Dallas Museum of Art Shedding a Light on Islamic Art’s Great Treasure

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Judith H. Dobrzynski

Pages from a gilded Koran, Turkey, 18th century. Image courtesy of Financial Times.

TEXAS---Sabiha Al Khemir was visiting a solar energy plant in Spain about four years ago when inspiration struck. Ms. Al Khemir, 55, recalled. “Light was everywhere.” Immediately, she hit upon the theme of light — and not light as “dhaw,” in Arabic, the visual, physical phenomenon, but rather as “nur,” which has a metaphysical dimension, as in the Quranic phrase “light upon light,” signifying God as the light of the world. That notion, she said, “is a shared metaphor between Christianity, Islam and Judaism.” The exhibition is now moving west after its run at the Focus-Abengoa Foundation in Seville. “Nur: Light in Art and Science,” a wide-ranging presentation of Islamic art, opens March 30 at the Dallas Museum of Art, where Ms. Al Khemir has become a senior adviser. [link]

Dallas Museum of Art: “Nur: Light in Art and Science” (March 30-June 29, 2014); 1717 North Harwood, Dallas, Texas; dallasmuseumofart.org; (214)922-1200.