ISLAMIC ART EXHIBIT REVEALS RICH HISTORY
RBPK
Janet Kutner, Dallas Morning News, 4/11/05
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2002236046_islamicar
t11.html
FORT WORTH, Texas - Mention the Middle East and what images flash by?
Violence, war, deprivation.
But the Kimbell Art Museum's dazzling new exhibit reveals a brighter
picture - of times when people of different faiths and ethnic groups lived
in harmony, producing untold riches in the process.
Resplendent relics from the region that includes Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey
and Egypt went on view recently in "Palace and Mosque: Islamic Art From the
Victoria and Albert Museum."
Commonly known as the V&A, the London museum boasts one of the finest
collections of Islamic art outside Cairo or Istanbul. And 100 of its
greatest treasures are touring while the Islamic galleries are being
refurbished. Many are extremely rare, which is why the Kimbell fought to be
one of just three stops on a world tour that started at Washington's
National Gallery of Art and goes to Japan from here.