Ute Franke, Ina Sarikhani Sandmann, Stefan Weber (ed.). Iran. Kunst und Kultur aus fünf Jahrtausenden
Ute Franke, Ina Sarikhani Sandmann, Stefan Weber (ed.). Iran. Kunst und Kultur aus fünf Jahrtausenden (Berlin Exhibition). Munich: Hirmer, 2021, 396 p., 520 ill., ISBN: 978-3-7774-3804-7
Full text
1Epic Iran—an exhibition which took place in London in the summer of 2021 (see review in Abstracta Iranica 44, R5.0, N°2)—subsequently moved to Germany, where it was re-curated as an inter-related yet separate show. Entitled Iran: Five Millennia of Art and Culture, some 360 objects from the Sarikhani Collection in London and the collections of the Berlin State Museums and other Berliner institutions were put on display at the James Simon Gallery (4 December 2021 – 20 March 2022), a new entrance building within the Museum Island (open in 2019). Different from the London version of the exhibition, Iran did not involve any other lenders and did not include contemporary artworks. Another difference lies in the contents of the catalogue. It involves some 20 contributors who provide short chapter essays. Each essay incorporates some of the objects on display, while the catalogue does not have separate object entries (only a list of exhibits, p. 359-391). Among the exhibition highlights are cotton wall hangings (nos. 355-356, featured in page 331, Berlin State Museums – Museum of Islamic Art). A substantial part of the following essays, “The Arrival of the Mongols – Genghis Khan and His Heirs (by Robert Hillenbrand, p. 216-221) and “Mongol Iran – Ceramics and China” (by Oliver Watson, p. 234-245) is drawn on the reviewer’s standard work on this subject, Islamic Chinoiserie: The Art of Mongol Iran (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009/2018), although both essays fail to acknowledge this book as a sources of information and visual comparison, intentionally or unintentionally.
References
Electronic reference
Yuka Kadoi, “Ute Franke, Ina Sarikhani Sandmann, Stefan Weber (ed.). Iran. Kunst und Kultur aus fünf Jahrtausenden”, Abstracta Iranica [Online], Volume 44 | 2022, document 3, Online since 30 December 2022, connection on 05 December 2023. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/abstractairanica/55376; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/abstractairanica.55376
Top of pageCopyright
The text and other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.
Top of page