The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Conn., currently hosts Divine Geometry, an exhibition exploring arts in the historical and contemporary Islamic world through paintings, calligraphy, woodwork, and more. Some of the pieces in the exhibit, which have belonged to the museum for approximately a century, are on show for the first time.
WSHU's Eda Uzunlar spoke with museum exhibitions manager and curator Hamid Hemat about the work’s significance, his own connections to the collection, and its prominence during the holy month of Ramadan.
WSHU: We are surrounded by so many beautiful patterns, calligraphic styles, and other artwork. Talk about why this exhibition is important.
HH: It brings me back to my roots, back to Afghanistan. When I came with my director of the museum, he brought me boxes, paper boxes, that belong to the Persian world or Islamic world that have been here for almost more than a century, but it was never tapped. So when I saw those manuscripts, it was a really exciting moment because I was traveling, like, 7,000 miles away from my homeland, and I was here, and I was reading these beautiful manuscripts in Farsi. And it was a beautiful moment. So, for one year, I did all the research. Then we really found amazing stuff that we had in our collection for so long. In our collections, we have a few examples of Islamic art, which were done at the moment that Islamic art was at its highest moment – at the peak. So, we have a few examples of them, the few figurative arts and also the calligraphies here. And, I think we are so lucky in the Wadsworth that we have those rare objects. I proposed for the exhibition and it got approved. And we set up this exhibition.
WSHU: Why does that happen? Sometimes, things are stored for a century or more and it takes a long time for them to come back out,
HH: Specifically speaking about the Wadsworth: probably, whenever Wadsworth acquired these artworks, they never had any curators to know about their history, about their value, about their mediums and probably that would be the reason. So it stays for so long. Whenever they got an opportunity to be reviewed to be researched, we had almost even I can say more than 90% of these manuscripts and objects you see in this exhibition setting.
WSHU: So it sounds like you were pretty important in that process.
HH: Yeah, I feel so happy and proud that basically these arts and these manuscripts are the human inherits. And whenever I'm coming here and seeing people, they are just watching those videos or, more like, focusing on these paintings. It makes me so happy.
WSHU: So we're here during a very holy month in Islam. It's Ramadan. Tell me about the importance of having this exhibition up for that time.
HH: It was so important that the Divine Geometry exhibition was held throughout Ramadan. When we set up the exhibition, we never thought that it would be during Ramadan time, but luckily, it happened during Ramadan. It [was] a perfect opportunity for us to invite people, come together, celebrate together with our Muslim community here. Like, the majority of the people when they come here, and they come to me, I talk with them, and they say, “You know, I've been living in Hartford for almost 20 years and this is my first time coming to the Wadsworth and seeing a piece of art which is so dear to me.” And they say, “We kept these books in our houses.” And they have their translation in different languages in Urdu, in Hindi, in different languages… of these beautiful poems. And now they see the actual one on the wall. It was a beautiful moment.
Divine Geometry will be open at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Conn. through April 13.
