The title of this Symposium is God Is Beautiful; He Loves Beauty: The Object in Islamic Art and Culture, and the keynote address was given by Paul Goldberger, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author for The New Yorker, who discussed the Museum building as a work of Islamic art.

The following speakers read their papers today:

Rachel Ward: The Doha Bucket and an Experimental Glass Workshop(to be read by Jonathan Bloom)

Michael Franses: New Light on Early Anatolian Animal Carpets

Mohamed Zakariya: Murakkaa: The Ottoman Calligraphic Album and Its Role in Establishing the International Style

John Seyller: Assembled Beauty: Five Folios from the Jahangir Album

Eleanor Sims: 17^th-Century Safavid Persian Oil Paintings in the Museum of Islamic Art

The title of this Symposium is God Is Beautiful; He Loves Beauty: The Object in Islamic Art and Culture, and the keynote address was given by Paul Goldberger, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author for The New Yorker, who discussed the Museum building as a work of Islamic art.

The following speakers read their papers today:

François Déroche: Of Volume and Skins

Julia Gonnella: The Stucco of Samarra

Antonio Vallejo Triano: Architectural Decoration in the Umayyad Caliphate of al-Andalus: The example of Madinat al-Zahra

Emilie Savage-Smith: The Stars in the Bright Sky: The Most Authoritative Copy of ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi’s 10th-century Guide to the Constellations

Ruba Kana’an: A Biography of a 13th-century Brass Ewer: the Social and Economic Lives of Mosul Metalwork

Kjeld von Folsach: As Precious as Gold – Some Woven Textiles from the Mongol Period

Here are images from today’s events:

Images © Markus Elblaus, VCUQatar

The title of this Symposium is God Is Beautiful; He Loves Beauty: The Object in Islamic Art and Culture, and the keynote address was given by Paul Goldberger, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author for The New Yorker, who discussed the Museum building as a work of Islamic art.

Paul Goldberger, the Architecture Critic for The New Yorker and the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at The New School in New York City, will give the keynote address on Saturday, October 29 at 6pm at the Museum.  It is titled, Islamic Architecture, Modernism, and I.M. Pei: The Challenge of the Museum of Islamic Art, and promises to be an incisive look at the architecture of the museum and its relationship to both modernism and to traditional Islamic architecture.  On October 30 and 31, twelve speakers will present original papers on objects held by the Museum of Islamic Art, spanning the principal media, periods and regions of Islamic art from its origins to the present.  Please see the Symposium schedule for a complete list of speakers’ names and paper summaries.

One of our speakers, the famed calligrapher Mohamed Zakariya, will also be the subject of an exhibition at the Museum of Islamic Art during the Symposium.  An Eloquent Eye: Recent Works by Mohamed Zakariya, will run from October 24, 2011 through January 13, 2012.  Mr. Zakariya has also created a new design for the Eid Greetings stamp, issued by the U.S. Postal Service this past August (see his 2009 design here).  Symposium attendees will have a tremendous opportunity to hear Mr. Zakariya give a presentation on the history of Ottoman calligraphy, and then see his recent work in the Museum galleries.

If you do intend to come to the Symposium, please remember that registration is free and open to the public, but space is limited so early registration is suggested.  As always, please feel free to direct any questions or comments to me at the below email address (please do not respond to this address as it is for outgoing communication only).  And thanks again to our sponsors, VCU School of the Arts, VCUQatar, the Qatar Foundation, the Qatar Museums Authority and the Museum of Islamic Art for the generous funding that makes this Symposium possible.

Best Wishes,

Marisa Angell Brown
Coordinator
Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art
mabrown@vcu.edu

We received approximately 200 fellowship applications for the 20 available Hamad bin Khalifa Travel Fellowships, which cover the cost of round-trip travel to Doha as well as lodging and meals during the Symposium.  We’re happy to announce that the following applicants have been awarded travel fellowships:

