Nur: Light in Art and Science From the Islamic World
Dallas Museum of Art
Through June 29
At the Dallas Museum of Art, a light-filled passageway curves gently toward a white wall where, hanging in the center, four small, circular objects radiate lines of indigo, russet, sky blue and gold. They are three 13th- and 14th-century ceramic bowls and the center of a 17th-century shield. From Persia, Spain and India, they introduce "Nur: Light in Art and Science From the Islamic World."
In Arabic, nur denotes not just physical light but the light of knowledge and spiritual truths. The museum's adviser for Islamic art, Sabiha Al Khemir, adopted its multiple meanings as her guiding principle in selecting more than 150 works spanning the Islamic world, from Spain to India, from the ninth to the 20th centuries. Ms. Al Khemir scoured European and U.S. private collections as well as the holdings of almost 30 museums, foundations and libraries in Spain, Portugal, Lichtenstein, Morocco, Britain and the U.S. The resulting selection mixes the famous with the unknown, the rare with the familiar, and, sprinkled throughout, Islamic-style works made in Europe, Jewish- and Christian-themed works made in Islamic countries, and scientific treatises that contributed to world knowledge.
Thus, a small 19th-century menorah from Morocco sits amid 10th- to 19th-century lamps from India, Egypt and Spain, while a blue mosque lamp probably made in 19th-century France shares a case with an enameled Egyptian lamp dated 1329 to 1335. A mid-13th-century glass bottle from Syria is covered in vignettes of life in a Christian monastery that scholars have connected to French medieval art as well as Syrian and Iraqi miniature painting. And just as we marvel at two indigo-dyed folios with gold calligraphy from a famed late ninth- to early-10th-century Koran, we discover 10th-century Egyptian quartz chess pieces that have spent centuries tucked away in a Spanish cathedral.
From the initial light-filled space we walk into a series of galleries where, displayed within dark-gray walls, spotlighted objects glow like precious jewels. Lamps and candleholders in a variety of sizes and materials give way to illuminated manuscripts ablaze with jewel tones and gold, metalwork with intricate silver inlays, and a cornucopia of translucent stone, gem-studded vessels and enameled glass. The wattage then seems to intensify in the gallery devoted to lusterware. Ceramists and scientists may see the result of calibrated additions of metal oxides and controlled firings. For art lovers, luster imbues vessels with the magical ability not just to reflect light, but to hold it. It is one of the Islamic world's most distinctive artistic inventions, which scholars believe originated in the eighth or ninth century in southern Iraq. Whether it is a 17th-century blue-and-gold bowl from Persia or one of several 15th-century platters from Spain, the show's works live up to Persian historian Abu'l Qasim's description. Luster, he wrote in 1300, "reflects like red gold and shines like the light of the sun."
The second part of the show focuses on the hard and soft sciences. We see magnificent astrolabes and compasses, groundbreaking medical advances and anatomical drawings, but also poetic images of constellations and astrology and an 18th-century painting of an alchemist at work. It is clear that lusterware owes much to chemistry and that artistry infuses sophisticated instruments. In the last gallery, interlocking designs decorate architectural fragments of wood, tile and mosaic, as well as some textiles—mathematics made visible in geometric designs that seem to extend into infinity.
While the catalog delves into history, styles and techniques, the wall texts and labels are kept to a minimum. Even most of the videos serve primarily to magnify details in the works. There is therefore little to pull our attention away from the objects whose thoughtful selection makes them a delight to contemplate individually, while their arrangement invites us to see connections. A sequence of vessels, for example, evokes the development of lusterware. Another traces an increasing love of adornment as we move from Persia to Mughal India. And windows between galleries link in a single sightline the enamel decoration on a glass mosque lamp with glittering metalwork and shimmering illuminations of manuscripts—a reminder that they share such motifs as radiating stars, scrolling vines and calligraphic styles.
Even the show's exit is carefully planned. As at the start, we walk through an empty passageway awash with light, except that this time geometric patterns spill across the floor in the form of shadows. We now carry with us the imprint of a vibrant culture whose arts and sciences made significant contributions to Western civilization and continue to enrich us all.
Almost palpable is Ms. Al Khemir's keenness to see art bring people together and replace distrust with respect, lack of knowledge with appreciation. But the show also aims, as she states in the catalog, to provide "an overview of the traditional arts" in a nonlinear, attractive context, thereby laying "a foundation for a sense of the cultural history of the Islamic world." Given that part of this history is also reflected in a tradition of finely wrought ceremonial armor and weapons whose Koranic verses, decorations and light-weight technology fit the show's premise, their absence feels conspicuous. The sole reference to the arts of war is the boss from a shield at the entrance. Yet, historically, religion and culture have not spread like flower petals in a breeze; they have often ridden in with imperial armies. In Spain, where the Seville-based Focus-Abengoa foundation helped organize and inaugurated the show, there was perhaps no need to acknowledge this since evidence of Christian and Muslim armies fighting for dominance permeates the landscape. By glossing over the connection between might and the spreading of light in a U.S. context, however, "Nur" may risk being dismissed by some of the very people it hopes to reach. That would be a shame, because the show offers a lyrical and instructive experience.
Ms. Lawrence writes about Asian and Islamic art for the Journal.