IMAGE DETAILS

Kerman 'vase technique' carpet, south Persia, late 16th- early 17th century, 1.98 x 4.71m, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, inv. T.66

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11 January 2005

Daniel Shaffer writes: 'Le Ciel dans un Tapis' at the Institute du Monde Arabe in Paris should not be missed by anyone in Europe or elsewhere who espouses a genuine interest in historical oriental carpets (until late March, then in Lisbon at the Museu Gulbenkian from late April until the end of July 2005). Introduced by Roland Gilles and Michael Franses in HALI 138, and featured in a prior posting on hali.com, it is quite simply the best such high-level show since 'The Eastern Carpet in the Western World' at London's Hayward Gallery in 1983.

The carpets are, for the most part, well chosen, with generous museum loans from Paris, Lyons, London, Lisbon and New York, as well as the Keir Collection and the cathedral treasury in Sion, but with the lion's share coming from the great Islamic Museum in Berlin. With so many wonderful classical Persian, Turkish and East Mediterranean rugs to enjoy, as well as small number of top Turkmen tribal pieces, I could easily mention two dozen genuine masterpieces. But the one true object of desire for me, as indeed it had been during the 1993 ICOC exhibitions, was Berlin's Anatolian saf fragment (1) breathtakingly graphic in its haunting simplicity.

Mistakes are few, although the two Moroccan carpets included (for the best of fraternal reasons), a 20th century Berber carpet from a museum in Fez, and a dreadful faded Rabat, as well as Gulbenkian's 19th century Shirvan runner, Jacquemart André's Karachov, and even a couple of Joe McMullan's later Turkish rugs from the Met do seem somewhat out of place in such august company.

The display at the IMA, curated by Gilles and Joelle Lemaistre, is elegantly designed,. well-lit and thoughtful, with strong visual continuity and a not-too-obtrusive intellectual theme informing the juxtapositions. Would that the same were true of another Parisian exhibition, the Musée Guimet's clumsy display of Asian silk textiles from the collection of the late Mme Krishna Riboud.

Apart from a handful of early Chinese silks, the choice of (far too-many) textiles from India, Tibet, Japan, and Indonesia is weak, and Guimet's presentation is crowded, ill-lit and poorly labelled, with jarring visual clashes highlighted by a poisonous purple background and sections divided by shiny nylon gauze screens.

This is a pity, because unlike the IMA show, Guimet's is strongly promoted, with large posters visible throughout the city. Both exhibitions have colour catalogues, and both are exceptionally well attended, with Guimet recording an average of more than five hundred visitors a day. There are also big crowds at the IMA, though doubtless some of the people looking at rugs are doing so because the entry queue is shorter than that for the Institute's concurrent 'Pharaon' exhibition.

I strongly urge readers to sieze any opportunity to go to either Paris or Lisbon for 'Le Ciel dans un Tapis'. And if you are able to combine it with a side trip to London for 'Turks', opening at the Royal Academy on 22 January, so much the better.