Islamic Design: the Ultimate Abstract Art
In my last post, I discussed Jack Levine, an artist who has specialized in representational, figurative art. Western taste tends to gravitate towards recognizable imagery (Rothko and the like aside). Yet taken to extremes, art that is too realistic can be the kiss of death for good taste and creativity. Two words: Thomas Kinkade.
So it's refreshing to shift attention to a very different kind of art, one where abstraction and pattern are supreme and the written word becomes part of the imagery.
From the L.A. County Museum of Art's website:
Calligraphy is the most important and pervasive element in Islamic art. It has always been considered the noblest form of art because of its association with the Qur’an, the Muslim holy book, which is written in Arabic. This preoccupation with beautiful writing extended to all arts — including secular manuscripts; inscriptions on palaces; and those applied to metalwork, pottery, stone, glass, wood, and textiles — and to non-Arabic-speaking peoples within the Islamic commonwealth whose languages — such as Persian, Turkish, and Urdu — were written in the Arabic script.Another characteristic of Islamic art is a preference for covering surfaces with patterns composed of geometric or vegetal elements. Complex geometric designs, as well as intricate patterns of vegetal ornament (such as the arabesque), create the impression of unending repetition, which is believed by some to be an inducement to contemplate the infinite nature of God. This type of nonrepresentational decoration may have been developed to such a high degree in Islamic art because of the absence of figural imagery, at least within a religious context.
Contrary to a popular misconception, however, figural imagery is an important aspect of Islamic art. Such images occur primarily in secular and especially courtly arts and appear in a wide variety of media and in most periods and places in which Islam flourished. It is important to note, nevertheless, that representational imagery is almost invariably restricted to a private context. Figurative art is excluded from the decoration of religious monuments. This absence may be attributed to an Islamic antipathy toward anything that might be mistaken for idols or idolatry, which are explicitly forbidden by the Qur’an.
To me, there's something very visually soothing about these works — but exciting too. And somehow, the colors and patterns seem timeless — I'd be hard-pressed to say whether a given piece was created 1200 years ago or last week.
Learn more about Islamic art from: