What is a context? Islam, objects, and exhibition

Since the 1950s, the exhibition of objects designated as “Islamic art” has been frequently justified through appeals to cross cultural communication. This talk will explore the pitfalls and possibilities of this model of exhibitionary diplomacy through real examples and unrealized potential strategies. In doing so, it will explore the distinctions between information, knowledge, and wisdom at the core of the museum as a public educational institution.

Professor Wendy M. K. Shaw (Ph.D. UCLA, 1999) has served as a professor in the United States, Turkey, Switzerland, and Germany. She researches postcolonial art historiography and decolonial art history of the Islamic world and the modern Middle East. She is author of Possessors and Possessed: Museums, Archaeology, and the Visualization of History in the Late Ottoman Empire (University of California Press, 2003), Osmanlı Müzeleri (İletişim Yayınları, 2006), Ottoman Painting: Reflections of Western Art from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic (IB Tauris, 2011), What is “Islamic” Art: Between Religion and Perception (Cambridge University Press, 2019, Honorable Mention for the 2020 Albert Hourani Book Award of the Middle East Studies Association and the 2021 Iran Book Award), and Loving Writing (Routledge, 2021).

Tip: Prepare for the lecture with the matching themed tour: A museum packed with gods and goddesses (starts at 5.30 pm).

Duration: 60 min.
The lecture is for free (valid museum ticket required).
Registration online (limited number of participants)
Meeting Point: WMW Forum