THE ECONOMIST
THE new Islamic galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York are magnificent. Some 1,200 works (from a collection ten times the size) arranged across 15 rooms vividly illustrate 13 centuries of art and history. This will excite not only scholars and the art world, but also the many neophytes who will be drawn to these exceptional examples of manuscripts, textiles, glass, ceramics, jewellery, armour, painting, scientific instruments and carvings (from wood to stone and ivory). The works are instructive, often beautiful and occasionally thrilling. Eight years in the making, the Met’s insightful and theatrical new presentation does justice to one of the most important collections of Islamic art outside the Middle East.
The rooms, which open to the public on November 1st, bear the official and unwieldy name the New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia. This is meant to highlight the geographic breadth and varied history of Islamic culture. The museum first considered renovating and expanding this collection over a decade ago. Subsequent events added an element of diplomacy to the project. Mindful of the narrow view of Islam in the West, Thomas Campbell, the museum’s director, came to see these galleries as a way “to educate our audience about the depths and magnificence of the Islamic tradition”.
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(Thanks to reader)