Islamic Art

Ahmanson Building, Level 4: Artworks on view

The museum houses a highly significant collection of Islamic art. These widely diverse arts, from an area extending from southern Spain to Central Asia, trace the distinctive visual imagination of Islamic artists over a period of fourteen hundred years. The collection consists of over 1,700 works, of which some 150 examples are on view; these include glazed ceramics, inlaid metalwork, enameled glass, carved wood and stone, and manuscript illustration, illumination, and calligraphy.

Tunisia, probably Qairawan

Lamp

Egypt or Syria

Mid-14th century

Nushirvan Receives an Embassy from the Khaqan

Iran

c. 1530–35

Tile

Greater Iran

15th century

Dish with Artichokes and Tulips

Turkey, Iznik

c. 1550–55

LACMA’s Collectors Committee Acquires Six Works

April 19, 2010

Samira Alikhanzadeh, Untitled, 2009. Iranian artist Alikhanzadeh’s work focuses on found images of women from the mid-1930s, a period when Reza Shah Pahlavi (r. 1921–41) led a reform movement to bring women and minorities in Iran into the mainstream, including the compulsory uncovering of women...

Shadi Ghadirian Refashions the Tutu

March 12, 2009

During a trip to Europe, Nasser al-Din Shah, the Qajar dynasty ruler of Iran during the second half of the nineteenth century, attended a ballet performance and found himself captivated by the ballerina’s costumes. He returned home with a prototype in mind...

View All Upcoming Programs