Are you an admirer of other cultures? Here is another great idea for a class trip!
For eight years, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has been missing a key element to its vast collection of pieces from all over the continent. Falsely believed to have been closed as a result of the 9/11 attacks on our country, the Islamic Art galleries on the second floor were veiled due to construction on the Greek and Roman exhibits below it. For the past 3 years, a tremendous effort has been made to revamp the exhibit, which will now showcase over a thousand priceless treasures for visitors to experience. In order to make this possible, the museum had to get in contact with over 20 countries and 40 Islamic art scholars.
I believe the Islamic exhibit will be a great step forward in exposing Americans to Islamic culture, and might even extinguish ignorant attitudes towards Muslims in America. There will be a plethora of pieces on display far from religious in origin; in fact, many of the pieces represent secular art created by Muslims for non-Muslim clienteles.
After witnessing such a wonderful cultural display at the Jewish Museum this past weekend, why not head over to the Met to experience Islamic tradition next? The exhibit opens November 1st. The article can be found here, along with a sneak peek look at what one can expect!
The Met is a wonderful place to get a glimpse of other cultures of the present and the past. Maybe we’ll have time to visit these rooms when we visit the Met?
Who’s culture are we really looking at?
I’m afraid to say that this exhibit was rather misguided. One of the most important genres of Middle Eastern Art would be Architecture. It is very difficult to create an exhibit within a museum that properly represents this dimension of Middle Eastern Art. Instead, the curators decided to make an exhibit that reflected AMERICAN culture. The choice of pieces in this exhibit resembled what a collection of Victorian literature would look like if it were all penny romances– sans Dickens, Bronte, and Austen.
Some of the most beautiful structures in the world are mosques, and they feel slighted.