In defence of a remarkable exhibition
The Spirit & Life exhibition
It was rather surprising to find the Spirit & Life exhibition in London dismissed on the Khatt site as just "another Arabic cliché exhibition". In the first place it is not, and nowhere claims to be, an exhibition of Arab(ic) art: its scope is the pre-modern art of the whole Muslim world. Although it includes some very beautiful and important pieces from the Arab world, not least in the realm of calligraphy, it also covers most other Muslim areas, from Turkey to China and S.E.Asia. Neither the catalogue nor anything else in the exhibition asserts that the Muslim world is identical with Arab world, as the reviewer claims.
It is true, however, that this is an historical exhibition, and modern art and design are excluded. It is presented as an exhibition of Islamic art, and this in itself implies an historical approach, since it is questionable whether modern Arab art and design can properly be called "Islamic", although they may draw on Islamic traditions. But the presentation of masterpieces of historic Islamic art, whether in exhibitions or permanent museum displays, cannot reasonably be called a "cliché".
The Spirit and Life show, far from being cliched, contains some remarkably striking and unusual pieces. As well as masterpieces of Qur'anic calligraphy, it includes, for instance, the 11th-century MS of Ibn Sina's great medical work, the Qanun, with its extraordinary title-page design, of which a partial image (but without caption or explanation) appears in the Khatt piece. There is also a fascinating 19th-century Chinese printed book, with Chinese and Arabic printed texts juxtaposed.
But what should be the most interesting item of all for typographers seems to have entirely escaped the Khatt reviewer: an 11th-century document _printed_ in Arabic in the Kufi script, four centuries before Gutenberg.
I strongly recommend this exhibition to anyone interested in Arabic calligraphy, printing and design. Perhaps the reviewer should go and have another look at it.
History vs. Modernity: Our Favorite Debate
We can call the Tate a cliché or we can simply crossover to the other bank and go to the Tate modern. But I guess what the reviewer was referring to was the lack of another bank or even the lack of a bridge altogether.
The real problem lies in the need for patrons. Maybe what is needed are awards similar to the Agha Khan awards for Architecture for Arabic typography and graphic arts.
History will always be there for us to study, admire and feel proud about. It is our job now to create a new Arab visual language for our times. A tough job, but interesting never the less. We are asked to design on machines that were created for a language that moves in another direction to say the least. Our countries do not help. When the Islamic art wing at the Metropolitan was apologetically closed for renovation and extension for the past six months, the Islamic museum in Cairo has been closed for the past six years with little hope of a near reopening date.
Our closest encounter with the mentioned exhibition was a review written in the July-August edition of the Economist. So the debate should not be whether it is a cliché or not. I think we should be quite content that it simply is.