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1908

Muhammadan Art and Life: A Catalogue

On 12th March 2021, the Whitechapel Gallery celebrated its 120th birthday, celebrating its diverse and inclusive narratives, including that of Muslim artists.

The founders of the White Chapel Gallery, Samuel and Henrietta Barnett, had long since believed in the power of art to educate as well as to unite communities who spoke different languages, held different religious beliefs and hailed from different backgrounds. Propelled by this idea, they raised funds to construct a picture gallery. This was suited to the poverty-stricken neighbourhood where few could read or write. The founders settled on a site right on Whitechapel High Street, where even the architecture of the building was different: unlike London's prestigious museums where there were steps leading up to an inner hallway, Charles Harrison Townsend, Britain's most progressive architect at that time, was instructed to not have steps at all. Instead, there was to be direct access from the street to the art. Thus, the Whitechapel Art Gallery came to be.

The new Whitechapel Art Gallery brought the world to the East End – Chinese Art in 1901, Japanese Art in 1902, Indian Art in 1903 and Muhammadan Art and Life (in Turkey, Persia, Egypt, Morocco and India) in 1908.

This publication is a catalogue of an art exhibition that was held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery on October 23 to December 6 in 1908.

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Whitechapel Gallery, https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/about/blog/celebrating-120-years-of-whitechapel-gallery/

Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/muhammadanartlif00whit

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