India's Islamic Aesthetic Heritage

CASI Seminar
Navina Haidar
Curator of Islamic Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Center for the Advanced Study of India
3600 Market Street, Suite 560 (5th floor)
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104

About the Speaker:
Navina Haidar is a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. For almost a decade, she was deeply involved in the planning of the museum’s Islamic galleries, which opened in 2011. She is presently working on an exhibition on the art of India’s Deccan sultanates to be held at the Met in April 2015. Educated at the Universities of Delhi, London, and Oxford, Navina has written and lectured on Indian and Persian painting and Islamic art.

About the Lecture:
The very symbol of India, in many ways, is its most famous Muslim building, the Taj Mahal. From architecture to language, painting, music, textiles, food, and customs, India’s cultural life is deeply informed by its Islamic heritage, which, for the most part, has been celebrated as one of the many rich strands that make up Indian tradition. Is that point of view likely to change in the future? If so, how will India’s powerful Islamic heritage be framed in light of both national and global developments? If art is a mirror of society, then its relevance has never been more pertinent. Through a discussion and interpretation of key works of art of the Mughal and Deccan periods, and an overview of the management of Indian art in the 20th century, we may imagine a framework for India’s Islamic heritage in the twenty-first century.

Event Flyer

 

The Nand & Jeet Khemka Distinguished Lecture Series is an endowed public program of the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI). Launched in the 2007-08 academic year, and made possible through the generous support of the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, the series brings renowned India specialists to the Penn community and serves as a critical forum for analyzing and understanding the complex economic, political, social, and cultural changes that the world’s largest democracy is experiencing, as well as the challenges that lie ahead.
The Saluja Global Fellows Program has been made possible by the generous gift from Vishal Saluja ENG’89 W’89. CASI was excited to launch the program during the 2022–23 academic year, coinciding with the Center’s 30th Anniversary. This new program enables CASI to invite eminent leaders and rising experts on contemporary India preferably from the fields of media, culture, law, and contemporary history to be in residence for one to two weeks at CASI.