid and Mameluke Egypt, Ottoman Constantinople, Omayyad Damascus and Ayyubid Baghdad and on to Persia, Central Asia and the Moghul Empire in India.

The works produced in this period testify to the skills and creativity of the various societies and reveal both Asian and European influences.

In general, the artworks on display – paintings, drawings, book illustrations, manuscripts, inscriptions, metalwork vessels, ceramics, and wood carvings – offer a view into the extraordinary variety and overwhelming richness of an Islamic culture which, from the 8th to the 18th centuries, stretched from the Maghreb and the Iberian Peninsula all the way to China.

Organizer:
Berliner Festspiele. An exhibition of the Aga Khan Foundation.
Curator Benoît Junod
Media partners rbb Kulturradio, rbb radioeins, Der Tagesspiegel
Co-operation partner Wall AG

http://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/en/akt ... _14170.php

http://islamicartsmagazine.com/blog/vie ... an_museum/
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Islamic treasures

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/weekend/ins ... ekend&col=
Catherine Hickley

9 April 2010

The Aga Khan’s personal collection of art is on show in Berlin. He says he hopes to wipe away the mutual ignorance that the western and the Islamic worlds share about each other with the display. Catherine Hickley reports

The Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, is a generous man. He heads a network of non-profit development agencies and plans to open a museum for his collection of Islamic art in Toronto in 2013.

Until the building is completed, he is loaning the art to museums around the world. The current beneficiary is Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau, where “Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum” is showing through June 6.

The 73-year-old philanthropist, in an introduction to the catalogue, says he believes that tensions between Islam and the western world are less about a “clash of civilisations” than “a battle of mutual ignorance.” Exhibiting his collection, which spans a vast area from Spain to China, is a way to fight that ignorance. Quranic scripts, inscribed in gold and bordered with gouache arabesques in blues and reds, originate from Iran, Turkey and India. Verses are written on a sea shell from the 18th century, and in tiny letters across a piece of green Indian cotton bordered in gold and blue.

The most astonishing script is on a gilded chestnut leaf whose filaments shine like filigree jewellery. The calligraphy is shaped to resemble a boat with oarsmen. It is a virtuoso piece of 19th-century Ottoman craftsmanship — and so fragile and delicate, it’s hard to imagine how it survived.

Persian epic
Two lacquer book covers from 16th-century Iran, inlaid with gold and mother-of-pearl, show flowers, birds and deer among the branches of a tree.

Illustrations from scenes of the Persian epic The Book of Kings, written by the poet Ferdowsi in about 1010 AD, depict king sitting on an elephant and inspecting his troops.

The colours, design and motifs of the gouache-and-ink decorations of flowers and animals called to mind Rajasthan’s exotic palaces.

Carpet obsession
The Aga Khan and the Hungarian-British lawyer Edmund de Unger must have found themselves competing for the same Islamic art treasures in their collecting careers. Now the two rival (or complementary) collections are on display in the same city.

De Unger has promised his Keir Collection to the Museum for Islamic Art, housed in Berlin’s Pergamon Museum, as a long- term loan after his death. The museum is home to the 17th- century Aleppo room from Syria and the eighth-century facade of Mshatta palace from a Jordan desert town.

An exhibition of the first 112 of 1,500 objects that De Unger plans to loan to Berlin provides a taste of what is to come. His passion for Islamic art began with carpets; every floor in his home was covered in them — three-deep.

De Unger turned to lusterware — glazed metallic ceramics which he describes as “the greatest gift the Islamic potter has made to mankind.” He also acquired metalware, books and rock-crystal ornaments, including an exquisite bead in the shape of a crouching hare from Egypt, about 1,000 years old.

The collector’s tales, as recounted in the catalog, are the stuff of novels: De Unger describes seeking shelter from the rain in a Paris bookstore and finding a 14th-century Jalayrid (Mongolian rulers of Persia and Iraq) manuscript. To avoid setting off alarm bells with the owner, he added four other uninteresting books to his purchase.
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Interview with Claudia Ott
A New Chapter in the History of Arab Literature

An almost 800-year-old manuscript is shedding new light on one of the hidden jewels of Arabic literature. Orientalist and translator Claudia Ott recently identified the oldest known manuscript of "The One Hundred and One Nights". She talked to Loay Mudhoon about it

| Bild:


Claudia Ott: "'The Hundred and One Nights'" and 'The Thousand and One Nights' were contemporaneous with one another, the one probably better known in the west, the other in the east of the Arabian world."

| Just a few days ago you found what is probably the earliest manuscript of "101 Nights". Can you tell us how this discovery came about?

Claudia Ott: In March this year, I was lucky enough to be invited as a musician to play at the opening of the "Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum" exhibition at the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin. After the first rush was over and I had a little time to wander through the exhibition, a manuscript in a glass cabinet with art objects from Andalusia caught my eye. It was some distance away from the other manuscript treasures on show, such as the "Blue Koran" with its gold script on a lapis lazuli background.

It was written in red ink and in a very old Maghreb style of writing. It read: "kitâb fîhi hadîth mi'at layla wa-layla" – the book with the story of one hundred and one nights – I could hardly believe my eyes. Luckily, through my job as musician, I had got to know the exhibition curator, Benoît Junod, and got his permission, when the exhibition was over, to take a look at the colophon and other details of the manuscript's production.

