Finbarr Barry Flood, 'From Prophet to Postmodernism - Journal of Art ...
Finbarr Barry Flood, 'From Prophet to Postmodernism - Journal of Art ...
Finbarr Barry Flood, 'From Prophet to Postmodernism - Journal of Art ...
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<strong>Finbarr</strong> <strong>Barry</strong> <strong>Flood</strong>, ‘From <strong>Prophet</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>Postmodernism</strong>? New World Orders and the End<br />
<strong>of</strong> Islamic <strong>Art</strong>’, originally published in Elizabeth Mansfield, ed., Making <strong>Art</strong> His<strong>to</strong>ry: A<br />
Changing Discipline and its Institutions, London: Routledge, 2007, 31-53.<br />
Abstract<br />
This article addresses the peculiar fact that in most art his<strong>to</strong>rical surveys the narrative <strong>of</strong><br />
Islamic art his<strong>to</strong>ry ends around 1800 CE. It considers the roots <strong>of</strong> this idiosyncrasy and<br />
its implications for attempts <strong>to</strong> coopt or instrumentalize the objects <strong>of</strong> Islamic art in the<br />
decade after 2001 in discourses <strong>of</strong> liberalism and <strong>to</strong>lerance in which an originary Islam<br />
was contrasted with modern more ‘fundamentalist’ understandings <strong>of</strong> religious belief<br />
and practice. It explores contradictions inherent in related attempts <strong>to</strong> locate models for<br />
Muslim religious subjectivity in medieval artifacts secularized as art objects.<br />
Bio<br />
<strong>Finbarr</strong> <strong>Barry</strong> <strong>Flood</strong> is William R. Kenan Jr. Pr<strong>of</strong>essor <strong>of</strong> Humanities, at the Institute <strong>of</strong><br />
Fine <strong>Art</strong>s and Department <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> His<strong>to</strong>ry, at New York University. He is the author <strong>of</strong><br />
Objects <strong>of</strong> Translation: Material Culture and Medieval 'Hindu-Muslim' Encounter (Prince<strong>to</strong>n:<br />
Prince<strong>to</strong>n University Press, 2009), which won the 2011 Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Prize<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Association for Asian Studies. His current book project Islam and Image: Polemics,<br />
Theology and Modernity, will be published by Reaktion Books, London.<br />
Keywords<br />
Islamic art, museum, art canon, nineteenth century, postcolonialism, Qajar art<br />
ERRATUM<br />
On page 42 <strong>of</strong> this article, the quote before footnote 49 was issued by the Metropolitan<br />
Museum <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> in New York. In the original published version <strong>of</strong> this article, the quote<br />
was misattributed <strong>to</strong> the Freer Gallery <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> and the <strong>Art</strong>hur M. Sackler Gallery in<br />
Washing<strong>to</strong>n DC.