Palace and Mosque: Islamic Treasures of the Middle East from the V&A, Millennium Galleries, Sheffield
The Luck of Edenhall, a 13th-century glass beaker from Egypt or Syria, miraculously unbroken for seven centuries, has clocked up an unnervingly high number of air miles in the past six months.
As part of Palace and Mosque: Islamic Treasures of the Middle East from the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), it has travelled from South Kensington to Washington DC, Fort Worth in Texas, Tokyo, and finally to Sheffield. From there, it will return to London to the new Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art, which will open at the V&A in July.
The Jameel Gallery has been funded by a donation of £5.4m from Hartwell, part of the Saudi Arabia-based Abdul Latif Jameel Group, a donation sufficiently generous to also fund this international touring exhibition while the redevelopment is underway.
The V&A's Islamic collection is one of the finest in the world, and dates from the museum's earliest beginnings. In the mid-19th century, Islamic art was much admired, and Islamic objects were purchased for the collections from the start.
Palace and Mosque takes a deliberately broad view of Islamic art, embracing all the art produced in the Muslim-ruled states in the Middle East and beyond, from Spain to central Asia.
In four main sections - Art and Power; Religious Art; Ottoman Patronage; and Artistic Exchange - it displays more than 100 items of glass, ceramics, ivory, textiles, metalwork and manuscripts, ranging in date from the eighth century to the 19th century.
It includes icons such as the imposing 15th century carved wooden minbar or pulpit of Sultan Qa'itbay, and the Chelsea Carpet, a magnificent 5-metre-long artefact from Persia.
This is a well-designed and beautifully lit exhibition and it offers some fascinating insights into Islamic art for the enthusiast.
It charts the impact of patronage in the Ottoman Empire, which supported the creation of highly skilled workshops, such as the ceramics workshop at Iznik, and the impact of other cultures.
Trade wars are not new: in the 16th century, the Ottoman textile industry was threatened by the local demand for Venetian velvet with metal thread, so it mounted a challenge to the Italian predominance in the field by developing a weaving industry at Bursa, a silk trading centre not far from Istanbul, and produced a uniquely Turkish product that closely mimics the Italian patterns.
Palace and Mosque, for all its beauty, is a curiously old-fashioned exhibition, which assumes an almost academic knowledge of the geography of the Islamic world, of the history of the region and its dynasties, and of the tenets of Islam.
There is no introductory space to orientate the visitor, no map, no timeline and no photographs of sites to help visitors who are new to Islamic art. It seems to be saying that if you don't know your Seljuks from your Safavids, this may not be the exhibition for you.
The Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust has tried to make the exhibition engaging and accessible. To make it more family friendly, it has developed a trail of eight 'stories' that shed light on particular objects, and pose questions for children to answer. There are a series of low-key interactives that allow kids to explore the art.
To build a link with contemporary art, the trust commissioned mixed-media artist Farhad Ahrarnia and glass designer/maker Kalim Afzal to create an installation. The result is Through a Glass Brightly, which was inspired by the glass in the exhibition, and funded by Arts Council England.
It has even produced a glossary to explain some of the more obscure terms used in labels. In addition, a varied programme of events is wrapped around the exhibition, offering hands-on art workshops for adults and children.
The opening of Palace and Mosque in January marked the launch of Pillars of Light, a year-long programme of activities in Yorkshire that explores different aspects of Muslim cultures and heritage. Events of this type have become increasingly important since 9/11. Given the curiosity and fear surrounding Islam today, anything that helps people develop a more balanced view of the Islamic world must be welcome.
At the time of his donation to the V&A, Mohammed Jameel was reported in the New York Times as saying that one of the objectives was to 'increase understanding of the Islamic world'. It must be said that Palace and Mosque does not meet this objective. Yes, it shows us that the Islamic world was capable of producing beautiful objects, but it does not go far enough to explain the context.
In the same New York Times article, Mark Jones, the director of the V&A, was quoted as saying: 'We want to undermine negative attitudes that people bring with them. It's absurd for some people to claim that Islamic culture is a barbaric culture. If you see what there is here [in the V&A], you can't possibly think it is hostile to beauty or education and has no intellectual tradition.'
It will be interesting to see how these intentions translate into reality in the new Jameel Gallery.
Jane Weeks is a museum consultant
Project data
Main funder: Hartwell, which gave £5.4m for the creation of the new gallery at the V&A and to fund the exhibition tour
Exhibition design: Alisa Richardson, Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust
Lighting: Nick Booth, SMGT
Fit-out: SGMT
Interactives: Workhaus
Graphics: Chromagene
Transport: Momart
Exhibition ends: 17 April
The Luck of Edenhall, a 13th-century glass beaker from Egypt or Syria, miraculously unbroken for seven centuries, has clocked up an unnervingly high number of air miles in the past six months.