What is it that is so important about this discovery?

| Bild:


The treasures of the Aga Khan are considered to be amongst the greatest and most valuable collections of Islamic art
| Claudia Ott: The colophon provides a date for the manuscript of 632, which is equivalent to 1234 or 1235 by our calendar. The colophon, however, does not belong directly to "101 Nights", but to a geography book that is bound into the same volume, and which is probably written by the same person. The ending to "101 Nights" itself is missing, which makes the whole thing more intriguing and tantalizing.

The text takes us only as far as the 85th night. So the manuscript fragment actually does not have a colophon of its own. The Aga Khan Trust for Culture has announced that it is going to carry out a scientific examination of the paper and binding. If it turns out that the same writer was responsible for both books then it will prove that this manuscript of "101 Nights" is more than 500 years older than the currently oldest extant manuscript. The writing style indicates that the manuscript came from the Maghreb region of North Africa, or from Andalusia. This manuscript could be exactly the key that scholars have long hoped to find.

Now that it has been identified, what will happen to the manuscript?

Claudia Ott: Several top international scholars are now working on the manuscript and trying to establish its age. I, too, have been busy, consulting colleagues, looking for advice. With such an important discovery it is important that every aspect is thoroughly discussed; there are still a great many questions that need answering. And – well, as translator, I can tell you that the stories in "One Hundred and One Nights" really are something rather special. I couldn't wait to get started on the translation, the very same day – actually, night, to be more precise.

You spent several years working on a translation of the oldest surviving manuscript of "The Thousand and One Nights", the so-called Galland Manuscript, published by Muhsin Mahdi in 1450. In what ways are "The Hundred and One Nights" and "The Thousand and One Nights" related to one another?

Claudia Ott: Both works tell stories that belong to a long tradition that takes us from Indian literary motifs, via Persian translations, and into Arabic literature. Even though the framing narratives are quite different, there are similarities. In both collections we meet the vizier's daughter Scherezade, for example, who succeeds in saving her own life and the lives of many other women, by telling stories. There are even some stories common to both collections – the story of The Ebony Horse, for example, or The King's Son and the Seven Viziers.

However, there are divergent opinions on the relationship between the two books. There is already a critical edition of the "101 Nights" based on much more recent manuscripts from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, whose publisher, Mahmud Tarshuna, claims that "101 Nights" is the substantially older and more original text. His argument uses motifs from the framing narrative to claim that the "101 Nights" is closer to the Sanskrit and Pali texts of their old Indian literary sources than "1001 Nights" is.

But we also have some very old sources for "1001 Nights". In Chicago in 1949, a double sheet of paper was discovered in a pile of papyrus that had been brought back from Egypt. It bore the title "Thousand Nights" ("alf layla" in Arabic) and the beginning of a description of one night. The double sheet is a palimpsest dated 879. Its origins are evidently not Egyptian, where papyrus was still preferred to paper at that time, but Syrian.

It must have been brought back to Cairo from Antioch as war booty in 878. If we add on the years when the book must have been lying around, before its page was taken for use as scrap paper, then we are talking about a date of around 800 by our calendar. That makes it the oldest fragment of "The Thousand and One Nights" ever discovered.

This also fits with what the Arabic sources tell us. Contemporary booksellers reports make it clear that a complete version, with 1000 Nights, must already have existed in the 9th century. Over the centuries several fragments of the work have been found, each of which have probably looked rather different from one another. The 1001st night was probably added in the early 12th century. In a notebook, discovered by chance in the Geniza in a synagogue in Cairo, there is the first known mention of the complete title on a lending note from around 1150: "Alf layla wa-layla" – "The Thousand and One Nights".

So I am convinced that "101Nights" and "1001 Nights" are part of a parallel tradition. "The Hundred and One Nights" and "The Thousand and One Nights" were contemporaneous with one another, the one probably better known in the west, the other in the east of the Arabian world. But all of this is something that requires further investigation. A magnificent chapter in Arab literary history has just been reopened.

Interview: Loay Mudhoon

© Qantara.de 2010

Translated from the German by Ron Walker

Editor: Lewis Gropp/Qantara.de

http://www.qantara.de/webcom/show_artic ... 761/i.html
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

As the Museum is being constructed, the Aga Khan Trust for Culture has mounted a series of travelling exhibitions in Europe.

From October 2010 to January 2011, the Aga�Khan Museum collection will travel to the Sakip Sabanci Museum in Istanbul, Turkey

U P C O M I N G : Istanbul Exhibition
From October 2010 to January 2011, the Aga Khan Museum collection will travel to the Sakip Sabanci Museum in Istanbul, Turkey. Entitled Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum - Arts of the Book and Calligraphy in the Islamic World, the exhibition will be held within the framework of Istanbul 2010 - European Capital of Culture. For the first time since Parma in 2007, the artefacts on display will not be a general presentation of “highlights” from the collection, but will be an exhibition that brings together examples of the written word on a variety of objects (ceramics, wood, metalwork, textiles, etc.) with their counterparts on parchment and paper. The exhibition aims to show how the art of the book - in calligraphy, illumination and illustration - evolved over time in the Islamic world. A section within the exhibition on techniques and materials of book-making and the “KItabkhana” will be prepared in cooperation with the Centre de Conservation du Livre in Arles, France.

http://muze.sabanciuniv.edu/exhibition/ ... nguageID=2
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Istanbul Opening for “Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum: Arts of the Book and Calligraphy”

Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Istanbul, 5 November 2010 – 27 January 2011

For more information, please see: Speech by Prince Amyn Aga Khan and Photos

Istanbul, 5 November 2010 - Following seven different exhibitions in Europe that have attracted over half a million visitors, a new selection of masterpieces from the Aga Khan Museum will be on show at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum in Istanbul, from 5 November 2010 to 27 February 2011. The exhibition, which is sponsored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), has been organised in close cooperation with the host museum.

