On National Violin Day, listen to our recording of violinist L. Subramaniam in concert. He is a giant in both Indian classical music and the music world at large, with an international career spanning thirty years.
Freer|Sackler
Official Tumblr of the Smithsonian's museum of Asian art.si.edu/termsofuse
Today is International Mountain Day, and this year’s theme celebrates people who live in the mountains. We do the same with this album leaf, titled Mountain Dwelling, by Chinese artist Pu Ru (1895–1963).
Curator Lee Glazer recalls the squabble over Whistler’s Peacock Room in “Butting Heads,” the latest episode of @smithsonian‘s Sidedoor podcast.
“In an exceptional year for art in Washington, this survey of hand-copied Qurans at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is a standout.” —The New York Times on The Art of the Qur’an
“In one Quran, that asterisk looks like an eyelash; it directs the reader to look for the missing verse on the edge of the page. In another, the writer corrected a wrong word by covering it with gold. ‘It’s the gold white out,’ Farhad says.” — @npr (and chief curator Massumeh Farhad)
#Reposting @blainsouthern with @instarepost_app – Morning light in Washington DC glimmering off of #MichaelJoo’s painting ‘Collective,’ included in his new installation made for the Smithsonian’s Freer Sackler galleries. #regram @freersackler #MichaelJoo #FreerSackler #conceptualart #Smithsonian #painting
Costly paper, finely tooled bindings, special scripts, and intricate illumination are among the characteristics that distinguish the #manuscripts in “The Art of the Qur’an.” Tomorrow through Saturday, a #symposium investigates the materiality of luxury copies of the Qur’an made between the eighth and the seventeenth century from Herat to Istanbul. Learn about the complex and layered significance these Qur’ans acquired as they changed ownership. Speakers examine the volumes in their historical, cultural, and artistic contexts and discuss their use as potent symbols of piety and political and religious authority.
The Word Illuminated: Form and Function of Qur’anic Manuscripts is organized in conjunction with #artofquran and is made possible in part through the support of the El-Hibri Foundation. asia.si.edu/artofquran
Bring the art of the Qur’an to your iPad. Our new (and free!) app allows you to turn the pages of a selection of works, getting a closer look at the calligraphy and illumination while learning about the manuscripts’ history.
December 4: Get a fresh take on James McNeill Whistler’s Peacock Room from artist Darren Waterston and musicians Amy Ziff, Elizabeth Ziff, and Alyson Palmer, together known as BETTY. They revisit the rewards and challenges of their collaboration on the sound element for Waterston’s installation Filthy Lucre, part of the exhibition Peacock Room REMIX. The artist and musicians also connect Filthy Lucre to Whistler’s work and examine historical examples of inspiration across art and music.
Hear BETTY perform their soundscape at 12 and 1 pm, and then participate in an informal conversation with Waterston and BETTY at 3 pm.