Spirit & Life
22-Jul-07
I was chatting with my Spanish tutor, Agu, last week about Moorish Spain and the Alhambra, and she mentioned that she had seen an advert for an exhibition in London which had Moorish – and specifically Iberian Moorish – items on show. We agreed to go see it this Saturday just gone. It’s called Spirit & Life, and it’s at the Ismaili Centre in South Ken, until 31st August:
http://www.akdn.org/museums/index.html
We went and checked it out, and there’s a few items from Granada’s Nasrid dynasty… but it’s about so much more than just Moorish art. There’s a huge range of general Islamic stuff from all round the world…. gorgeous scrolls, paintings, vases, scientific texts, a Qu’ran on a huge tapastry (really small writing), stuff from India & China, a page from the Blue Qu’ran. Each item in the collection is painted or carved in amazing detail. As the website says, everything in the collection is extremely rare, and probably won’t be seen in this country again for a long while. The collection is touring Europe… I think it’s off to Germany and France next. It will finally go on permanent display at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada, when the building is complete in 2010.
So if you’re based in London, and you’re into this kind of stuff, then I seriously recommend you go see it whilst you have the chance! It’s brilliant!