The exhibition is the first created from the Aga Khan Museum collections to centre on the Arts of the Book and Calligraphy. It showcases important works on paper and parchment from all parts of the Muslim world, from Andalusia to China, including gold and turquoise illuminated manuscripts from the tenth through the nineteenth centuries. The manuscripts will be complemented by a wide range of rare objects in textile, stone, wood, ceramics and metalwork from the same period, many of them with calligraphic inscriptions or decoration reminiscent of illumination.

Speaking at the inauguration of the exhibition, Prince Amyn Aga Khan said, "Whether it occurs along the great trade routes, over land or over sea, or whether it occurs for reasons essentially geographic, this dialogue of cultures has nearly always resulted in an upsurge of creativity, in a continuing cultural renewal. In my view, this dialogue is more essential today than ever."

The Director of the Museum, Dr. Nazan Ölçer, remarked that “the collection of Aga Khan Museum, via the universal language of art, tries to eliminate the prejudices against Islam in the post 9/ 11 world. In this exhibit, we aim to recreate a dialogue of mutual understanding and tolerance by showing the reflections of Islamic art all around the world.”

The exhibition features miniature paintings from the celebrated Shahnama of Shah Tamasp; the earliest known manuscript of Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine, which became the medical reference book in Europe for several centuries; and a manuscript of the 101 Nights, recently brought to light, which pre-dates all other known versions by 500 years. Rare pages and illuminated volumes of the Qur’an will be shown, including a page from the “Blue Qur’an”, which is celebrated for its gold text on aquamarine-dyed parchment.

The objects to be displayed will include an eleventh century silk robe with facing birds from Central Asia; a gold, turquoise and ivory box produced by Persian goldsmiths working for the Ottoman court at the beginning of the sixteenth century; a portrait of the poet Hatifi painted by Bizhad; and a portrait of the Ottoman Sultan Selim II attributed to Haidar Reis Nigari (1494–1572). The catalogue of the exhibition will feature original articles by leading art historians such as Oleg Grabar, Francis Richard and Michael Barry and will focus on the arts of the book and calligraphy.

The masterpieces in the exhibition are part of the collections of the Aga Khan Museum, which is currently under construction in Toronto, Canada. The Museum will open in 2013. As the first major educational and exhibition centre in North America dedicated to Muslim arts and culture, the Museum’s mission is to acquire, preserve and display artefacts -- from various periods and geographies -- relating to the intellectual, cultural, artistic and religious heritage of Islamic communities.

The Museum collection contains over one thousand artworks spanning over a millennium of history. The objects – in ceramic, metalwork, ivory, stone and wood, textile and carpet, glass and rock crystal, as well as manuscripts and miniature paintings on parchment and on paper – present an overview of the artistic accomplishments of Muslim civilisations from the Iberian Peninsula to China.

The Aga Khan Trust for Culture is the cultural agency of the Aga Khan Development Network. Through education and cultural initiatives in music and the arts, AKTC aims to highlight the contributions of the Muslim world to global cultural heritage. It also implements programmes aimed at the physical and social revitalisation of communities with the aim of improving the quality of life and, through its architectural programmes, promotes debate about contemporary design problems.
“Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum: Arts of the Book and Calligraphy” follows the Sakɪp Sabancɪ Museum’s exhibition on the history of Turkey’s largest city, “Legendary Istanbul: From Byzantium to Istanbul - 8000 Years of a Capital”, and is also organised as part of the activities celebrating Istanbul’s selection as the European Capital of Culture in 2010.

Located in Emirgan, in one of Istanbul's oldest settlements on the Bosphorus, the Sabancı University’s Sakıp Sabancı Museum features a rich permanent collection, temporary exhibitions, conservation units and model educational programs. It also hosts various concerts, conferences and seminars.

For more information, please see Aga Khan Museum site and the Sakip Sabanci Museum's website.

For press enquiries, please contact:

A&B Communications – Ece Ozkan
Valikonağı Caddesi 73/5-6 Nişantaşı 34371 İstanbul
T: (0212) 233 22 38 F: (0212) 248 44 36
ssm@ab-pr.com

or

Sam Pickens
Aga Khan Trust for Culture
1-3 avenue de la Paix
1202 Geneve
Switzerland
Tel. (+41 22) 909 7277
info@akdn.org
www.akdn.org

http://www.akdn.org/Content/1024
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum

Sakıp Sabancı Museum is bringing some extraordinary exhibitions to Istanbul and Treasures of The Aga Khan Museum is the latest. Below, you will find a small tour of the exhibition but meanwhile read what the SSM website says about the collection.

