ISLAMIC ART OR THE NEEDLESSNESS OF THE CLASH OF CIVILISATIONS

Yıl 1997, Cilt: 2 Sayı: 3, 0 - 0, 01.09.1997

Selçuk Korkud

Öz

After a recent visit to the Islamic section of the New Louvre and being once again moved by the beauty of its rich collection, in particular by the wonderful luminosity of the İznik tiles—there is a plate there which announces modern painting all by itself, Matisse and other artists. I went to the museum’s bookshop and bought a 1994 French translation of David Talbot Rice’s Islamic Art. This was not a random choice for I knew David T. Rice from his book on Istanbul 1965 which had left a deep impression on me of the author’s sensitivity and objectivity in dealing with different cultures. This impression was deepened even further by his work on Islamic art, which is after all a vast subject unfortunately rather underrated in the West, its impact on Christianity and Western art ignored for a long time. I remember even Bernard Pivot, the French television personality, in his programme on AndrÇ Malraux in his famous series ‘Bouillon de Culture’, was prompted to point out to his audience that the great Malraux was rather “blind” on Islamic art. It is true that, for instance in Malraux’s famous work Les Voix du Silence, apart from a few sentences which are negative rather than positive, there is an absolute silence on L’art de l’Islam. Is it because anti-pagan Islam with its abstract patterns, vivid colours and nearly general anonymity of its artists contrasts so much with the expression of human creativity as understood by Malraux?