28 February 2018
Bahrain National Museum Lecture Sheds Light on Islamic Arts
As part of its educational and enlightening endeavors to spread cultural awareness, coinciding with the 13th edition of Spring of Culture Festival, Bahrain National Museum hosted, on 28 February 2018, a lecture titled “Arts of Islamic Lands : Selections from the al-Sabah Collection” by Prof. Giovanni Curatola, guest curator at the DAI (Dar al-Atthar al-Islamiyya, Kuwait).
The lecture coincides with the current exhibition hosted by the museum, namely “ Al-Fann: Art from the Islamic Civilization from The al-Sabah Collection”, showcasing masterpieces of different Islamic art coming from different geographical locations, different times and creative industries. The exhibition will run until 30 June 2018.
Prof. Giovanni Curatola said that the Islamic arts have a common denominator despite the differences in shape and content. Such a common denominator would have to be meaningful for miniature painting and historiography, for a musical mode and the form of a poem. Thus, the centre of the Islamic artistic tradition lies in calligraphy, a distinguishing feature of this culture, in which the word as the medium of divine revelation plays such an important role. Prof. Curatola also shed light on the impcat of the Islamic civilization on neighboring countries during successive centuries, arguing that Islamic art can be categorized into forms; either simple and attractive, without details and colours, or complex with unique creative ornaments. This diversity, he said, reflects the multiple cultural, ethnic and social customs and traditions of the Islamic world.
Prof. Curatola is an internationally well-known scholar who has curated several exhibitions on Islamic art and written extensively on several aspects of Islam. He holds the chair of “Archaeology and History of Islamic Art”, University of Udine, Italy.
The 13th edition of Spring of Culture Festival coincides this year with celebrations program marking Muharraq as Capital of Islamic Culture 2018 prepared by Bahrain Authority for Culture & Antiquities. This annual event is organized with the Economic Development Board and Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohammad Al Khalifa Center for Culture & Research, in collaboration with Albareh Art Gallery and La Fontaine Gallery. The Spring of Culture Gold sponsors for this year are Batelco, National Bank of Bahrain (NBB), “ Tamkeen” and GFH Financial Group. the festival’s Silver sponsors are Bahrain Aluminum Company ( ALBA), Bahrain Duty Free, Bahrain Gas & Petroleum Company Bapco, Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait (BBK), Gulf Air, Bahrain Airport Company and Huawei. The 13th edition of the Spring of Culture, which will run for two months from February to April 2018, will present an array of colorful and exceptional events and magical evenings that cover everything from archaeology to culture and art, with families to choose between variety of shows and performances by professional artists in various venues across the Kingdom of Bahrain. For more information about the festival’s events, please visit the official website www.springofculture.org
