Reconsidered

AFTER ONE HUNDRED YEARS:
THE 1910 EXHIBITION "MEISTERWERKE MUHAMMEDANISCHER KUNST" RECONSIDERED

Panel Discussion and International Conference

Munich, 23-25 October 2008

The exhibition "Meisterwerke muhammedanischer Kunst" held in Munich in 1910
was one of the most comprehensive and most important exhibitions on Islamic
Art in Europe. The impetus that propelled it was given by the Prince Regent
of Bavaria, Luitpold. His interest in displaying the superb Persian carpets
of the treasury of the House of Wittelsbach in Munich ended up in the
mammoth show of 1910 with 3.600 artefacts. The director of the exhibition
committee, Hugo von Tschudi, and the academic experts involved in forming
the concept and its realisation - among them Friedrich Sarre, Ernst Kühnel,
Max von Berchem, F.R. Martin, and Ernst Dietz - aimed at endowing Islamic
art "a place equal to that of other cultural periods". It is generally
accepted that this exhibition gave a new impulse to the reception of Islamic
art in the West and was therefore a turning point in the so-far
orientalist‹ view of and romantic passion for Muslim art and culture.

PANEL DISCUSSION

Changing Views.
Islamic Art - A Matter of Definition?

with
Catherine David (Paris)
Salah M. Hassan (Cornell University, USA)
Avinoam Shalem (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and Kunsthistorisches
Institut in Florenz)
Gerhard Wolf (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz)

Date:
October 23, 2008, at 20.00 h

Venue:
Haus der Kunst
Prinzregentenstr. 1
80538 München

Today, almost 100 years after the path-breaking exhibition "Meisterwerke
muhammedanischer Kunst", we are more than ever faced with the question
whether the Islamic world and its arts can be regarded as homogeneous and
monolithic. Is there a "common spirit", as the curators of the 1910
exhibition assumed? And if there is, of what does it consist? Are we freed
of the stereotypes concerning Islamic art? Do we regard oriental art and
culture on an equal level with that given to the arts of the west? To what
extent do we have to modify the concept of "we" and "the other" in today's
globalized world, in which Islam has become a component of western
societies? - This and further questions will be in the focus of this panel
discussion.

Co-organized by
Haus der Kunst München
Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

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INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

After One Hundred Years: The 1910 Exhibition “Meisterwerke
muhammedanischer Kunst” Reconsidered

Concept and Organization:
Prof. Avinoam Shalem Ph.D. and Dr. Andrea Lermer Institute of Art History
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

Date:
October 24-25, 2008

Venue:
Internationales Begegnungszentrum der Wissenschaft München e.V. (IBZ)
Amalienstraße 38
D-80799 Munich

With the celebration of 100 years of "Meisterwerke muhammedanischer Kunst"
in 2010, several museums in Munich as well as the Bavarian State Library in
this city are going to organise a series of exhibitions on Islamic art,
architecture and culture, all to be held in 2010. Forming part of the
preparation for these events, the conference in October 2008 aims at
shedding new light on aspects concerning the historical context of the
exhibition in 1910, its organisation, realisation and particular display,
its reception in the West and its influence on the study of Islamic art in
general.

Program

Friday, October 24, 2008

9.00 h
Registration

9.15 h
Introduction

I. The exhibition

9.30 h
David J. Roxburgh, Cambridge, Mass.
"Against fairytale splendor": The Exhibition "Meisterwerke muhammedanischer
Kunst", Munich 1910, in Historical Perspective

10.00 h
Eva-Maria Troelenberg, Munich
History within: The Object as an Agent, the Exhibition as a Narrative?

10.30 h
Discussion

11.00 h
Break

11.30 h
Jens Kröger, Berlin
Ernst Kühnel, the 1910 Exhibition "Meisterwerke muhammedanischer Kunst" and
the Field of Islamic Art

12.00 h
Claus-Peter Haase, Berlin
Arabic Calligraphy for Non-Arabic Readers: Examples of Aesthetic Choices in
the Art of Writing

12.30 h
Discussion

13.00 h
Lunch break

II. The Context

14.30 h
Robert Hillenbrand, Edinburgh
Islamic Art History before 1914: Franco-German Rivalry

15.00 h
Stephen Vernoit, Tangier
Hispano-Moresque Art in European Collections, c. 1910

15.30 h
Discussion

16.00 h
Break

16.30 h
Ebba Koch and Amely Haslauer, Vienna
Islamic Art in Vienna around 1900 and the Munich Exhibition "Meisterwerke
muhammedanischer Kunst" of 1910

17.00 h
Discussion

Saturday, October 25, 2008

9.30 h
Klaus Kreiser, Berlin
Bayern zwischen Fez und Pickelhaube

10.00 h
Joachim Kaak, Munich
Hugo von Tschudi, die Ausstellung von "Meisterwerken muhammedanischer Kunst"
und die Moderne

10.30 h
Discussion

11.00 h
break

III. The Impact

11.30 h
Annette Hagedorn, Berlin
Der Einfluß der Ausstellung "Meisterwerke muhammedanischer Kunst" auf die
zeitgenössische Kunst

12.00 h
Discussion

12.30 h
Lunch break

14.00 h
Lorenz Korn, Bamberg
"Meisterwerke muhammedanischer Kunst" - Highlights of Persian Art in the
Munich Exhibition and Its Aftermath

14.30 h
Steffen Krämer, Munich
Le Corbusier and the "Voyage d'Orient" 1911: Influences of Islamic
Architecture on his Work in the Era of Classical Modernism

15.00 h
Discussion

15.30 h
Break

16.00 h
Doris Behrens Abouseif, London
Import of the Ideology of Style

16.30 h
Final Discussion

Contact:
avinoam.shalemlrz.uni-muenchen.de
andrea.lermerlrz.uni-muenchen.de
www.kunstgeschichte.uni-muenchen.de

The conference has been made possible by the generous support of:
Freundeskreis des Instituts für Kunstgeschichte der Universität München e.V.
Kulturreferat der Landeshauptstadt München
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz - Max-Planck-Institut
Münchener Universitätsgesellschaft. Gesellschaft von Freunden und Förderern
der Universität München e.V.