• Abdul Lateef Usta, conservator, Rajasthan, India;
• Adel Adamova, curator of Islamic Art in the Oriental Department of the State Hermitage Museum, St.Petersburg, Russia
• Ahmed Wahby, Lecturer, The German University in Cairo;
• Alexandra Van Puyvelde, museologist and scientific collaborator at the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels;
• Elizabeth Ettinghausen, Independent Scholar, Princeton, New Jersey;
• Emily Neumeier, PhD candidate in the Department of the History of Art at the University of Pennsylvania;
• Fernando Martinez-Nespral, Professor of the History of Architecture and Associate Professor of Islamic and Mudejar Art at the University of Buenos Aires´s School of Architecture;
• Filiz Yenisehirlioglu, Faculty of Fine Arts, Başkent University, Turkey;
• Khaled Tadmori, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Fine Arts and Architecture, Lebanese University;
• Laura Parodi, Fellow, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, MIT and Harvard University;
• Mahnaz Shayestehfar, Faculty of Art, Tarbiat Modarres University, Iran;
• Nourane Ben Azzouna, Assistant Curator, Louvre Abu Dhabi;
• Peter Wandel, Assistant Curator, The David Collection, Copenhagen;
• Rebecca Bridgman, Curator of the Islamic Pottery collection, The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge;
• Said Ennahid, Associate Professor, Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane, Morocco;
• Sandra Aube, Postdoctoral Researcher and Lecturer on Islamic Art;
• Simon O’Meara, material culture research fellow of the European Research Council-funded project, “The Here and the Hereafter in Islamic Traditions,” hosted by the University of Utrecht;
• Simon Rettig, Fellow at the Freie Universität Berlin in the research project Kosmos/Ornatus. Ornamente als Erkenntnisformen Persien und Frankreich im Vergleich;
• Vivienne Angeles, Associate Professor of Religion, La Salle University, Philadelphia.
• Wafaa Zeinalabidin, Lecturer, University of Mosul, Iraq.

The Fellows make up an impressive cross-section of scholars and curators in the field of Islamic art and culture and will no doubt add tremendously to the Symposium.

We hope that you will be able to attend the Symposium in October as well.  To see updated information on the speakers and their paper topics, please visit our website, www.islamicartdoha.org.  And please remember that registration is free and open to the public, but space is limited so early registration is suggested.  As always, please feel free to direct any questions or comments to me at the below email address (please do not respond to this address as it is for outgoing communication only).

And thanks again to our sponsors, VCU School of the Arts, VCUQatar, the Qatar Foundation, the Qatar Museums Authority and the Museum of Islamic Art for the generous funding that makes this Symposium – and the fellowships – possible.

Best Wishes,

Marisa Angell Brown
Coordinator
Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art
mabrown@vcu.edu

We write with several items of news. The Symposium, titled God Is Beautiful; He Loves Beauty: The Object in Islamic Art and Culture will be held at the new Museum of Islamic Art (designed by I.M. Pei) October 29-31, 2011 in Doha, Qatar. The keynote speaker will be Paul Goldberger, the Pulitzer-Prize winning architecture critic and writer for the New Yorker, who will discuss the Museum building as a work of Islamic art on Saturday, October 29, 2011.

On Sunday, October 30 and Monday, October 31, 2011, twelve speakers will present original papers on objects in the Museum’s collection. The speakers include:

• Aisha Al Khater, Deputy Director of the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha;
• François Deroche, Directeur d’études, École pratique des hautes études, Section des sciences historiques et philologiques, Paris;
• Kjeld von Folsach, Director of the David Collection in Copenhagen;
• Michael Franses, independent scholar;
• Aimée Froom, independent scholar;
• Julia Gonnella, Curator at the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin;
• Emilie Savage-Smith, Senior Research Consultant at the Bodleian Library, Oxford;
• John Seyller, Professor of Art History at the University of Vermont;
• Eleanor Sims, Editor of Islamic Art;
• Antonio Vallejo Triano, Curator of Cultural Heritage, Junta de Andalucía and Director of the archaeological site of Madinat al-Zahra;
• Rachel Ward, independent scholar;
• Mohamed Zakariya, renowned calligrapher.

On-line registration for the Symposium is now available at our website, www.islamicartdoha.org – please note that the Symposium is free and open to the public, but that space is limited so early registration is suggested. The website contains information on travel, visas and lodging as well (all attendees are responsible for booking their own travel).

In addition, please be aware that we will again be offering Hamad bin Khalifa Travel Fellowships to provide financial support to 15 junior and senior scholars who wish to attend God is Beautiful; He Loves Beauty. Fellowships will cover the cost of round-trip travel to Doha as well as lodging and meals during the Symposium. Fellows will also be invited to attend special events such as receptions and excursions, will be awarded a Hamad bin Khalifa Fellowship certificate, and will receive copies of the proceedings of the Third Biennial Symposium, And Diverse Are Their Hues: Color in Islamic Art and Culture, held in 2009, and the Fourth Biennial Symposium, held in Doha. Applications are available on our website, www.islamicartdoha.org; please note that the application deadline is February 1, 2011, and that fellowship recipients will be contacted by May 1, 2011.

As always, please feel free to direct any questions or comments to me at the below email address (please do not respond to this address as it is for outgoing communication only).

Best Wishes,

Marisa Angell Brown
Coordinator
Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art
mabrown@vcu.edu