Making Sense of The Arts of Islam: An Introduction
On campus
Dr Natasha Morris
Monday 7 – Thursday 10 April 2025
£495
This course is now fully booked; if you wish to be added to the waiting list, please email short.courses@courtauld.ac.uk. You may also be interested in our Summer School online course The Art of the Sultans: Ottoman Art and Architecture.
Course description
This course introduces students to the arts and architecture of the Islamic world, which has been a burgeoning area of interest for scholarship, museums, galleries, auction houses and collectors.
From Spain to India, from monumental buildings such as the Dome of the Rock to the Taj Mahal, and from luxury objects of utility (such as ceramics, metalwork, glass and textiles) to paintings and the arts of the book, each lecture and museum visit spotlights a defining aspect of the study of the arts in the cultures of Islam.
We shall explore the arts from the birth of Islam in the seventh century, through the ‘Golden Ages’ of the Medieval period and rocky ‘modernities’, to the present day. In challenging the preconceptions that surround ‘Islamic Art’ today, this course addresses the unique social and political contexts of the often misunderstood art of the Islamic world.
Morning lectures will be followed by afternoon visits exploring the rich holdings of Islamic Art in London’s public museums and galleries, including those at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the British Library’s collections of historic and contemporary book arts, and the magnificent Albukhary Gallery of the Islamic World at the British Museum.
Lecturer's biography
Dr Natasha Morris, FHEA (BA, MA, PhD – Courtauld, University of London) is Lecturer in Islamic Arts and a convenor of the Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art at SOAS. She was previously Myojin-Nadar Project Curator Middle East Art at the British Museum, and co-authored Reflections: contemporary art of the Middle East and North Africa (British Museum, 2020) and Honar: The Afkhami Collection of Modern and Contemporary Iranian Art (Phaidon, 2017). She has written extensively on the art of the Middle East for publications including The Oxford Art Journal, The Art Bulletin, Time Out, and The Guardian as well as authoring several exhibition catalogues. Hudood: rethinking boundaries (Kaph Books, 2024) is her most recent collaborative exhibition project with the Barjeel Art Foundation.