Have a nice visit,
Gizem

http://www.architectureoflife.net/?p=1502
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

January 19, 2011
Tracing Islamic History Through Its Scripts
By SUSANNE FOWLER

ISTANBUL — At first, the play of light on the floor at the entrance to the main exhibit hall of the Sakip Sabanci Museum appears to be a modern, geometric carpet. But in the end, the projected pattern is a clue to what lies ahead in “Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum: Arts of the Book & Calligraphy.”

The image, it turns out, is a representation of geometric Kufic script, an angular 13th-century style of Arabic writing used by the scribes who were the rock stars of early Islamic arts because of their power to spread the word of God.

The exhibition, designed by the Czech architect Boris Micka, traces the transition of Islamic writings from animal-skin parchment to paper, and from blocky, time-consuming print to a quicker cursive script and colorful illustrated texts. Examples appear on materials including wood, metal, ceramics and textiles from North Africa to Iran and the Far East.

Graphic design enthusiasts will be fascinated by a timeline that shows the transitions to different scripts and styles that emerged over time — clues that often help researchers pinpoint the provenance of antiquities.

Examples of the various styles are preserved on a variety of materials, including luxuriously decorated and bound books, carved wooden beams, or a blue-and-yellow silk robe whose exquisite condition is probably thanks to its having been stored for centuries in a cold and low humidity environment.

The items, on display through Feb. 27, form part of the Aga Khan’s collection of Islamic art from the 8th to the 18th centuries, and will find a more permanent home when the Aga Khan Museum opens in Toronto in 2013. The founders say it will be the first major educational and exhibition center in North America dedicated to Muslim arts and culture.

Much of the writing displayed comes from Korans. Scribes faced the daunting task of precisely copying the Muslim holy book and in a way became early page designers, deciding how to present the material in the most harmonious arrangement in the space available.

In one striking example, from the so-called Blue Koran, thought to have been made in North Africa in or before the 10th century, letters in gold script practically pop from a page of vellum that had been dyed with indigo.

Other items on display at first seem less overtly religious in nature, like an earthenware vase, ceramic tiles, or a rock crystal necklace, but their inscriptions speak of blessings, or of giving praise and sovereignty to God.

A brass “beggar’s bowl” decorated with dragon heads from 16th-century Iran also filled a religious role in that it was likely used by a dervish who had renounced worldly goods and survived by collecting alms from generous strangers. The bowl is also decorated with inscriptions and floral engravings.

An Ottoman ivory and gold box, with turquoise and ruby inlays, “is not only both valuable and rare, but of great historical interest as it was made in Istanbul for Suleiman the Magnificent, by Iranian craftsmen working in Turkey,” Benoît Junod of the museums and exhibitions unit of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Geneva wrote in an interview by e-mail.

The most ethereal setting in the show — a cocoon formed by long, flowing white curtains — is given to a 16th-century pierced-steel plate that at first resembles a Turkish tulip with elongated petals. This Shia alam, or standard, which is a type of banner sometimes used during religious processions, is carved with religious inscriptions and decorated with dragon heads, much like the beggar’s bowl.

Another dramatic display involves a wall covered with an image of a folio of the Kitabkhana — a library and workshop for copying books — showing how scribes, illustrators, paper-makers and binders organized their craft.

Other treasures include examples of translations of classic scientific texts into Arabic, like pages from “De Materia Medica,” a first-century Greek manuscript written by a doctor named Dioscorides on the medicinal properties of plants. The page describing the poppy, for example, explains how to grow the flowers and how to harvest opium from them.

While images of people are rare in early Islamic art, they do appear in many of the texts on display, notably in a handful of pages of miniatures from the Shah Tahmasp version of the epic poem Shahnama, or “Book of Kings,” recounting the history of Iran.

“This fantastic manuscript is considered by most experts to contain the most accomplished artworks in Persian history,” Mr. Junot wrote.

The book was given to the Ottoman Sultan Selim II in 1568 along with other gifts borne on 34 camels, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The full manuscript had been housed in Topkapi Palace in Istanbul until early in the 20th century, but today its pages are separated and in the hands of various museums and private collectors.

Another rare manuscript is that of “101 Nights,” the less famous counterpart to the tales told by Scheherazade in “1,001 Nights,” and written in the Maghribi script of Spain and North Africa. Just 85 of the 101 stories are intact here, but the collection is thought by many experts to be the oldest known copy of the tales.

For those who share the collectors’ reverence for written material, the exhibit includes examples of the implements used by Ottoman scribes, including steel scissors inlaid with gold, a floral-decorated cylinder for holding pens and a silver inkwell with a turquoise stud.

There are also lacquered pen holders and a rather glorious tool box, a wooden scribe’s cabinet from late 15th- or 16th-century Spain, made of walnut with inlaid bone and mother-of-pearl and decorated with motifs that also appear at the Alhambra, in the Spanish city of Granada.

The exhibition will travel on to the State Hermitage Museum, in St. Petersburg; the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur; and the Asian Civilizations Museum, in Singapore. It culminates in a show at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art before the entire collection of more than 1,000 items is transferred to Toronto.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/world ... wanted=all
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

SSM extends Aga Khan exhibition until March 13
17 February 2011, Thursday / ,

The Sakıp Sabancı Museum (SSM) in İstanbul has extended “Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum,” an exhibition offering an impressive selection from the Aga Khan Museum collection, until March 13.


