Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity

 

The significant influence and adoption of Islamic art and culture in modern Western arts is immense. It is well known amongst the relevant acedemia (people in theknoe!) but is hardly explored, researched and/or presented at a broader scale. 

The exhibition below is therefore quite relevant and important in higlhigting and documenting this strong connection. 

The exhibition has 400 objects and ends September 22. Go and see it if you can! 

Source: DMA

Major Exhibition Exploring Cartier’s Inspirations from Islamic Art and Design Makes North American Premiere in Spring 2022 at Dallas Museum of Art

Major Exhibition Exploring Cartier’s Inspirations from Islamic Art and Design
Makes North American Premiere in Spring 2022 at Dallas Museum of Art

Co-organized by the DMA and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris,
in Collaboration with the Musée du Louvre and with the Support of Maison Cartier,
Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity Showcases over 400 Objects,
Including Iconic Cartier Pieces and Works of Islamic Art
from Local and International Collections

Exhibition Design Conceived by Renowned Studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Dallas, TX – Updated April 18, 2022 – In spring 2022, the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) will be the sole North American venue for Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity, a major exhibition tracing inspirations from Islamic art and design, including from Louis Cartier’s exquisite collection of Persian and Indian art, on the creations of the Maison Cartier from the early 20th century to present day. Co-organized by the DMA and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, in collaboration with the Musée du Louvre and with the support of Maison Cartier, the exhibition brings together over 400 objects from the holdings of Cartier, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Paris), the Musée du Louvre, the Keir Collection of Islamic Art on loan to the Dallas Museum of Art, and other major international collections. Through strong visual juxtapositions and new scholarly research, the exhibition explores how Cartier’s designers adapted forms and techniques from Islamic art, architecture, and jewelry, as well as materials from India, Iran, and the Arab lands, synthesizing them into a recognizable, modern stylistic language unique to the Maison Cartier. Cartier and Islamic Art will make its US premiere in Dallas from May 14 through September 18, 2022, following its presentation at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, from October 21, 2021, through February 20, 2022.

Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity is co-curated by Sarah Schleuning, The Margot B. Perot Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the DMA; Dr. Heather Ecker, the former Marguerite S. Hoffman and Thomas W. Lentz Curator of Islamic and Medieval Art at the DMA; Évelyne Possémé, Chief Curator of Ancient and Modern Jewelry at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; and Judith Hénon, Curator and Deputy Director of the Department of Islamic Art at the Musée du Louvre, Paris. The exhibition design is conceived by renowned studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), which is creating a contemporary display that offers enhanced opportunities for close looking and analysis of form. The Presenting Sponsor for the exhibition in Dallas is PNC Bank.

“For over a century, Cartier and its designers have recognized and celebrated the inherent beauty and symbolic values found in Islamic art and architecture, weaving similar elements into their own designs. This bridging of Eastern and Western art forms speaks exactly to the kinds of cross-cultural connections the DMA is committed to highlighting through our programming and scholarship,” said Dr. Agustín Arteaga, the DMA’s Eugene McDermott Director. “Not only does this exhibition present our audiences with the opportunity to explore Cartier’s dazzling designs, but it also spotlights the strength of our powerhouse Islamic Art and Decorative Arts and Design departments, as well as those of our colleagues at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and the Louvre.”

“The design strategies in this exhibition—motif, pattern, color, and form—reveal the inspirations, innovations, and aesthetic wonder present in the creations of the Maison Cartier. Focused through the lens of Islamic art, the designs reveal how the Maison migrates and manifests these styles over time, as well as how they are shaped by individual creativity,” said Sarah Schleuning.

Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity explores the origins of Islamic influence on Cartier through the cultural context of Paris in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the figure of Louis J. Cartier (1875–1942), a partner and eventual director of Cartier’s Paris branch, and a collector of Islamic art. Louis encountered Islamic art through various sources, including the major exhibitions of Islamic art in Paris in 1903 and 1912 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, which were held to inspire new forms of modern design, and a pivotal exhibition of masterpieces of Islamic art in Munich in 1910. Paris was also a major marketplace for Islamic art and a gathering place of collectors. It was around this time that Cartier and his designers began to experiment with new modes of design, looking to Japanese textiles, Chinese jades, Indian jewelry, and the arts and architecture of the Islamic world to expand upon the “garland style” that had brought success to the house at the turn of the 20th century. Louis Cartier’s own collection of Persian and Indian paintings, manuscripts, and other luxury objects—reconstructed in this exhibition for the first time in nearly 80 years—also served as inspiration for these new designs, and together these influences would be essential to the development of a new aesthetic called “style moderne" and later “Art Deco” at Cartier.

Bringing together over 400 objects from the DMA’s own holdings and other major international collections, Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity presents a rare opportunity to encounter not only a wide array of iconic Cartier objects, but also their original sources of inspiration. The exhibition showcases works of Cartier jewelry and luxury objects alongside historical photographs, design drawings, archival materials, and works of Islamic art, including those displayed in the Paris and Munich exhibitions and in Louis’s own collection, as well as works bearing motifs that would become part of Cartier’s lexicon of forms. Additionally, digital technologies will offer insight into the creative process at the Maison, from an original source object to a motif, to its adaptation as a jewelry design, and finally to its execution in metal, stones, and organic materials.

Juxtaposing Cartier jewels, drawings, and archival photographs with examples of Islamic art that bear similar forms and ornaments, Cartier and Islamic Art: In Search of Modernity illustrates the inspiration, adaptation, and recombination of motifs deriving from Islamic sources in Cartier’s design for jewelry and luxury objects. These include a range from geometric to naturalistic forms and Chinese designs (cloud collars and interlocking shapes) that were naturalized in the Islamic lands under the Mongol and Timurid rulers of the Middle East and India since the 13th century.

The exhibition also touches on the material and technical sources of inspiration derived from Louis’s youngest brother Jacques’ travels to India and Bahrain in the early 20th century. From these locales, and other neighboring regions, Cartier imported new materials to introduce into its work, including carved emeralds and other multicolored engraved gemstones. Discoveries gleaned from these travels spurred the use of novel color combinations drawing from Islamic sources, one of the most distinctive aspects of the Maison’s early 20th-century designs. They also inspired the use of new techniques, most notably Cartier’s signature Tutti Frutti style. From the 1920s onward, Islamic pieces themselves—such as enameled plaques, shards of pottery, stone amulets, textiles, or miniatures taken from paintings—were sometimes gathered in a stock called apprêts and incorporated into new Cartier creations.

The exhibition traces each of these stylistic developments, linking them to actual or probable Islamic source material and revealing the expertise of the jeweler’s eye in mediating forms and creating some of Cartier’s most renowned and recognizable styles today.

“PNC Bank has a legacy of investing in the communities we serve through broad support of the arts, as we understand and advocate for the economic, social and civic impacts a thriving arts and culture community brings to our city,” said Brendan McGuire, PNC regional president for North Texas. “The opportunity to continue our strategic partnership with the Dallas Museum of Art, as they create local access to globally renowned art, is fundamental to our work in this space and in North Texas.”

Rembrandt and the Inspiration of Mughal Miniatures

"Presented together for the first time with Mughal counterparts, this selection of drawings signals Rembrandt’s fascination with exceptional Indian artifice as well as elucidates his own artistic practice"

Credit: Getty Museum

Rembrandt as you’ve never seen him before.

Left: Shah Jahan (detail), about 1656–61, Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn. Dark brown ink and dark brown wash with scratching out on Asian paper toned with light brown wash. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1978.38. Image © The Cleveland Museum of Art Right: Jujhar Singh Bundela Kneels in Submission to Shah Jahan (folio from Minto Album; detail), 1630–40, Bichitr. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper. Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library. Image © Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, CBL In 07A.16

IN AN INTRIGUING MOMENT LATE IN HIS CAREER, Rembrandt created a series of unusually meticulous drawings depicting emperors and courtiers from Mughal India. This exhibition explores the Dutch master’s careful studies of imperial Mughal portraiture and places them within a broader circuit of cross-cultural exchanges. By juxtaposing Rembrandt’s drawings with Indian paintings of similar compositions—and pairing Mughal artworks with European prints that inspired them—fascinating stories unfold about the flow of art and ideas across time and oceans.

Shah Jahan and his Son, about 1656–61, Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn. Brown ink and brown wash with scratching out on Asian paper toned with light brown wash. The Rijksmuseum, gift of J.G. Bruijn-van der Leeuw, Muri, Switzerland. Image: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Rembrandt and the Inspiration of India

The twenty-three surviving drawings Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606–1669) made of Mughal emperors, princes, and courtiers mark a watershed moment, when the Dutch master responded to art of a dramatically different culture. Rembrandt and the Inspiration of India considers the unique significance of these cross-cultural works in the context of seventeenth-century global exchange. What motivated Rembrandt to study Mughal portraits? Did he own an album of them? Can we trace his drawings to specific, surviving artworks imported into Amsterdam from the Dutch trading post in India? This exhibition reveals the critical eye and attentive curiosity he turned toward Mughal portrait conventions. For Rembrandt, the art of Mughal India was not merely a foreign curiosity. It carried certain associations of empire, trade, luxury, and artistic skill.

Rembrandt and Global Amsterdam

Recreation of Rembrandt's Art Collection, The Rembrandt House Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

With the establishment of the Dutch East India Company, or Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC), in 1602, the Dutch forged a dominant presence in the lucrative spice trade. This international trade network brought large quantities of foreign art and artifacts to Amsterdam. The 1656 inventory of Rembrandt’s possessions describes a collection of art objects from around the globe, including items from Mughal India. The Mughal Empire in Rembrandt’s time covered a vast area that today would encompass Afghanistan, Bangladesh, much of western Pakistan, and all of northern and central India. Mughal emperors traced their lineage back to Timur, the Turco-Mongol conqueror and founder of the Timurid Empire of Iran and Central Asia. Portraits promoting Mughal rulers’ wealth, political aspirations, and Islamic faith came to the Netherlands on VOC ships embarking from the Indian port of Surat. Possibly owned by a VOC official in Rembrandt’s circle, these meticulous portrayals of imperial magnificence sparked the artist’s imagination. Dutch merchants, collectors, and other artists would have recognized Rembrandt’s drawings after Mughal paintings as a demonstration of his international and refined taste.

Is Collecting Art Another Way for Collecting Stories? | Amna Naqvi | TEDxLahore

Why are people motivated to collect objects? These could be shells or stones as a child or art and books as an adult. What motivates and energises them to take on this task? Amna Naqvi, the founder of AAN Collection and AAN Foundation talks about her journey of collecting art and speaks of not only collecting objects of art but art experiences as well. Amna Naqvi is the founder of AAN Foundation and AAN Collection. She is an avid art collector, philanthropist, publisher, supporter and collaborator of art projects and initiatives. These projects have led to the development of the contemporary Pakistani art space both locally as well as globally over the last fifteen years. The AAN Collection comprises of over 800 works of art ranging from 3rd Century Gandhara sculptures, 17th Century Mughal miniatures and contemporary art. Works from the collection have been part of major exhibitions at institutions such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, The Venice Biennial and The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. The collection is complimented by the AAN Foundation which supports art exhibitions and projects in Asia as well as globally. 

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at  https://www.ted.com/tedx

Nur Jahan - The Mughal queen who became a feminist icon

Nur Jahan - the many facets of Nur Jahan's personality - Empress, poet, an expert hunter, an innovative architect, and also led an army when her husband was made captive.