As part of Palace and Mosque: Islamic Treasures of the Middle East from the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), it has travelled from South Kensington to Washington DC, Fort Worth in Texas, Tokyo, and finally to Sheffield. From there, it will return to London to the new Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art, which will open at the V&A in July.
The Jameel Gallery has been funded by a donation of £5.4m from Hartwell, part of the Saudi Arabia-based Abdul Latif Jameel Group, a donation sufficiently generous to also fund this international touring exhibition while the redevelopment is underway.
The V&A's Islamic collection is one of the finest in the world, and dates from the museum's earliest beginnings. In the mid-19th century, Islamic art was much admired, and Islamic objects were purchased for the collections from the start.
Palace and Mosque takes a deliberately broad view of Islamic art, embracing all the art produced in the Muslim-ruled states in the Middle East and beyond, from Spain to central Asia.
In four main sections - Art and Power; Religious Art; Ottoman Patronage; and Artistic Exchange - it displays more than 100 items of glass, ceramics, ivory, textiles, metalwork and manuscripts, ranging in date from the eighth century to the 19th century.
It includes icons such as the imposing 15th century carved wooden minbar or pulpit of Sultan Qa'itbay, and the Chelsea Carpet, a magnificent 5-metre-long artefact from Persia.
This is a well-designed and beautifully lit exhibition and it offers some fascinating insights into Islamic art for the enthusiast.
It charts the impact of patronage in the Ottoman Empire, which supported the creation of highly skilled workshops, such as the ceramics workshop at Iznik, and the impact of other cultures.
Trade wars are not new: in the 16th century, the Ottoman textile industry was threatened by the local demand for Venetian velvet with metal thread, so it mounted a challenge to the Italian predominance in the field by developing a weaving industry at Bursa, a silk trading centre not far from Istanbul, and produced a uniquely Turkish product that closely mimics the Italian patterns.
Palace and Mosque, for all its beauty, is a curiously old-fashioned exhibition, which assumes an almost academic knowledge of the geography of the Islamic world, of the history of the region and its dynasties, and of the tenets of Islam.
There is no introductory space to orientate the visitor, no map, no timeline and no photographs of sites to help visitors who are new to Islamic art. It seems to be saying that if you don't know your Seljuks from your Safavids, this may not be the exhibition for you.
The Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust has tried to make the exhibition engaging and accessible. To make it more family friendly, it has developed a trail of eight 'stories' that shed light on particular objects, and pose questions for children to answer. There are a series of low-key interactives that allow kids to explore the art.
To build a link with contemporary art, the trust commissioned mixed-media artist Farhad Ahrarnia and glass designer/maker Kalim Afzal to create an installation. The result is Through a Glass Brightly, which was inspired by the glass in the exhibition, and funded by Arts Council England.
It has even produced a glossary to explain some of the more obscure terms used in labels. In addition, a varied programme of events is wrapped around the exhibition, offering hands-on art workshops for adults and children.
The opening of Palace and Mosque in January marked the launch of Pillars of Light, a year-long programme of activities in Yorkshire that explores different aspects of Muslim cultures and heritage. Events of this type have become increasingly important since 9/11. Given the curiosity and fear surrounding Islam today, anything that helps people develop a more balanced view of the Islamic world must be welcome.
At the time of his donation to the V&A, Mohammed Jameel was reported in the New York Times as saying that one of the objectives was to 'increase understanding of the Islamic world'. It must be said that Palace and Mosque does not meet this objective. Yes, it shows us that the Islamic world was capable of producing beautiful objects, but it does not go far enough to explain the context.
In the same New York Times article, Mark Jones, the director of the V&A, was quoted as saying: 'We want to undermine negative attitudes that people bring with them. It's absurd for some people to claim that Islamic culture is a barbaric culture. If you see what there is here [in the V&A], you can't possibly think it is hostile to beauty or education and has no intellectual tradition.'
It will be interesting to see how these intentions translate into reality in the new Jameel Gallery.
Jane Weeks is a museum consultant
Project data
Main funder: Hartwell, which gave £5.4m for the creation of the new gallery at the V&A and to fund the exhibition tour
Exhibition design: Alisa Richardson, Sheffield Galleries and Museums Trust
Lighting: Nick Booth, SMGT
Fit-out: SGMT
Interactives: Workhaus
Graphics: Chromagene
Transport: Momart
Exhibition ends: 17 April
