Last year, after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, the Frick Pittsburgh postponed its exhibit “Treasured Ornament: 10 Centuries of Islamic Art.”
The move puzzled many: The museum acknowledged no one had complained about the exhibit, whose historic artwork was not directly linked to current political conflicts. Meanwhile, some observers said the postponement risked conflating all Islamic culture with terrorism.
For its part, the Frick said it delayed the opening in order to retool the exhibit by providing better historic context and more local connections and programming. Now, it says, it’s done just that.
After months of working with scholars and community partners, the Frick finally opens “Treasured Ornament” on Sat., Aug. 17.
The same 43 finely crafted ceramic and metal vessels, textiles, weaponry and more spanning centuries, from the Middle East and beyond, will be on display as were originally planned: a glass bottle from the 7th or 8th century, a lamp from what’s now Iran from the 12th or 13th.
Many of the items were created not as decorative art but as household objects — bowls, dishes, prayer rugs — and even scientific instruments, like an astrolabe, on which a great deal of craft was exercised. Now, the Frick said, they’ll be accompanied by more thoughtful signage and a series of programs that includes live music, art-making and even calligraphy workshops.
“The biggest change that we have made is to slow down and be more intentional with our exhibition text,” said Dawn Brean, the Frick’s chief curator.
The show has an unusual provenance. All the objects on display — save one from the Frick’s own collection — were drawn from some 400 pieces in the Touma Near Eastern Collection at West Virginia’s Huntington Museum of Art. That collection originated with Joseph and Omayma Touma, who amassed the items after emigrating to the U.S. from Syria in the 1960s and later donated them to the Huntington.
The exhibition was curated by the Huntington’s Christopher Hatten, with Brean overseeing the Pittsburgh presentation. The reboot had help from two University of Pittsburgh professors, history of art and architecture Sahar S. Hosseini and Yasmine Flodin-Ali, who studies modern Islam and race.
Brean said the additional work helped bring home the show’s limitations as well as its value.
She called “Islamic art” itself “a very imperfect term” because it might mean art produced in a society under Muslim rule, or in a society where Muslims constituted a majority. And because Islam is so widely practiced, the objects might have originated anywhere from Spain and Northern Africa to the Middle East or Indonesia.
Indeed, Fodin-Ali notes, many of the objects served no religious function.
“One of my favorite objects in the show is a small silver bowl from the sixth century, which actually predates Islam,” said Brean.
The time span covered is another complication, said Fodin-Ali.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for the general public to learn more about Islam and Muslims, but it is ten centuries of art, and you would never see that with, like, European art,” she said.
Brean said the show is “leaning into the fact that this is not a comprehensive overview, [but one] that really just scratches the surface of what can be considered Islamic art.”
“We really hope that visitors have the opportunity to see and appreciate these kind of objects that aren’t typically seen in the Pittsburgh region, and we hope they bring their curiosity with them and that they leave wanting to learn a little bit more,” Brean added.
Ways to learn more include additional programming around the exhibit, including guided tours at 2 p.m. Thursdays and Saturdays from Aug. 22 through the show’s Oct. 20 end date.
Live music includes a performance by Ishtar Vintage Bellydance Band (Aug. 23) and the Carpe Diem String Quartet with Persian santur master Dariush Saghafi (Oct. 19). Sept. 21 and 28 bring calligraphy workshops by Turkish artist Benjamin Aysan.
On Sept. 19, Pittsburgh-based artist and educator Luqmon Abdus-Salaam leads a writing workshop inspired by the exhibit. Oct. 5 is Treasured Ornament Discovery Day, with free art-making activities led by local artists. And that same night comes a screening of “Grass: A Nation’s Battle,” a 1924 silent film set in Persia (now Iran) with live musical accompaniment by Iranian santur player Mahtab Nadalian.
In addition, thanks to a special arrangement with the Allegheny Regional Asset District, anyone who holds a library card in Allegheny County is eligible to attend “Treasured Ornament” free, for the run of the show, through RAD’s Summer Staycation program.
More information on the exhibit and accompanying programming is here.
