Monday, March 1, 1999
Calligraphy draws from religion, art
CULTURE: Museum exhibit celebrates Islamic tradition behind
elegant collection
By Megan Dickerson
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Countering the antiquated notion that a picture is worth a
thousand words, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA),
typically a haven for paintings and other visual works, opened a
new exhibit of alphabetic characters on Friday.
Striping the Prussian blue walls of the museum’s third floor
gallery, over 70 calligraphic works in muted gold ink cover five
centuries of the Islamic art of calligraphy. The collection,
straight from the home of Turkish billionaire Sakip Sabanci, also
provides specimens of writing tools, from bamboo pens to
inkwells.
An exhibit devoted to lettering may seem narrow in focus, but
calligraphy, exhibit curator Linda Komaroff says, is very important
in Islamic countries.
"It is the most significant of all Islamic arts," says Komaroff,
LACMA’s associate curator of Islamic arts.
Calligraphy has long been used as an act of devotion among
devout Muslims because it is through writing that the Koran is
preserved and transmitted. The tilt of a pen, thus, can make a
great difference when trying to convey the word of God. After the
rise of Islam in the seventh century, calligraphers began to
ornately render the Arabic characters in hopes of making the
letters themselves worthy of the prophet Mohammed’s revelation.
Although Arabic script was replaced by a modified version of the
Latin alphabet after the fall of the Ottoman sultanate, a handful
of calligraphers are continuing the tradition in Istanbul. The most
modern works are not represented in the exhibit, but the lineage is
clear.
Sabanci, a businessman who has gained a reputation for his
devotion to the arts, has contributed to the preservation of
pristine representations of calligraphy.
A representative of Sabanci approached Komaroff several years
ago, suggesting that the museum display part of his massive
collection. Sabanci’s collection impressed Komaroff when she flew
to Turkey to examine the pieces, and she soon contacted her
colleagues at the Metropolitan Museum to arrange the shows.
In a whirlwind of scheduling, "Letters in Gold" hit the Met in
December and arrived in Los Angeles last month.
"It was very short notice for an exhibition," Komaroff says.
And observing the fast-paced setup for the first time were six
UCLA students, members of Komaroff’s upper-division seminar, Art
History 127. The group met at LACMA every week for three hours,
watching as Komaroff chose the tone for the exhibit and decided how
to mount the golden letters.
"We got to see the hall before it was painted and then after it
was painted, before they set up the temporary wall, and after,"
third-year art history student Sara Ramezan says.
What Komaroff decided upon was a spacious gallery of blue and
gold. Each scroll or manuscript is mounted to a simple piece of
plate glass in a gold leaf frame. Standard-issue display cases keep
gilt copies of the Koran and other treasures.
The rapid planning took its toll on Komaroff, but she ultimately
found solace in the calligraphy itself, laid out centuries ago to
better praise the word itself.
At the end of a preview speech, Komaroff referred to an
inscription on one of the exercise albums that blossoming
calligraphers used to practice the centuries-old art on. She said
that she took the prayer to heart as she finished the final days of
the installation.
"Lord, make things easy, and do not make them difficult,"
Komaroff read with an air of relief. "O Lord, make everything come
out well."
EXHIBIT: LACMA exhibits "Letters in Gold" through May 9. The
museum is open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from noon to 8 p.m.;
Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and is closed
Wednesdays. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for students with ID.
Free admission is offered on the second Tuesday of every month.
Call (323) 857-6000 for more information.
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