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One of the great feelings I experience at the Brooklyn Museum is when I see a true connection between the Library and art collections here. This connection was felt recently at a public program showcasing the work of the widely-admired translator Zahra Partovi and the Brooklyn-based artist Kelly Driscoll. Kelly and Zahra’s work Fragments of Light II is now on view in the exhibition Light of the Sufis: The Mystical Arts of Islam and several other books published by Vincent FitzGerald & Co. are on view in the Library display cases on the second floor. The conversation included Zahra, Kelly, Ladan Akbarnia, Hagop Kevorkian Associate Curator of Islamic Art, and me, with a large audience made up of artists and artisans who have collaborated with Vincent Fitzgerald over the years. We had a lively conversation and the opportunity to view some remarkable books.

This panel discussion, held Saturday June 13, 2009 at the Brooklyn Museum, addressed the production, collection, and display of Sufi-inspired artist books. Zahra Partovi, whose artist book Fragments of Light II is featured in the special exhibition Light of the Sufis, discussed her art in conversation with collaborating book artist Kelly Driscoll, Hagop Kevorkian Associate Curator of Islamic Art Ladan Akbarnia, and Principal Librarian Deirdre Lawrence.

Vincent has been the primary leader in the overall conception, design and production of these books, pulling together incredibly talented artists and artisans to create them. The books, all inspired by the Sufi poetry of Rumi as translated by Zahra Partovi, are a jewel in the crown of our artists’ book collection and remain wonderful examples of how contemporary art can carry on the essence of traditional art.

How did these wonderful books come into the Brooklyn Museum collection?

Back in October 1998 the Brooklyn Museum held an exhibition entitled Royal Persian Paintings, The Qajar Epoch, 1785-1925 curated by Dr. Layla Diba. This exhibition was one of several that Brooklyn has featured over the years and an example of the Museum’s long standing interest in Islamic art. The Library collection is also rich in this area due to a series of grants from the Hagop Kevorkian Fund and donations such as the personal library of noted Islamic scholar Charles K. Wilkinson whose selected acquisitions are on view in the newly reinstalled Islamic Art galleries.The Library has a collection of artists’ books, ranging from multiples to limited editions to unique works, many of which relate to the cultures represented by the Museum’s object collections. Many of the books published by Vincent FitzGerald & Co. fall into this latter category as they resonate so well with the Islamic collections here.

I first met Vincent FitzGerald and Zahra Partovi in the Dieu Donne Galleries in 1999 at an exhibition entitled Dialogues in Collaboration: the publications of Vincent FitzGerald & Co. I remember being swept off my feet by the books on view and wanted to bring some of these books into the Brooklyn Museum collection.  Both Vincent and Zahra recognized the Museum’s longstanding interest in Islamic art and knew their books would fit in well with our collections.

Through the generosity of anonymous donors and guidance from Vincent we were given nine books created by Vincent FitzGerald & Co. The books demonstrate in a beautiful way that thirteenth-century Persian poetry can be made intellectually accessible to a present-day audience. Since we acquired these books we have featured them in exhibitions such as Working in Brooklyn: Artists Books in 2000 and they have been a favorite of visiting teachers, students and artists in the Library Reading Room. Both visually challenging and intellectually stimulating, these books speak to the future of the book as a vibrant tool for communication while being works of art in themselves. The Fragments of Light series is the most recent example of innovative ways Vincent and his collaborators challenge the definition of the book.

Come visit and see these great books in person!

For those of you who have been missing the arts of the Islamic world (or wondering what it is you’ve been missing), we are almost finished with our reinstallation of the past several weeks. The galleries had been a sandy beige for some 2-3 decades, so the new dark color will probably be the first thing you notice on your next visit. When I came to the Museum in early 2007, I knew that it would be a few years before we would be making any big structural changes to the second floor, where the Islamic galleries are located. But I really wanted to do something in the meantime to bring some attention to the arts of the Islamic world, which are a constant reminder of the positive and beautiful aspects of Islamic culture. I wanted the objects to “pop out,” for the focus to be on the art rather than the space in which the art is exhibited. I thought a dark, grayish or charcoal blue would be a nice change of scenery and a great backdrop for the objects of various media in rich cobalt blues, turquoises, deep reds, and purples found in the arts of a territory spanning from Spain to China and Southeast Asia, and even the contemporary diaspora. Golds and silvers also look great against this blue, whether on metalwork or paper; luster ceramics now feel like they sparkle!