The traveling exhibition presents a total of 156 Islamic artifacts dating from the years 800-1800. Curated by Benoit Junod, the selection is on loan from the nearly 1,000-piece Aga Khan Museum collection, whose permanent home in Toronto is set to open in 2013. The museum is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

http://www.todayszaman.com/news-235817- ... ch-13.html
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

"Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum: Architecture in Islamic Arts" at The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Among the paintings in “Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum: Architecture in the Islamic World" at The Hermitage in St. Petersburg is “Emperor Jahangir at the Jharoka Window of the Red Fort in Agra”, seen here in a detail, from a dispersed manuscript of the jahangirnama (“Book of Jahangir”) painting ascribed to Nadir a-Zaman (Abu’l Hasan), Agra, India, c. 1620 Opaque watercolour, ink and gold on paper.

9 December 2011 - 26 February 2012,
Halls of Byzantine and Middle East

St. Petersburg, 7 December 2011 -- Following eight different exhibitions in Europe that attracted over half a million visitors, a new selection of masterpieces from the Aga Khan Museum collections will be on show at the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, from 9 December 2011 to 26 February 2012.

The exhibition is the first created from the Aga Khan Museum collections to centre on architecture in the Islamic World. The exhibition, sponsored by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), has been organised in close cooperation with the Hermitage.

The exhibition is divided into six sections: “Sacred Typographies”, which explores the sites and monuments of Islamic pilgrimage through paintings and drawings; “Religious and Funerary Architecture”, which examines mosques and commemorative shrines; “The Fortress and the City”, which encompasses forts and fortified towns; “The Palace”, which looks at the residences of royal families; “Gardens, Pavilions and Tents”, which discusses the arts of shelter; and “Architecture and the Written Word”, which focuses on architectural spaces contained in miniature painting.

The catalogue contains essays on these themes by Nasser Rabbat, David J. Roxburgh, Kishwar Rizvi, Renata Holod, Sussan Barbaie, James L. Wescoat, jr. and Margaret S. Graves.

Among the highlights of the exhibition are: a miniature entitled “Emperor Jahnagir at the Jharoka Window of the Red Fort in Agra”, painted in 1620 by Nadir a-Zaman, and a folio from the most famous series of paintings in Muslim art, the celebrated Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp; architectural elements like muqarnas and ornamented wood pieces from fifteenth century Spain as well as glazed turquoise earthenware elements from Central Asia; tiled arches from fifteenth century Egypt and ornamental doors from ninth century Iran; sixteenth century Iznik tiles from Turkey and other objects including inkwells, a carpet and a lamp holder.

When it concludes its run at the Hermitage, the “Architecture in Islamic Arts” exhibition will move to the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, and the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore.

The masterpieces in the exhibition are part of the collections of the Aga Khan Museum, which is currently under construction and due to open in 2013 in Toronto, Canada. As the first major educational and exhibition centre in North America dedicated to Muslim arts and culture, the Museum’s mission is to inform, educate, and inspire audiences from all cultures by presenting art created in the Islamic world throughout the past fourteen centuries, along with current paths of artistic practice and cultural development.

The Museum collection contains over one thousand artworks spanning over a millennium of history. The objects – in ceramic, metalwork, ivory, stone and wood, textile and carpet, glass and rock crystal, as well as manuscripts and miniature paintings on parchment and on paper – present an overview of the artistic accomplishments of Muslim civilisations from the Iberian Peninsula to China.

The Aga Khan Trust for Culture is the cultural agency of the Aga Khan Development Network. Through education and cultural initiatives in music and the arts, AKTC aims to highlight the contributions of the Muslim world to global cultural heritage. It also implements programmes aimed at the physical and social revitalisation of communities with the aim of improving the quality of life and, through its architectural programmes, promotes debate about contemporary design problems.

Please also see the Aga Khan Museum pages.

http://www.akdn.org/Content/1102/Treasu ... Petersburg

******
UPCOMING: The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia

From November 2011 until February 2012, the Aga Khan Museum Collection will be shown at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. The theme will be "Architecture and its Representations in Islamic Arts". The State Hermitage Museum includes more than three million works of art and artefacts of world culture. Among them are paintings, graphic works, sculptures and works of applied art, archaeological finds and numismatic material. For more information about the State Hermitage Museum, please see their website.

http://www.akdn.org/museum/exhibitions.asp

****
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

ART & ABOUT: The many faces of Islamic architecture
By LUCIEN DE GUISE | 0 comments
LINKS between Malaysia and Russia have always been limited.

Read more: ART & ABOUT: The many faces of Islamic architecture - Sunday Life & Times - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/life-times/sunday ... z1gQmW9InZ

Excerpt:

Now there is a third link: an exhibition starting next month in St Petersburg will be travelling to Malaysia next year. To complicate matters, the show actually originates in a different northern winter wonderland. That old favourite of mine, the Aga Khan Museum, may not exist yet in its new Toronto setting, but it is certainly making its presence felt in other locations.

Just a few months after closing one exhibition in Istanbul, there is another one opening at the State Hermitage in St Petersburg. The latest theme is Architecture and its Representations in Islamic Art, just right for Awal Muharram, and admirably represented in the Aga Khan collection.

