Exhibit displays Islamic book art

A special exhibit at the IU Art Museum puts Islamic book art from the Lilly Library on display, showcasing centuries’ worth of written works.

“From Pen to Printing Press: Ten Centuries of Islamic Book Arts” presents a variety of traditional Islamic writings, including calligraphy, paper marbling, printing, illumination and painting. The exhibit began Friday and runs through May 10 in the art museum’s Special Exhibitions Gallery and is free to the public.

Assistant professor of Islamic art Christiane Gruber, who curated the show along with Curator of Asian Art for the IU Art Museum Judith Stubbs, gave a lecture Friday before the show’s opening reception. Gruber discussed the pieces chronologically to show how Islamic art changed over 10 centuries.

First-year graduate student John Dechant said the exhibit was an excellent way to display materials that spend most of their time in the Lilly Library.

“I like that there’s a fairly wide range of works,” Dechant said. “It’s great that this is at the Lilly Library. It’s very enlightening, and they have very good examples of art.”

The show also included a one-day symposium on Islamic book arts from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, which expanded on Gruber’s opening lecture and the stories behind the works.

The Thomas T. Solley Endowment for the Curator for Asian Art and the IU College Arts and Humanities Institute sponsored the symposium. Director of the College Arts and Humanities Institute Andrea Ciccarelli said the program normally supports exhibits, projects and conferences dealing with artifacts.

“It fits perfect into our guidelines,” he said.

Pieces include copies of the Quran, writing in calligraphy and a marbling that mirrors works by Jackson Pollock. Several of the pieces were words or sayings written in the shapes of objects or animals, such as the expression “In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful” appearing in the shape of a stork.

IU Art Museum Director Adelheid Gealt said the museum has not shown a special exhibit on Islamic art since 1995. She hopes viewers take in the art and appreciate the wide collection of works.

“People should be prepared to be enchanted,” she said. “It’s a rare thing to see this quality of Islamic art in a college art gallery.”