An Astonishing, Rarely Seen Islamic Art Collection Goes on Display

When Hamid Hemat accepted a curatorial post at Connecticut’s Wadsworth Atheneum in 2022, the refugee from Kabul, Afghanistan, was surprised by what he found. The Wadsworth is the oldest public art museum in the United States, home to a trove of European and American paintings. But it also holds one of the world’s best collections of Islamic art. “I’m traveling 7,000 miles from my home country, and I came here and found this amazing collection,” says Hemat, who has spent the past two years studying the Wadsworth’s delicate miniatures, medieval Qurans and ornate glassware from the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia for a show, “Divine Geometry,” that runs through April 13, 2025. Although donated by American art patrons in the early 20th century, some of these works have never been exhibited before, let alone together. “There’s many things going on in Islamic art, and each place has their own culture, their own language, their own style,” says Hemat, who hopes the show will spark “a dialogue between different human civilizations.”   

Amy Crawford | | READ MORE

Amy Crawford is a Michigan-based freelance journalist writing about cities, science, the environment, art and education. A longtime Smithsonian contributor, her work also appears in CityLab and the Boston Globe.