As architecture is one of the greatest accomplishments of the Islamic world, it is appropriate that it is coming to Malaysia, with its small but important showing in this field.

http://www.nst.com.my/life-times/sunday ... re-1.17481
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

EVENTS AND HAPPENINGS

Event : Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum: Architecture in Islamic Arts
Date : 30th March 2012 - 29th June 2012
Category : Exhibition


“Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum: Architecture in Islamic World”, a travelling exhibition of objects and art from the Aga Khan Museum collections, which has been touring renowned museums in key European cities, is now coming to the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia. Currently running at the prestigious State Hermitage Museum, in St Petersburg, Russia, the exhibition at The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia will mark the first time that the collection will be displayed in Southeast Asia. It will run from 30th March to 29th June 2012.

The exhibition is divided into six sections: “Sacred Typographies”, which explores the sites and monuments of Islamic pilgrimage through paintings and drawings; “Religious and Funerary Architecture”, which examines mosques and commemorative shrines; “The Fortress and the City”, which encompasses forts and fortified towns; “The Palace”, which looks at the residences of royal families; “Gardens, Pavilions and Tents”, which discusses the arts of shelter; and “Architecture and the Written Word”, which focuses on architectural spaces contained in miniature painting.

Among the most notable artefacts on exhibit are: a miniature entitled “16th century folio from the most famous series of paintings in Muslim art, the celebrated Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp; architectural elements like muqarnas and ornamented wood pieces from 15th century Spain; glazed turquoise earthenware elements from late 14th century Central Asia; tiled arches from 15th century Egypt; ornamental doors from 9th century Iran and 16th century Iznik tiles from Turkey.Architecture is one of the most visible manifestations of Islamic art. It has flourished across the Islamic world for over 1,400 years. Majestic domes, peaceful courtyards and towering minarets not only punctuate the landscape with their grandeur, but also serve as a unifying element in Islamic art and heritage. In recognition of the importance of architecture to the artistic traditions of the Islamic world, The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia is proud to host the travelling exhibition “Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum: Architecture in Islamic World.”

Accompanying the exhibition is an impressive catalogue that features essays by renowned scholars such as: Nasser Rabbat, David J. Roxburgh, Kishwar Rizvi, Renata Holod, Sussan Barbaie, James L. Wescoat, Jr. and Margaret S. Graves.

http://www.iamm.org.my/i_ex/?p=550

Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum: Architecture in Islamic Arts

http://islamicartsmagazine.com/blog/vie ... amic_arts/
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Ağa Han Müzesi Hazineleri- Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xfn6j8 ... m_creation
Admin
Posts: 6687
Joined: Mon Jan 06, 2003 10:37 am
Contact:

Grandeur and finery

Post by Admin »

http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.a ... c=lifearts

Sunday April 15, 2012
Grandeur and finery
By OOI KOK CHUEN

The travelling show from the Aga Khan Museum presents functional items and devotional paeans.

MUCH of the appeal of the 100 artefacts in the Treasures Of The Aga Khan Museum exhibition lies in their innate beauty and rarity, and the wonder they evoke while throbbing with the pulses of Muslim civilisation.

The objects of grandeur and finery are representations of Islamic architecture, with its myriad nuances in philosophy, spirituality, intellect, way of life, literature, arts and culture, from the ninth century to the 18th century.
Entertainment In A Palace, signed ‘Faizullah’ Faizabad, India, circa 1765-1770.

With the subtext, “Architecture In Islamic Arts”, the show, currently on at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, comprises selected works which represent a 10% component of the great Islamic repository of the Aga Khan and his family.

It is a rare opportunity to glimpse and marvel at part of the famed Aga Khan treasures. If nothing else, it will whet the appetite for the inevitable grand feast when the Aga Khan Museum makes its scheduled official opening at its permanent home on a 10,000sqm structure in Toronto, Canada, in October 2013. The museum complex, a fount of elegant austerity, is designed by Fumihiko Maki, the 1993 winner of the Pritzker Prize (for architecture).

This exhibition has chalked up stops at prestigious venues like the Louvre in Paris, with the last two being the Sakip Sabanci Museum in Istanbul, Turkey, and The Hermitage in St Petersburg, Russia.

The travelling repertoire includes ornamental doors with Sufi inscriptions from ninth century Iran; an iridescent wooden door inlaid with mother-of-pearl and metal fittings (Gujerat, India, 18th century); stalactite-like Muqarnas carved wooden “chandelier” inversely reflected on the floor mirrors (Islamic Spain, 15th/16th centuries); rare Spanish Umayyads bronze lamp and carved marble capitals (Eastern Syria or Iraq, 13th century and Islamic Spain, circa 950-970); Iznik tiles from 16th century Turkey with one that is star shaped and another in fused five hexagonal tiles (15th century); a tabouret ceramic stand (Iran, c.1170-1200) and an Andalusian Spain cast bronze lamp holder (10th century).

Other interesting functional items include a kilga (porous clay jar stand) carved marble “water filter” from the River Nile (Egypt, 12th century); a candle stand with repousee designs (Iran or Afghanistan, 12th/13th centuries); a red Moroccan leather with gilt tooling (Turkey, late 16th/early 17th centuries); a 17th century Iranian silk wrap and weft carpet; mudejar wooden corbels (Toledo, Spain, 14th century), and two cast-copper alloy inkwells (12th/13th centuries).
Carved marble Kilga (jar stand) from Egypt (probably Cairo), possibly from the 12th century.

