Private
Collection Doubles LACMA's Islamic Holdings and Greatly Enhances
Depth, Scope, and Quality of the Museum's Collection
Islamic
Art Acquisition Follows Major Acquisitions of Latin American and Korean
Art As Part of Six-Year Strategy of Collection Building
LOS
ANGELES - The Los
Angeles County Museum of Art-LACMA- announced today the
acquisition of the remarkable Madina Collection of Islamic art. The
collection contains works of various media dating from the late 7th
through 19th centuries from the vast areas that comprise the
Islamic world, from Southern Spain to Central Asia. The acquisition
effectively doubles the size of LACMA's already eminent Islamic
holdings and greatly enhances their depth and breadth, establishing
LACMA's collection as one of the ten most significant in the world.
The addition of the Madina Collection to LACMA's Islamic holdings will
provide museum visitors with a more comprehensive view of the art and
culture of a region that is much discussed today, though not well
understood. A number of the newly acquired works are now on display in
LACMA's Islamic art galleries on the third floor of the Ahmanson
Building.
"The
acquisition of this renowned collection of Islamic art, the result of a
lifetime of collecting by a respected scholar and teacher, further
strengthens LACMA's role as the foremost museum in the Western United
States where the people of Los Angeles and its visitors can view great
art from all cultures and historical periods from across the globe,"
said LACMA President and Director Andrea L. Rich. "These extraordinary
works illustrate the richness and diversity of the Islamic culture and
reveal its creative contribution to humankind. It is a particularly
appropriate juncture in our history to learn from that connectivity of
cultures."
Dr.
Maan Madina, 76, is Professor Emeritus in the department of Middle East
and Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University in New York. The
collection comprises more than 750 objects acquired by Professor Madina
over the past forty years and includes objects from old American and
European collections that have long been lost to the field. Objects in
the collection have been published in a variety of scholarly studies
beginning in 1910 and have been exhibited in major museums both to
supplement their permanent collections and to be shown in special
exhibitions. One of the objects in the collection was exhibited in the
1876 United States Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.
Madina
acquisition is "third jewel in LACMA's crown" and
fulfills six-year strategic plan to strengthen the collection
LACMA
adopted a strategy six years ago to strengthen the museum's collection
in phases. LACMA's curatorial staff conducted a thorough examination
of the entire LACMA collection to identify strengths and weaknesses.
Through this effort, which
was spearheaded by the Board of Trustees' Collections Committee and
its chair Mrs. Stewart Resnick, the
Board identified three areas of focus for the first phase of collection
building: Latin American, Korean, and Islamic art.
In
1997, LACMA acquired the outstanding Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection
of more than 1,800 paintings and works on paper by modernist Mexican and
Latin American masters. LACMA's Korean collection was significantly
bolstered by the acquisition of the Robert W. Moore Collection of Korean
art in 1999, considered the finest outside the Korean peninsula.
Building the Latin American and Korean art collections has
enabled LACMA to reflect the heritage of large local communities. The
acquisition of the Madina Collection establishes LACMA's collection of
Islamic art, already noteworthy on a national scale, as one of the
finest in the world.
The
acquisition of the Madina Collection was made possible in part by a gift
from long-time LACMA benefactor and Trustee Camilla Chandler Frost. Dr.
Maan Madina graciously contributed selected objects from his collection.
LACMA's Department of Ancient and Islamic Art also contributed funds
toward the acquisition.
"The
opportunity to acquire and exhibit these works of Islamic culture,
deemed by scholars over the decades as being of the highest level of
excellence, is profoundly satisfying, particularly at this time," Rich
said. "I want to thank Camilla Chandler Frost for her very generous
gift that helped make this acquisition possible, and Dr. Madina for his
contribution of selected objects. These beautiful and significant works
of art will benefit all the generations who follow us, helping to build
a greater understanding of the diversity of the world's cultures."
The
Madina Collection of Islamic Art
The
collection focuses on decorative arts, architectural decoration, and
calligraphy, and includes a number of masterpieces of a quality and type
that are extremely rare. The collection represents the full range of
Islamic decorative expression, and is especially rich in objects from
Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Spain, and North Africa-areas in which LACMA has
been actively working to enhance its collections. Among the holdings are
more than 250 brilliantly glazed ceramics and tiles, more than 50
specimens of calligraphy, 65 textiles, and 50 glass objects.
The
Madina Collection also includes some spectacular examples of
architectural decoration produced in the 15th century for the
Timurid dynasty, which ruled a vast empire from Herat, in modern
Afghanistan, a city now largely destroyed.
Another
important strength of the newly acquired collection lies in its examples
of 13th to 17th-century works of art, including
types of metalwork, wood, glass, and stone that are extremely difficult
to acquire today. In addition, examples of Persian pottery, tiles, and
carved wood along with early Islamic glass, pottery, textiles, and
calligraphy will serve to more completely tell the story of Islamic art
at LACMA.
"Islamic
art is perhaps the most accessible manifestation of a complex
civilization that often seems enigmatic to outsiders," said Linda
Komaroff, LACMA's curator of Islamic Art. "Through its brilliant use
of color and its balance between design and form, Islamic art creates an
immediate visual impact. Its strong aesthetic appeal transcends
distances in time and space, as well as differences in language,
culture, and creed. Islamic art not only invites a closer look but also
beckons the viewer to learn more. For an American audience, a visit to
the Islamic galleries of a museum such as LACMA can represent the first
step toward penetrating the history of a religion and culture that are
often in the news though little understood."
"I
am delighted at the acquisition of my collection in its entirety by a
museum that already has substantial holdings of Islamic art
complementary to mine," said Dr. Maan Madina. "I believe this
acquisition greatly magnifies the importance of LACMA's major public
collection of Islamic art and will serve important educational and art
historical purposes for years to come."
LACMA
first made a serious commitment to collect Islamic art in 1973 with the
acquisition of the Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection, the generous gift of
LACMA benefactor Joan Palevsky. Comprised of 650 works, the Heeramaneck/Palevsky
collection, built between the 1920s and 1960s, focuses primarily on art
from the greater Iranian world, specifically, Iran, Afghanistan, parts
of Iraq, Central Asia, and the Caucasus, and includes many fine examples
of ceramics and manuscript illustration and calligraphy. Over the years,
further acquisitions and gifts have established LACMA as one of the
finest repositories of Islamic art in the United States.
The
Los Angeles County Museum of Art is the premier encyclopedic visual arts
museum in the western United States. Only 35 years old as an independent
institution, the museum has assembled a collection of approximately
100,000 works from around the world, spanning the history of art from
ancient times to the present. Through its far-reaching collections and
extensive public programming, the museum is both a resource to and a
reflection of the many cultural communities and heritages in Southern
California.
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