Introduction Geometry is to the plastic arts as grammar is to the art of the writer. — Guillaume Apollinaire1 When (a man) is internally free from affliction, the writing is good. . . . The sage Plato says: ‘Writing is the geometry of the soul, and it manifests itself by the means of the organs of the body.’ — Qadi Ahmad2 This thesis could best be described as a process of discovery and challenge. I began with an interest in contemporary Islamic art, only to discover that “contemporary Islamic art” was essentially an oxymoron within the discourse. Artists who are Muslim and who are, even at first glance, clearly thinking in religious terms are referred to as “contemporary Middle Eastern artists,” “contemporary African artists,” or referred to by their nationality.3 The descriptions of artists and their work are highly secular. Yet in certain cases descriptions would privilege a Sufi mystical reference over the trend of secular language. Alternatively, my initial research on “Islamic art” found little evidence of work produced after 1800 CE. The categories of Islamic art and contemporary art, then, appeared to be mutually exclusive. It seemed that there are a few possible explanations for this: (1) there is, in fact, no such thing as contemporary Islamic art due to the decline of Islamic art that began in the 1800s (which is to say, during colonialism, at the moment of Islam’s supposed contact with modernity), (2) there is, in fact, no such thing as contemporary 1
Boullata, Kamal, and John Berger. Palestinian Art: From 1850 to the Present. London: Saqi, 2009. 326. 2 Ahmad ibn Mir Munshi, al-Husaini and Vladimir Minorsky. Calligraphers and Painters: A Treatise by Qadi Ahmad, Son of Mir-Munshi (circa AH 1015/CE 1606). Washington: Freer Gallery of Art, 1959. 12/51–2. Qadi Ahmad’s treatise, originally in Persian, was translated from Russian by T. Minorsky. The translated text retains the numbering according to the original folios. When I cite the text I will include first the original numbering and then (separated by a forward slash) the pagination corresponding to the translated text published by the Smithsonian. 3 See for example: Porter, Venetia, and Isabelle Causs´e. Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East. London: British Museum Press, 2006; Sloman, Paul. Contemporary Art in the Middle East. London: Black Dog, 2009; Enwezor, Okwui, and Chika Okeke-Agulu. Contemporary African Art Since 1980. Bologna: Damiani, 2009; and Boullata, Palestinian Art.