To give the designer, Lance Singletary, a sense of what I imagined, I picked up a couple of paint swatches from the hardware store and he took it from there. I can’t stress enough how important these conversations with the designer are, because if Lance didn’t “get” what kind of vision I had for the space, it would have ended up looking a lot different than what you’re about to see in this video. He will explain how he came up with the subtle details that make for an extraordinary change on a relatively modest budget. It’s been an intense project that came together in an incredibly short period of time, thanks to the help of a whole team of people— curatorial staff, conservators, editors, designers, painters, electricians, art handlers, maintenance staff, technology staff, the security staff who kept an eye on me on many a late night at the museum, and more (I really hope I haven’t overlooked anyone here!). Ultimately, though, you will have to come see for yourself when the galleries open to the public on June 5, 2009—in the meantime, check out this “behind-the-scenes” video of some of the reinstallation:

Having the opportunity to write labels for objects in the collection is one of my favorite things about being an intern at the Brooklyn Museum. One of my labels is for a work entitled “Man with a Sword,” part of a group of drawings currently on display in the Arts of the Islamic World gallery. This installation of objects explores drawing as a medium of expression in the eastern Islamic world.

I chose to do research on this piece for purely aesthetic reasons as well as to satisfy my own curiosity. The drawing seemed different from other Islamic drawings I had seen, and I wanted to find out why. When you can devote your time to researching one particular object in depth, you come across an incredible amount of interesting information. Unfortunately, limitations on text length mean it’s not possible to share every bit of available research with the museum’s visitors, so the goal in writing a label like this is to convey a large amount of information in a clear and concise yet simultaneously interesting way. The most difficult thing is deciding what you want to focus on.

Compared to the other drawings in this installation, “Man with a Sword” seems oddly rigid and geometric, which is unusual when so many Islamic drawings are driven by the smooth, graceful brushwork style inspired by Islamic calligraphy.  As I discovered in my research, this work was created in the tradition of Islamic astrological drawings. The Book of Fixed Stars, written by the Iranian astronomer ^cAbd al-Rahman al-Sufi in 964 CE, would have provided ample source material for the artist who created “Man with a Sword”: it is filled with anthropomorphic representations of different constellations. For me, the most interesting thing about Al-Sufi was that he was one of the first to translate Greek astrological works into Arabic and compare the two cultures’ constellations; Boötes, the likely inspiration for this piece, was referenced as early as Homer’s Odyssey (ca. 700 BCE) and appears in numerous ancient mythologies as a hunter or herdsman. This became the focus for my label-writing, since I thought that other people would find it interesting as well.

Works on paper are light sensitive, and can only be displayed for a few months at a time. Drawings of the Islamic World will be on display until April, however, so there is still time to see “Man with a Sword” in person!

The “Silk Road” has been a hot topic in recent years, thanks in part to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the resulting reintroduction of independent Central Asian countries to the rest of the world. The phrase conjures up different images for different people, ranging from silk textiles, Bactrian camels, Marco Polo, and China, to Mongolian throat singers and polo matches, to celebrities motorcycling across Mongolia and Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project. But most, if not all, of these images are driven by the idea that cultures can and do cross boundaries of space and time, connecting different regions and periods together in creative and important waysAt the Brooklyn Museum, “Silk Road Fever” has been ongoing in the second-floor galleries, which include and connect the arts of Asia and the Islamic world. A corner space situated between the permanent galleries of the arts of China and the Islamic world provided the ideal location for an installation of “Silk Road” art. I use quotes here because the more appropriate term for the Silk Road or Route would be Silk Roads (or Routes), as it included several land routes between China and Venice. And, if I were to be completely honest, the current display includes works that could have traveled between East and West by land or by sea. The title for the exhibition therefore draws on the association of the Silk Route with cultural transmission; the works displayed emphasize the many cross-cultural connections between China and the Islamic world in the form of decorative motifs and subject matter, artistic techniques, and objects produced for trade or other forms of exchange. My personal favorite of the works included in this exhibition was made in a part of China that was connected to the Islamic world through maritime trade rather than overland routes.

