The British Museum, Shah 'Abbas pageIf it is of interest to anyone I went to see the exhibition Shah 'Abbas, The Remaking of Iran at the British Museum during the week. I won't do a proper review of it but for anyone thinking of going here are a couple of thoughts that might be worth noting.
I had tickets booked for Friday at 3.30pm and it was virtually empty. I don't know whether that means that it was a good time and day for visiting or that the exhibition is regularly empty, but it was lovely to have all the space and time to look at individual objects without feeling pressured to move on. Quite unlike the Babylon exhibition at the BM, which was chaos!
The exhibition is held in the Reading Room, so it all takes place under a vast ornamented dome, which is quite dizzying when you stop to look at it - quite a treat in its own right!
The exhibition focuses mainly on religious themes, and only touches very lightly on secular Persia. The signage makes mention of the expansionist policies and trade of Shah 'Abbas but the items on display are almost exclusively from shrines and mosques. There is no weoponary, for example. Exceptions are portraits of Robert Sherley and his Circassian wife, and some very fine carpets.
The information boards were informative but in a slightly odd order. Some of the information that would have been useful to have had up front was only delivered quite a long way into the exhibition. You can download them in advance in PDF format, pages 4-8 (2mb) from the British Museum's website (part of a teaching resources document which also has many other tips and suggestions for teachers). It is a minor criticism though. The information was good, explaining all aspects of the Shah's reign together with the differences between the Shia and Sunni forms of Islam, and how the formalization of Persia's Shia beliefs gave it a distinct identity.
Shah 'Abbas hired and imported calligraphers, artsits, artisans, carpet makers and specialist traders. Trade was centrally important to Persia and there is a good collection of Chinese ceramics in the exhibition, a nice collection of European coins, but very little from India.
Identity was one of the recurring themes of the exhibition. Shah 'Abbas promoted the idea of establishing a "brand" for his reign in terms of the specific display of artistic motifs and the development of new artistic traditions. There were a lot of objects on display which highlighted this point.
Coins did not feature images of leaders, and portrait sculpture was not a Persian tradition, so the Shah promoted himself via grandiose contributions to shrines, and by moving among his people on his travels. As a result there is not a profusion of images of Shah 'Abbas but those that do exist show him with a vast turban, characteristic moustache and an intelligent, serious face.
The objects selected were all very beautiful and very well displayed and the labels were informative. The importance of the fabulous building projects under Shah 'Abbas were conveyed in huge images in a slide show which is projected onto opposite walls in a gallery with seating. This gives a really good sense of colour, skilled craftsmanship and scale. At the end of the exhibition there is a short film about the impact of history on modern Iran. An audio guide was available but I didn't take one.
It took us over an hour to see the exhibition. It was sincerely enjoyable and I shall be going back for another visit before it closes on June 14th 2009.
I bought the DVD that accompanies the exhibition and enjoyed that too. It was much better than the exhibition at showing the relationship between the secular and religious, and therefore complemented the exhibition very nicely.
There's a short video introduction to the exhibition online at the above address showing some of the objects from the exhibition and footage from the DVD.
I had tickets booked for Friday at 3.30pm and it was virtually empty. I don't know whether that means that it was a good time and day for visiting or that the exhibition is regularly empty, but it was lovely to have all the space and time to look at individual objects without feeling pressured to move on. Quite unlike the Babylon exhibition at the BM, which was chaos!
The exhibition is held in the Reading Room, so it all takes place under a vast ornamented dome, which is quite dizzying when you stop to look at it - quite a treat in its own right!
The exhibition focuses mainly on religious themes, and only touches very lightly on secular Persia. The signage makes mention of the expansionist policies and trade of Shah 'Abbas but the items on display are almost exclusively from shrines and mosques. There is no weoponary, for example. Exceptions are portraits of Robert Sherley and his Circassian wife, and some very fine carpets.
The information boards were informative but in a slightly odd order. Some of the information that would have been useful to have had up front was only delivered quite a long way into the exhibition. You can download them in advance in PDF format, pages 4-8 (2mb) from the British Museum's website (part of a teaching resources document which also has many other tips and suggestions for teachers). It is a minor criticism though. The information was good, explaining all aspects of the Shah's reign together with the differences between the Shia and Sunni forms of Islam, and how the formalization of Persia's Shia beliefs gave it a distinct identity.
Shah 'Abbas hired and imported calligraphers, artsits, artisans, carpet makers and specialist traders. Trade was centrally important to Persia and there is a good collection of Chinese ceramics in the exhibition, a nice collection of European coins, but very little from India.
Identity was one of the recurring themes of the exhibition. Shah 'Abbas promoted the idea of establishing a "brand" for his reign in terms of the specific display of artistic motifs and the development of new artistic traditions. There were a lot of objects on display which highlighted this point.
Coins did not feature images of leaders, and portrait sculpture was not a Persian tradition, so the Shah promoted himself via grandiose contributions to shrines, and by moving among his people on his travels. As a result there is not a profusion of images of Shah 'Abbas but those that do exist show him with a vast turban, characteristic moustache and an intelligent, serious face.
The objects selected were all very beautiful and very well displayed and the labels were informative. The importance of the fabulous building projects under Shah 'Abbas were conveyed in huge images in a slide show which is projected onto opposite walls in a gallery with seating. This gives a really good sense of colour, skilled craftsmanship and scale. At the end of the exhibition there is a short film about the impact of history on modern Iran. An audio guide was available but I didn't take one.
It took us over an hour to see the exhibition. It was sincerely enjoyable and I shall be going back for another visit before it closes on June 14th 2009.
I bought the DVD that accompanies the exhibition and enjoyed that too. It was much better than the exhibition at showing the relationship between the secular and religious, and therefore complemented the exhibition very nicely.
There's a short video introduction to the exhibition online at the above address showing some of the objects from the exhibition and footage from the DVD.
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