Release Date: July 13, 2004

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART HIGHLIGHTS
ARTISTIC EXCHANGE BETWEEN EUROPE AND THE ISLAMIC WORLD IN CONJUNCTION WITH OPENING OF ISLAMIC ART EXHIBITION

Washington, DC--A touring exhibition of more than 100 works from one of the most renowned Islamic art collections in the world premieres at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, from July 18, 2004, through February 6, 2005. In conjunction with the opening of Palace and Mosque: Islamic Art from the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Gallery will launch a special project, "Artistic Exchange: Europe and the Islamic World." Selected masterpieces in the permanent collection highlight the gift-giving, trade, travel, collecting, and patronage that fostered cross-cultural artistic interchange. A printed brochure and map will guide Gallery visitors to these objects identified by special labels (available August 1). The Gallery's Web site will offer an online exhibition by July 13 at www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2004/artexchange/artexchange_ss.shtm.

"Artistic Exchange: Europe and the Islamic World" was inspired by the book, Bazaar to Piazza: Islamic Trade and Italian Art, 1300-1600, by noted scholar Rosamond Mack, who has been a consultant to the Gallery for this project. Mack will give a lecture about the artistic interchange among these three great cultural spheres, Arts of Splendor: Islamic Luxury Goods in Renaissance Italy, on October 31, 2004, at 2:00 p.m. in the East Building auditorium.

Several of the Gallery's masterpieces reveal evidence of this artistic exchange, such as Giotto's Madonna and Child (1320/1330), Giovanni Bellini's and Titian's Feast of the Gods (1514/1529), and 16th-century French ceramics. In addition, one of the Gallery’s greatest Persian carpets will be on view on the main floor of the West Building.

In the fall, specialists in Islamic, Byzantine, and European medieval and Renaissance art will present illustrated lectures on the masterworks in the exhibition and in the Gallery’s permanent collection. Artistic Exchange on the Mediterranean Rim: Islamic, Byzantine and European Art, Part I, will be held October 3, 2004, 2-5 p.m., and Artistic Exchange on the Mediterranean Rim: Islamic, Byzantine and European Art, Part II, will be held on November 20, 2004, 2-5 p.m., both in the East Building Auditorium.

THE EXHIBITION

Selected from a superb collection of more than 10,000 objects, Palace and Mosque: Islamic Art from the Victoria and Albert Museum will convey the richness of the Islamic art of the Middle East on a scale and at a level of quality hard to find in any collection outside the region. The exhibition will include examples of the full range of the decorative arts—ceramics, textiles, carpets, metalwork, glass, woodwork, and treats the Islamic art of the Middle East as the product of a culture in which not everyone was Muslim but in which Islam played a dominant role.

Organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London, in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the exhibition is taking place while a new gallery for art of the Islamic Middle East is under development at the V&A. The exhibition will also travel to the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas (April 3-September 4, 2005); the Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan (October 22-December 11, 2005); and the Millennium Galleries, Sheffield, England (January 14-April 16, 2006).

EXHIBITION SUPPORT

The exhibition at the National Gallery of Art is generously sponsored by H.R.H. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Ambassador of Saudi Arabia to the United States.

The international tour of this exhibition has been made possible by the generosity of Mr. Mohammed Jameel, the benefactor of the V&A’s Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art, which is dedicated to the memory of Mr. Abdul Latif Jameel, the late founder of the Abdul Latif Jameel Group, and his wife Nafisa.

The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

General Information

The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden are at all times free to the public. They are located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, and are open Monday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The Gallery is closed on December 25 and January 1. For information call (202) 737-4215 or the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) at (202) 842-6176, or visit the Gallery's Web site at www.nga.gov.

Visitors will be asked to present all carried items for inspection upon entering the East and West Buildings. Checkrooms are free of charge and located at each entrance. Luggage and other oversized bags must be presented at the 4th Street entrances to the East or West Building to permit x-ray screening and must be deposited in the checkrooms at those entrances. For the safety of visitors and the works of art, nothing may be carried into the Gallery on a visitor's back. Any bag or other items that cannot be carried reasonably and safely in some other manner must be left in the checkrooms. Items larger than 17 x 26 inches cannot be accepted by the Gallery or its checkrooms.

For additional press information please call or send inquiries to:

Press Office
National Gallery of Art
2000B South Club Drive
Landover, MD 20785
phone: (202) 842-6353 e-mail: pressinfo@nga.gov

Deborah Ziska
Chief of Press and Public Information
(202) 842-6353
ds-ziska@nga.gov

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NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART HIGHLIGHTS ARTISTIC EXCHANGE BETWEEN EUROPE AND THE ISLAMIC WORLD IN CONJUNCTION WITH OPENING OF ISLAMIC ART EXHIBITION

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART HIGHLIGHTS
ARTISTIC EXCHANGE BETWEEN EUROPE AND THE ISLAMIC WORLD IN CONJUNCTION WITH OPENING OF ISLAMIC ART EXHIBITION