بسم الله والحمد لله والصلاة والسلام على رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم
Islamic art has commonly been represented as an art of the “infinite pattern.”
She attributed her statement to a book by Ernst Grube titled, The World of Islam (1966). In that book Grube writes the following (because I like following up on leads and crossreferencing and reading in-depth):
The experience of the infinite on the one hand, with the worthlessness of the transient eartly existence of man on the other is known to all Muslims and forms part of all Muslims art. It finds different but basically related expression. The most fundamental is the creation of the infinite pattern that appears in a fully developed form very early on and is a major element of Islamic art at all periods. The infinite continuation of a given pattern, whether abstract, semi-abstract, or even partly figurative, is on the one hand the expression of a profound belief in the eternity of all true being and on the other a disregard for temporary existence. In making visible only a part of a pattern that exists in its complete form only in infinity, the Islamic artist relates the static, limited, seemingly definite object to infinity itself.
This information really inspired and excited me and got my gears turning because for a while, I have been working out how to brand myself and my art, which I started to take into consideration after reading a book by professor James Elkins titled, “On the Strage Place of Religion in Contemporary Art,” which has been one of the most informative books on developing a strategy for defining my work beyond just “Islamic art,” (for a wider audience, while addressing Muslims in general).
I now describe my work as The Art of The Infinite Pattern™ and myself as The Artist of the Infinite Pattern™ which I have now trademarked (that’s what it reads in Arabic, above my name seal in the banner). I believe it is the perfect way to describe what I do, a nuanced way to describe Islamic art in general, and it captures the contemporary nature of my art, because I do not work with Arabic calligraphy, calculated geometric patterns, Arabesque, floral motifs or illumination.
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| This is a glimpse of my current piece in progress which is in the UK as of this post (while I am in NYC). The original size of this piece is 16in x 20in and is part of a much larger project which i will be writing about soon, إن شاء الله |
As a matter of fact, I am currently working on a theory of Islamic art as a practice and potential art movement that transcends the current narratives I have come across in the ubiquitous world of art. With this theory I am currently writing this theory, influenced by the afore mentioned sources and an additional source that I am in the process of editing and adding commentary [from the perspective of an Islamic artist (myself)] (as per al-Faruqi’s explanation) to a book [by al-Faruqi] that has been out of print since 1985 titled, “Islam and Art.”
I’m excited working on this project because I feel as if she wrote this for me, as a Muslim and an artist (because I started eveloping this theory prior to coming across her writing). But for this to really make any sense (in the context I am presenting), I need to write about how I began making the work above when I became Muslim in 2011.
That will be the subject of the next post, إن شاء الله
– Abdushakur