More than half of the works are folios from manuscripts, ranging from parchments to paper (including coloured and marbled), which in later periods were mostly illustrated like miniature paintings.

These are both poetry and prayers – devotional paeans in embellished angular Kufic scripts which glorify God and spread the religious doctrines, but they can focus on mundane everyday life, like a marketplace fight, as shown in one exhibit at this Kuala Lumpur stop.

Some are single-page/double-page works, dispersed or in bound albums from the epigraphy of the Anwar-I Suhayli (Light Of Canopus); Kulliyat (Collected Works) of Sa’di, Shahnama of Firdawsi; Falnama (Book Of Divinities), Dalail Al-Khajrat, Akbarnama (Book Of Akbar); Akhlaq-I Nasiri (Ethics Of Nasir), Tuhfet Ul-Leta’if (Gifts Of Curiosities) and the mystical romance of Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami.

There is also an illuminated double-page frontispiece, Diwan of Sultan Ibrahim Mirza (Iran, 1582-1583).
Chased and beaten brass candlestick with Repouseé Designs Khurasan (north-eastern Iran/Afghanistan)

Entertainment In A Palace (Faizabad, India, c. 1765-1770) provides interesting insights into place life from a bird’s-eye view perspective. There is also a still-life oil on canvas, from Qajar, Iran (19th century).

The most valuable item in the collection is the Folio 53v of the manuscript, the Shahnama of Firdawsi titled Salm And Tur Receive The Reply Of Faridun And Manuchihr, on fratricidal intrigue (opaque watercolour, ink, gold and silver on paper, Tabriz, Iran, c. 1522-1535). It is one of five illustrations created for Shah Tahmasp.

The inscriptions are also on ceramic tiles (glazed fritware with polychrome underglaze painting and lustre overglaze decoration) and wooden beams and steles (oak, plane-tree wood, sycamore, pine and teak).

The exhibition’s orientation is not chronological or geographical, but the exhibits on show are grouped under six categories, namely Sacred Topographies; Religious and Funerary Architecture; the Fortress and the City; the Gardens; Pavilion and Tents, and the Written Word.

It shows that despite Islam being monotheistic, it is greatly enriched with a startling pluralism, artistic merit and syncretic infusions like the Hispano-Mauresque in Spain. Islamic cultures have evolved and progressed greatly from diverse places, like from the Iberian peninsula and the Maghrib to South-East Asia and China, within a time frame of over a millennium.

The exhibition offers glimpses into the turbulence of medieval societies with the enclosed palisades for spheres of influence and administrative hubs.
Muqarnas element Islamic Spain (carved wood, from late 15th or 16th century).

The exhibition offers glimpses into the turbulence of medieval societies with the enclosed palisades for spheres of influence and administrative hubs, from different periods like the Mongol/Safavid/Samanid Iran, Fatimid/Tulunid/Mamluk Egypt, Ottoman Turkey and Mughal India.

There is also an interactive Children’s Corner at the exhibition.

The Aga Khan, a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, is the 49th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslim community. The 75-year-old is most noted for initiating the eponymous award for architecture, which has been given out in three-year cycles since 1977.

Six buildings in Malaysia have won the Aga Khan Architecture Award. They are the Petronas Twin Towers (in KL), Tanjung Jara Beach Hotel (Terengganu), Menara Mesiniaga (Selangor), Salinger Residence (Selangor), The Datai (Langkawi, Kedah), and Universiti Teknologi Petronas (Perak).

> Treasures Of The Aga Khan Museum is on show till June 29 at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, Jalan Lembah Perdana, Kuala Lumpur.

Viewing from 10am to 6pm daily; admission fees apply. For more information, call 03-22742020 or visit iamm.org.my.
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Tuesday June 12, 2012
Priceless Aga Khan artefacts go on show

KUALA LUMPUR: Visitors to the Aga Khan collection being showcased at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysian (IAMM) were awestruck by the large range of items on display.

Among the most notable is a miniature folio from 15th century Spain, glazed turquoise earthenware from late 14th century Central Asia, tiled arches from 15th century Egypt and decorated doors from 9th century Iran.

“As an architecture student, I have always wanted to attend an Aga Khan exhibition and I have finally got the chance. It is a dream come true,'' said Grace Jung from South Korea who was here on holiday.

The exhibits were collected by Aga Khan and his family over half a century.

The exhibition has six themes: Sacred Typographies, Religious and Funerary Architecture, The Fortress and the City, The Palace, The Garden, Pavilions and Tents and Architecture and the Written Word.

“This travelling exhibition was first shown in Russia in November and our last destination will be Singapore before it will be displayed at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto next year,” said IAMM collection manager from the Curatorial Affairs Department Rekha Varma.


Sight to behold: Visitors admiring the collection at the IAMM in Kuala Lumpur.

Hossien Taji from Iran said that he knew about the exhibition from the tourism centre.

“It is wonderful experience for me to witness the collection of a well-known person. the art is simply mind blowing.” said Hossein who is studying at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

The Aga Khan travelling exhibition is organised by the Aga Khan Foundation and ends on June 29.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?fi ... height=182
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Special Exhibition
Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum: Architecture in Islamic Arts
19 Jul 2012 - 28 Oct 2012
@ Special Exhibitions Gallery, ACM Empress Place

The Aga Khan is the spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslim community. This exhibition affords a unique opportunity for the public in Singapore to view some of the treasures in the major collection of Islamic art created by Prince Karim Aga Khan IV.

