Islamic Arts 23 Islamic Arts Diary by Lucien de Guise


BUYERS TAKE A BREAK Te London Islamic-art auctions this autumn produced few spectacular results. Tis was quite a relief after recent phenomena, which included the Tipu Sultan ‘Bedchamber Sword’ sold at Bonhams in May for the astonishing price of £14 million. Just as it seemed that Tipumania was taking off in the same way as it did in Europe in the late 18th century, the market saw some ‘corrections’ to earlier expectations. Two other swords of Tipu Sultan, the late 18th-century Muslim ruler of Hindu Mysore, came up for sale at Christie’s and failed to sell. Tis was despite an impressive piece of pre-sale display that included a dazzling video. At least the same sale saw a complete painted and gilded Ottoman room of 1790 fetch more than twice its lower estimate to reach just above £113,000. Tese masterpieces of interior design rarely come on the market in such a superb state, and every museum with an interest in Islamic culture needs to have one. Tey are still the best value, per square inch, of any collectable that I know of. One of the few sales to buck the


static trend was the Edith and Stuart Carey Welch Collection at Sotheby’s. Just when I thought that the best-ever writer on Islamic art (who died in 2008 at a Japanese railway station supposedly rushing


REGIONAL HERO


Te owner of the larger Bridgman painting mentioned previously is the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, which also happens to be celebrating its 25th anniversary in December. Te number of museums of Islamic art – and dedicated galleries in larger institutions – has grown substantially since 1998. Te museum in Kuala Lumpur has become a world leader in the intervening quarter century, staging joint exhibitions in venues as far apart as the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the British Museum. Tere was one challenge above all


others in opening the IAMM. Most museums start as a collection in pursuit of a home. For the IAMM, it was a matter of filling the space with a display that would do it credit. Tis was always going to be a slow process, especially with a huge building in a rather exceptional location: a rainforest park in the heart of a capital city. Te museum decided to choose carefully and wait for the right artefacts to come along. Being located in Asia created a special responsibility for highlighting the achievements of those culturally fertile lands. Te museum has done this over


the years and gone two steps further by adding a couple of complementary fields of collecting. Contemporary Muslim calligraphy and Orientalist paintings of the 19th century may seem to have little in common. Under the IAMM roof, however, they are additional pieces in the puzzle that connects cultures


for a train) could not have any more wonderful wares to sell, up comes this auction. It was by no means all from the Islamic world, but there were some typically offbeat items from across Asia and beyond. Perhaps the biggest sleeper of all was Mr Adams’ Album. Containing more than 400 watercolours, it provides a truly comprehensive visual introduction to life in India, Bengal and Burma during the first half of the 19th century. Welch had managed to include this item from his endless inventory in the 1978 New York exhibition and catalogue Room for Wonder: Indian Painting during the British Period, 1760-1880. So much information in one volume proved irresistible; the album fetched 10 times its lower estimate of £30,000. Also at Sotheby’s was another


single-owner – or perhaps couple – sale of eclectic contents. Te owner was not revealed, let alone trumpeted in the way that the Welch collection was. It did have the benefit of something close to an address though. If anyone has ever wondered what lies within the walls of Belgravia’s grandest-looking residences, this auction gave some clues. Te owners of this home in London’s most expensive neighbourhood appear to love Orientalism. Te Forbes family was famous for


the same hobby many years ago. On this occasion there was a good cross-section of important Orientalist painters plus a few


Karlovich Zommer, his Gate of Kashmir fetched six times its lower estimate of £15,000. Although the Bridgman painting


The two paintings shown in the correct size ratio The Prayer (1875) by FA. Bridgman, oil on canvas, unframed: 34 x 46.3 cm, sold at Sotheby’s London The Prayer (1877) by FA Bridgman, oil on canvas, 115 x 146 cm, courtesy of Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia


sculptors and a lot of Chinoiserie. Te lot that immediately caught


my eye was a small version of a painting by Frederick Arthur Bridgman. A much larger canvas by this important American artist had been the opening exhibit at the landmark exhibition at the British Museum Inspired by the East, held in 2019-20. Few exhibitions at that museum can rival an introductory work that conveys the powerful piety as Te Prayer. A large painting looming out of the darkness was a tour de force from the Bloomsbury


The written word has always been central to the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia


around the world. Orientalist paintings represent how Western artists saw the people, places and products of the Islamic world; contemporary calligraphy shows how modern Muslims see their own culture. Te most important contribution that this museum has made is in opening more eyes to the glories of Southeast Asia, among the most neglected areas of art-historical scholarship.