"She was born only a few decades after Queen Elizabeth I, yet she ruled a territory far more diverse than that of her British counterpart."

Nur Jahan ruled a bigger empire than Queen Elizabeth and had a much stronger impact on arts, culture and architecture.

Time to recognise AND cherish our own icons!

Your 'cherishing our icons' Artwallaa

The Mughal queen who became a feminist icon

Source: BBC

 

 

 Image copyright Penguin - Nur Jahan was the only female ruler in the Mughal dynasty                

Empress Nur Jahan was the most powerful woman in 17th Century India. She played an unprecedented role in running the vast Mughal empire. Historian Ruby Lal explains why the history of her leadership is important to understand today.
 

She was named Mihr un-Nisa at birth and was later named Nur Jahan (light of the world) by her husband, the Mughal emperor, Jahangir. She was born only a few decades after Queen Elizabeth I, yet she ruled a territory far more diverse than that of her British counterpart.

 

The Mughals ruled much of the Indian subcontinent for more than 300 years after they came to power early in the 16th century. It was one of India's biggest and most powerful dynasties. Many of its emperors and royal women, including Nur Jahan, were patrons of art, music and architecture - they built grand cities and majestic forts, mosques and tombs.

 

And as the dynasty's only woman ruler, Nur Jahan is omnipresent in the folklore of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

 

Stories about her abound in the homes, and near monuments, in Agra in northern Indian and Lahore in northern Pakistan - two major cities in the Mughal era, especially during her reign. Older men and women, tour guides and history aficionados tell stories of how Nur and Jahangir met and fell in love; of how she saved a village tormented by a man-eating tiger - she shot it deadwith a musket from her perch on top of an elephant.

 

Though people have heard stories about her romance and, infrequently, of her bravery, little is known about her dynamic world, political acumen and powerful ambitions. She was a fascinating woman who came to rule an empire against extraordinary odds.

She was a poet, an expert hunter and an innovative architect. Her design for her parents' tomb in Agra later inspired the construction of the Taj Mahal.

A remarkable leader in a male-dominated world, Nur didn't come from royalty. Yet she ascended from the emperor's harem to great heights as an astute politician and the favourite wife of Jahangir, ruling the vast Mughal empire as a co-sovereign.

Image copyright Courtesy of Rampur Raza Library

Image caption An artist's impression of Nur Jahan holding a gun

Not just a pretty face: The brilliant career of Nur Jahan, empress of India

Source: Economist


Not just a pretty face

The brilliant career of Nur Jahan, empress of India

Chauvinism has reduced her to caricature. Ruby Lal’s biography brings her back to life

 

Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan. By Ruby Lal. W.W. Norton & Company; 336 pages; $27.95 and £19.99. 

 

 

 

 THAT India’s Mughal emperors could be devoted to their queens is no surprise. The Taj Mahal, their most famous monument, was a homage to the memory of Mumtaz Mahal, the emperor Shah Jahan’s most-mourned wife. Less well-known is that Mumtaz’s aunt (and Shah Jahan’s stepmother), Nur Jahan, was, for 16 years from 1611, in effect India’s co-ruler.
 

 

In fact, according to Ruby Lal’s biography, she became “prime minister as well as empress”. Uniquely for a Mughal woman, her name featured on coins. Not until Indira Gandhi became prime minister in 1966 would India again be ruled by a woman. (Queen Victoria was rather hands-off.)

Not that Nur Jahan has been forgotten. Hers is a household name in South Asia, and her story has been told in at least eight films, several plays and many historical romances. But she is famous for having won the heart of her husband, the emperor Jahangir, with her beauty, and for using her charm to promote her own interests and her allies’. She came to be seen, in Ms Lal’s words, as “a gold-digger and schemer”, the “besotted” Jahangir as a “drunk, stoned and oversexed despot”.