Traveling Coffer, ca. 1250. Lacquer over leather, bamboo, wood, metal mounts, 17 1/4 x 28 3/8 x 15 in. (43.8 x 72.1 x 38.1cm). Brooklyn Museum, 1996.68.

That object (1996.68), pictured here, is a lacquer painted, tooled, and gilded traveling coffer that belongs to the Asian art collection. It might seem a little odd that a curator specializing in the arts of the Islamic world would choose a Chinese work as her favorite, but I love this piece because it contains so many visual and technical features shared between the arts of China, Iran, and Central Asia-possibly even Tibet. Medallions containing real and mythical animals, as well as floral and vegetal motifs appear in a series of panels framing each section of the object and cornered by various cloud collar forms. The central medallion at front depicts a landscape with a fantastical lion chasing a brocaded ball, a common motif in Chinese art, but which reached Iran and other Islamic lands probably through the movement of textiles carrying the same motif. Many of these animals carry auspicious meanings in China, related to wishes such as longevity and prosperity; sometimes the meanings traveled westward, especially when Mongol rule in Iran under the Ilhkanids (1256-1353) and in China under the Yuan (1271-1368) connected the two regions more directly. In fact, radiocarbon dating tells us the coffer was produced in the mid-thirteenth century, which corresponds to the Mongol invasions in China and the subsequent formation of the Mongol Yuan dynasty. In other cases, motifs had existed in both contexts and could symbolize different things; the confronted phoenixes appearing in the central medallion of the coffer’s lid have long histories in both China, where the phoenix is called fenghuang, and in Iran, where it is known as simurgh.

Traveling Coffer (detail), ca. 1250. Lacquer over leather, bamboo, wood, metal mounts, 17 1/4 x 28 3/8 x 15 in. (43.8 x 72.1 x 38.1cm). Brooklyn Museum, 1996.68.

The remaining surface of the object is densely decorated with foliage or geometric patterns using the techniques of qiangjin (”engraved gold”) and giangcai (”engraved color”) developed under the Song. In this technique, gold leaf or powder and pigmented lacquer are added to lines engraved into the lacquered ground. Lacquer objects played an increasingly significant role in the artistic exchanges between China and Iran during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and carving techniques used in Chinese lacquer were translated into exquisitely carved woodwork in Iran. What is fascinating about the Brooklyn Museum coffer is that it represents a Chinese decorative technique and even individual Chinese motifs, but its overall decorative composition is much more closely connected to the decorative tradition of Iranian manuscripts and bookbindings, which inspired much of the art and architecture of the Islamic world. Some scholars have even linked works like this to lacquerware recovered from Tibet. These multiple cultural associations are not unusual given the connections the Mongols enjoyed as a result of their vast territorial expansion as well as their support of Tibetan Buddhism.

So who would have made such an object and what would its function have been? The first question is an easy one to answer, since an inscription in Chinese characters under the flap of the front lid reveals who made this trunk and where:  “Made by the Ou family of Wenzhou, Xinhe Street, Anning Ward.” Wenzhou in Zhejiang province was a center for lacquer production since the preceding Song dynasty (960-1279) was in power. A description written in 1147 of the Northern Song capital at Kaifeng even mentions lacquer transported approximately 600 miles specifically from Wenzhou. As the name of this family is not a common Chinese name, it is possible that the Ou family originated in Central Asia, and perhaps that they were Muslim artists living and working in Wenzhou; Muslim communities are certainly known to have been formed in China after the advent of Islam in the seventh century. As for the coffer’s function, we can only guess; the wealth of auspicious motifs on its surface suggests a wedding trunk as one possibility. If you have a better idea, however, I would love to hear it!

The Silk Route between China and the Islamic World is on view until the end of May 2009; it will return as a long-term installation in September 2009. Please come and see the several other beautiful and interesting works included in the exhibition!