Stefan Weber - Berlin Museum

Aleppo room

Ishtar gate

Stefan Weber, orientalist and director of the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin, Germany, gave a lecture in Kuwait at the Dar al Athar al Islamiyah. The title was obscure:" Fragments of a lost Past or evidence of a connected History: the role of urban artistic heritage in the new conceptualization of the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin".
It sounded convoluted, introverted study of unknown objectives.

Dr Weber pulled it off quite nicely and gave a historical perspective of the museum itself, with dynamics and thought process behind it in the 1920's and the 1930's. He explained the evolution and reasons behind a museum and the evolution of objects' presentations. As the museum is expanding in another wing, he shared briefly the process of making a new space.

He talked about how historically objects and architecture were not isolated but interconnected through time, space and in relation to global trade and movement of artisans. He referred to what Yuka Kadoi was lecturing on few weeks ago: "the Islamic Chinoiserie"or how China influenced Iran in productions of art and objects. But he had a more assertive tone and did not seem to question at all the evidences. He showed the phoenix and the dragon, symbols in China, on metalwork produced in Iran. For him, it could have been imported as a symbol, but after a generation, it was totally integrated in the culture and fashion thus becoming part of the local consciousness.

It seems like a new trend to integrate art history in a context and expand it, rather than isolate objects and art history in its own frame.

In the new Museum, he explained that objects will be displayed according to three parameters: of course chronologically, then geographically, and last, in relation to how and where these objects were used.

Have you been to the Islamic Art Museum in Berlin? Hurry then! They have treasures, and they have directors passionate about their work.
Dr Weber said:"When I got my job at the Museum, I was so happy I could see the Aleppo room and all its woodwork at all times, it's my favorite..."

Basquiat at the Museum of modern art in Paris

photos by the Museum of Modern Art, Paris

Museum of Modern art in Paris is showing a retrospective of works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, of haitian and porto rican descent, who lived in New York in the Golden Age of clubbing, graffiti, street art, and pushing limits.
He became a star of the wild expressionism or "neo-expressionism" wave that countered the minimalism and conceptual art in the USA.
Prolific in his works, as if constantly urged to produce, he never doubted his being as an artist. He did not bend into a style or a trend. He just painted in the rawest manner, without obvious skills.
it came out unrestrained, spontaneous.
Subjects were deep, painful, violent.
He started as a graffiti artist in the streets of New York signing under the name of SAMO (same old shit). Galleries recognized his potential, collectors started buying.
He made a collective work with Andy Warhol, the association produced interesting pieces. Although they shared a lot of similarities, Warhol had a plastic aesthetic side to his work that did not necessarily match the violent, naked self expression of Basquiat.
He died at 28 years old.
Short existence for an artist.
But the retrospective is a great overview of his work.
If you're in Paris by the 30th jan 2011, don't miss the show.

link to the Museum of Modern Art

Qatar Islamic Museum

The Islamic Museum in Qatar opened in November 2008. I.M. Pei designed the building. He researched about Islamic architecture, he then came up with a concept in relation with light.
Built on a man made island, an offshoot of the Corniche, the museum has a feel of non ostentatious, simple without gold and gaudy attributes. With a ramp to access, the scale and location gives an impression of small then bigger as one comes closer. Lines, light, basic elements are put together to produce a balance.
Pei played with light as if he mastered the source. The outer shell is multifaceted to encourage games of shadows without trivial tricks of color. On the top, he thought of an opening in the central dome to invite the light within and move as the earth rotates around the sun. He used simple geometrical forms, cubes, triangles. His choice of stones and glass are unified to transcend the material and be struck by the contrast and the creativity.
It surely worth the visit if ever in Qatar.

Link to the Museum