The 8th Biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Sy

HBK Symposium on Islamic Art

Symposium on Islamic Art will take place on November 10-11 at VCUarts in Doha, Qatar.[divider height=”30″ style=”default” line=”default” themecolor=”1″]

HBKThe theme of the 2019 conference is The Seas and the Mobility of Islamic Art. The symposium will explore the relationship between Islamic art and trade routes, migration, and travel. Among other topics, the speakers will discuss the following:

How did exposure to imported materials and ideas transform formerly local artistic traditions? What role did travel, diplomacy, and gift-giving play in crafting seemingly discrete forms and practices? How are the movements of people, shifting markets for labor, and the uneven distribution skills and techniques, bound up with the formation and metamorphosis of styles? How did the shipment of commodities and curiosities from distant places shape and change social, cultural, and religious institutions? What role do the objects created from such interactions have in enhancing cultural understanding or generating enmity and mistrust? And how has the ever-increasing pace of globalization affected such developments?

The program also includes discussions on the Qur’an and Islamic artwork. A complete program can be found here.

Conference Co-chairs

Radha Dalal, Assistant Director of Art History and Assistant Professor of Islamic Art, VCUarts Qatar

Sean Roberts, Interim Director of Art History and Associate Professor of Pre-Modern Mediterranean Art, VCUarts Qatar

Jochen Sokoly, Associate Professor of Islamic Art, VCUarts Qatar

Registration is now open.

For more information, write to Marisa Brown at mabrown@vcu.edu.