The complex architectural traditions of the Islamic world will be explored through a hundred objects drawn from Iran, India, Turkey, Syria, Spain, and Egypt. Works of art in metal, wood, and pottery, as well as paintings and textiles covering more than a thousand years of artistic production will be on display. The exhibition considers the different concepts of space in both religious and secular environments, and visitors can learn about the diverse artistic traditions of Islamic architecture.

The exhibition will be accompanied by contextual photographs to illustrate the historical background and inspiration behind the artistic forms. A fully illustrated catalogue written by experts will also be available.

Organised by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the Asian Civilisations Museum; Generously sponsored by Dr Reshma and Mr Aziz Merchant

http://www.acm.org.sg/exhibitions/event ... ventID=796
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

“Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum” Exhibition Opens in Singapore


Photos: Exhibition Opening

Link to the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore

Singapore, 18 July 2012 – “Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum: Architecture in the Islamic World” was opened today by Dr. Yaacob Ibrahim, Singapore’s Minster for Information, Communications and the Arts, and Prince Amyn Aga Khan, at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore. The exhibition will run from 19 July to 28 October 2012.

The exhibition, which follows the theme of similar exhibitions staged in St. Petersburg and Kuala Lumpur, nevertheless frames the paintings and objects related to architecture in innovative ways, including five-metre-high reproductions of details from miniatures, an iPad-driven interactive display that allows visitors to create geometric artworks typical of Islamic art, and a 15th / 16th century muqarnas mounted over a mirror that enables viewers to examine the architectural element in a new way.

“Islamic Architecture is one of the most visible aspects of Islamic culture,” said Dr. Alan Chong, director of the Asian Civilisations Museum. He hoped that “visitors will gain new insights into the history and creativity of the Islamic world.”

The exhibition is divided into five sections: The Fortress and the City, which features architectural elements and depictions of fortified towns; Sacred Typographies, which explores the sites and monuments of Islamic pilgrimage through paintings and drawings; Religious and Funerary Architecture, which examines mosques and commemorative shrines; The Palace, which looks at the residences of royal families; and Gardens, Pavilions and Tents, which examines palace life when it is extended into nature.

Since 2007, items from the Aga Khan Museum collection have been exhibited at key museums in Europe and Asia, drawing over 1.5 million visitors. The collection will later go on permanent display at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada.

http://www.akdn.org/Content/1142/Treasu ... -Singapore

*******

Islamic art & architecture exhibition now open

SINGAPORE: An exhibition showcasing over 1,000 years of Islamic art and architecture is now open at the Asian Civilisations Museum.

Called Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum, it boasts more than 100 works of art and architecture from six countries including Iran and Turkey.

Some of the artworks include paintings, manuscript illumination and hajj certificates.

The exhibition aims to reveal how Muslim artists perceived the Islamic built environment.

It also offers insights into some of the great Islamic dynasties.

Clement Onn, curator, cross-cultural art, Asian Civilisations Museum, said: "This exhibition coincides nicely with Ramadan and it presents a great opportunity for Muslims in Singapore to reconnect with Islamic cultures.

"It also presents a great opportunity for many Singaporeans and Southeast Asians living in this part of the region to get a better understanding of Islamic cultures and art."

- CNA/cc

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/ ... 25/1/.html
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Exhibition showcasing over 1000 years of Islamic art and architecture opens at the Asian Civilisations Museum

SINGAPORE.- The Asian Civilisations Museum presents an exhibition of works of art from the Aga Khan Museum. Featuring masterpieces of Islamic art and architecture spanning many centuries and from regions around the world, Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum: Architecture in Islamic Arts are on display at the ACM from 19 July to 28 October 2012. Architecture, with tiled and gilt domes, shaded courtyards, and inscribed gates, became a natural expression of Islam. The exhibition reveals how Muslim artists perceived the Islamic built environment.

Over 100 objects, ranging from manuscript illumination, paintings, and architectural elements to hajj certificates and tiles decorated with passages from the Qur‟an, illustrate ideas of space and decoration in both religious and secular environments. The exhibition offers insights into some of the great Islamic dynasties: the al-Andalus of the Iberian Peninsula; Ilkhanid, Timurid, and Safavid Iran; Ottoman Turkey; and Mughal India.

More...

http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_s ... DJVe6BJqho
kmaherali
Posts: 25106
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Event at the Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum Weekend Festival

http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNe ... 70379.html

ACM sets a colourful new record
Saturday, Sep 08, 2012

The Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) set a new record today for Singapore's largest chalk art.

Over 200 visitors created a sprawling mosaic of colourful geometric patterns inspired by Islamic art in this record-breaking flash art activity.

Measuring 12 metres by 16.8 metres, with a total area of 201.6 square metres, Chalk It Up! covered the entire ACM courtyard and successfully broke the previous record of 168.96 square metres, held by Fajar Secondary School in 2010.

The event was part of the Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum Weekend Festival, which also showcased Iranian dances, accompanied by mysterious and fanciful pari (fairies) by the internationally renowned Silk Road Dance Company (SRDC).

The exhibition is on display at the ACM until Oct 28.
Post Reply