The Lost Dhow surfaces in Toronto

So this could just as easily be Let's Talk about Art, part 3, but I decided that the focus of this post should be on a special exhibit at the relatively new Aga Khan Museum in Toronto.  A bit later in the post, I'll go ahead and put up a few photos of their permanent collection.  I'd read about the Aga Khan Museum and this special exhibit in the paper and then when I realized it was essentially just up the street from me (considering the 25 Don Mills bus as a continuation of the 72 Pape bus), I thought I should check it out.  Indeed, it is just a couple of stops past the Ontario Science Centre.

The Lost Dhow show runs through late April.  I thought it was definitely worth seeing, particularly if you are interested in anything vaguely related to archeology or in particular in the Silk Route.  I think my favourite part, aside from a few gold objects was the large number of bowls for trade. Apparently, there were 57,000 bowls mass-produced in China, though the interiors were individually decorated.  How little actually changes over the years.  By that I mean that trade and "globalization" is nothing new, though certainly the scope and impact of global trade has increased dramatically since the early 1900s.

The dhow itself ran aground off the coast of Indonesia roughly 1000 years ago, during the Tang Dynasty in China.  There is speculation that since the waters there (at the time) were quite shallow, the crew not only escaped but took the majority of silk and spices with them.  What is unclear is why they never returned for the rest of the cargo later.  The wreck was discovered in 1998 and has been carefully excavated and put into the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore.  This marks the first time that any of the cargo has been on tour in North America, though it is possible that it will travel south later on.  As I said, it is worth seeing if in the area between now and late April.

The rest of the museum is nice, though I would say less spectacular than the Islamic collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.  There is an interview with the curator, describing how he is intentionally focusing on everyday objects and deglamourizing them to some extent.  There is something to that approach, but the entrance fee is on the high side, and people may expect to be "wowed" after they have paid it.  I guess I'll see if this style catches on.  It is good that coat checking is free at least.  Also, there is a small pastry bar in the lobby with amazing (and very reasonably priced) baklava for sale.  Probably a good thing that I don't live right next door after all...

There is only one rug on display in the permanent collection, though it is very prominently featured.

Without a lot of editorializing, I'll just include a number of the other objects that caught my eye.

 

Not surprisingly, they had several Qurans on display.  I thought this was probably the most attractive of the bunch.

Now what was surprising is that they had quite a few artworks with images of animals and even people.  It is an understatement to say that figurative art is not very common in Islamic art, but there were clearly some exceptions in some cultures.  I thought this page from a manuscript was particularly intriguing (sorry for all the camera glare).

This isn't a museum I will go to on a regular basis, but it had some very nice pieces in the permanent collection, so it certainly worth a look in from time to time if one likes Islamic art.  I'll probably make a point of checking out the special exhibits or if they are putting on an interesting concert before I make another trip out there.  The architecture, particularly seen from the inside, is nice, and I'll put together another post on that shortly.