ON THE BURMA TRAIL Sticking with Southeast Asia, by coincidence there is a comprehensive examination of one Southeast Asian country happening at the moment. Te British Museum’s latest exhibition has not only provided valuable attention to Burma/Myanmar, it has also admitted the existence of a Muslim population within that troubled nation. Tis goes


back a long time but was in serious jeopardy in recent times


with the Rohingya issue. Amid the profusion of Buddhist and occasional Hindu artefacts at the exhibition Burma to Myanmar it is a treat to see a lacquered Qur’an box representing a community that has existed in that land for centuries. It may not be the oldest example of Islamic art from Southeast Asia, being made around a century ago, but it is a magnificent piece of traditional Burmese craftsmanship that involves glass inlays in lacquer with plenty of gilding. Like so many items in this exhibition, the Qur’an box has been borrowed from another museum. In this case it is from Singapore’s Asian Civilisations Museum. I suspect this is more a matter of the British Museum extending its global network than making up


Record-breaking items such as this Golden Horn Iznik charger take pride of place in Kuala Lumpur


• Burma to Myanmar, at the British Museum, ends 11 February 2024


for a collection that is rich in so many areas, but not Southeast Asia.


display team. How would a much smaller interpretation perform at auction? Quite well, in fact. By the standards of Orientalist art at the moment it was a triumph, finding a buyer at £70,000, above the upper estimate. Other paintings in this category have lost much of the momentum they acquired in recent years. At Bonhams, as well, a large number of lots were passed entirely. One high performer was by a Russian artist, a category that has gone from high to low demand in recent years. In the case of Richard


GREEN NIGHTS One of the most remarkable institutions dedicated to Islamic art that have opened in the past two decades is the Aga Khan Museum. Te collection is very old and revered, while the premises are very modern and located in the initially surprising location of Toronto. Among the latest crop of innovative exhibitions is a multi-sensory exhibition by British artist Shezad Dawood, inspired by the African- American Muslim polymath Yusef Lateef, a legendary figure who died 10 years ago at the age of 93. With the additional relevance of


• Shezad Dawood: Night in the Garden of Love at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, ends 5 May 2024


possible climate cataclysm, gardens are a solace of creation and optimism. Night in the Garden of Love is a multilayered exhibition in which the garden serves as the starting point for a creative futuristic and intercultural conversation. Audiences are guided through virtual reality, textile works, music, olfactory and imagined plants that respond to digital algorithms. It sounds complicated but comes down to a conversation between Dawood and Lateef ’s artistic practices and philosophical approaches. Te exhibition weaves elements of fiction, VR and real-life experiences, placing visitors at the heart of a creative conversation between two exceptional practitioners in the midst of an anxious world. It is produced in partnership with the Old World WIELS contemporary art centre of Brussels.


Tile with iris plants, from an arched panel, Isfahan, Iran, circa 1660-79, AKM590. Photo: Aga Khan Museum


did not perform astonishingly from a commercial point of view, its importance lies in the story it tells. Te smaller version that has just sold was painted in 1875, two years before the larger one. It was not just the size that changed. Bridgman must have realised that he had struck gold with the spiritual element of his work. Audiences at the time were far from the baying anti-Muslim mob that modern commentators have assumed them to be. Tere was much sympathy for Islam in the West during the 19th century, coming from American industrialists as much as from European aesthetes. In the two years between the paintings, Bridgman added more of the mysticism that buyers wanted to associate with ‘Eastern’ religions. Te shadowy figure by the side of the distinguished standing gentleman progressed from being a regular man at prayer in the small painting to a full-fledged Sufi dervish by 1877, complete with begging bowl and stick. Both works show the concern that the Alabama-born Bridgman showed towards Muslim worship. He was easily offended by others who failed to show the same respect. In his book on life in the Islamic world, he wrote: ‘A French officer in top-boots once showed me a mosque, walking about as if the place belonged to him, and told me to keep on my shoes’.


Mutant Dancer (2023) by Shezad Dawood, acrylic on vintage textile hanging, courtesy of the artist. Photo: We Document Art


ASIAN ART | WINTER 2023


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