Calligraphy draws from religion, art

Published: Monday, March 1, 1999

Monday, March 1, 1999

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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