Fringe Benefit: The Margins of Islamic Art at Shangri La

The Islamic art collection housed at Shangri La in Honolulu, Hawai’i is unique for a publicly accessible collection. Numbering more than 2,500 objects, it includes important works of art and represents a sustained commitment to collecting for nearly 60 years. However, no professionally trained curator or renowned art historian ever oversaw or even advised on the purchase of its pieces. The collection is the brainchild of a passionate amateur, begun when she was just 22 years old. In spite of—or perhaps because of—its laywoman pedigree the collection stands apart from others, but it is all the more fascinating for its aberrations and is astonishingly attuned to 21st century curatorial thinking.

The American heiress Doris Duke (1912–93) began her collecting journey in 1935 while touring the world on her honeymoon. Visiting the Middle East and Asia for the first time, she began purchasing textiles, metalwork, ceramics, wood carvings, works on paper, jade and a bevy of other objects with determination and relish. Her earliest acquisitions are typical of inexperienced collectors—mixed in quality, vague in purpose, haphazard in origin and type. Intriguingly, she never entirely eschewed this method of collecting over the course of her life, even as her efforts became more pronounced. Simply speaking, her love of material culture was never curtailed by trepidation of either general or expert censure. Born into a wealthy family, Duke was accustomed to intense public scrutiny and misrepresentation by the press. She seems to have been immune to the ideals to which many self-trained collectors might cling in their desire for approbation and acclaim.

Fig. 1 Table painted with scenes of princely leisure and inscribed with Persian poetry
Iran, late 19th to early 20th century
Wood, paint, gold leaf or powder, varnish, 28.9 x 157.5 x 82.9 cm
Shangri La (65.9)
Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 
(Photograph: David Franzen, 2010)

In an era of what might be called colonial discomfort, when curators and collectors fetishized the old and took shelter in the vague histories of distant civilizations, Duke contrarily embraced Islamic cultures of the 19th and early 20th centuries. For example, she ardently collected the arts of Qājār Iran (1785–1925), objects often not even old enough to be called antiques (in some cases barely 20 years old) when she bought them. Qājār tile panels, oil paintings, textiles, glass vessels and inlaid wood doors, furniture and metalwork entered her collection during its formative stages and continued to enrich it to its closing days. Duke died 5 years before Layla Diba’s groundbreaking exhibition ‘Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch, 1785–1925’ opened at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1998, attracting the art world’s attention to this fascinating period and launching a global zeal for it which remains strong to this day.

One of the more unusual Qājār works of art in the collection is a low, wood banquet table extensively painted with detailed scenes of princely leisure, flora, fauna and arabesques (Fig. 1). The table does not appear to have been used for eating, but its surface offers a feast for the eyes. Embellished with scenes reminiscent of Persian miniature painting—hunting, relaxing, imbibing—the imagery seen on the table is nevertheless divorced from standard Persian romantic or historical texts. Instead, in cartouches around the edges is a poem that pays homage to the table itself, beginning with the sentiment, ‘O what a marvellous table, the design of which is so pleasing! How beautiful you are!’

Fig. 2 View of the Mughal Suite master bathroom showing inlaid marble panelling
Commissioned from C. G. and F. B. Blomfield, India (Delhi and Agra), 1935–38
Marble, semi-precious stones
Shangri La
© 2014, Linny Morris, courtesy of the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art

Fig. 3 Wall panel with inlaid floral motif
Commissioned from C. G. and F. B. Blomfield, India (Delhi and Agra), 1935–38
Marble, semi-precious stones, 76.2 x 30.5 cm
Shangri La (41.49n–p)
Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 
(Photograph: David Franzen, 2008)

In addition to her enthusiasm for 19th century art, Doris Duke acquired a unique collection of 20th century arts, particularly through her commissions from living artisans in the 1930s. In Iran, for example, she ordered large mosaic tile panels and underglaze-painted tile panels from craftsmen in Isfahān. In India, she partnered with a Delhi-based British architectural firm to design a marble suite of carved archways and door and window jalis (lattice screens), and panelling inlaid with semi-precious stones in floral designs (Figs 2 and 3). The suite recalls the marble work of Mughal India (1526–1858), and yet its discreet designs and overtly sinuous forms resonate with Duke’s own partiality for modernism and art deco design. In Morocco, she commissioned painted and gilded wood ceilings and doors, roof tiles, carved wood railings and screens, coloured-glass windows and moulded plaster door spandrels. Installed throughout Shangri La, these commissions are paired with antiquities to produce interiors that are paradoxically both serene and stirring (Fig. 4). Duke’s decision to patronize artisans as early as the 1930s foreshadows 21st century museum practice, which now, too, embraces the living arts of Islam. For example, The Metropolitan Museum of Art commissioned a group of Moroccan craftsmen to create wood, tile and plaster architectural elements for the Patti Cadby Birch Court in 2011, in conjunction with the reopening of its Islamic galleries (see Haidar and Weisbin, 2014, p. 24).

Many of Duke’s purchases and commissions would probably have been dismissed by specialists of the time. But for her, these choices were significant and strategic. Following an extended stay in the Hawaiian Islands at the end of her honeymoon, Duke bought 5 oceanfront acres outside of Waikīkī and built the seasonal residence where she would showcase her ever-growing collection (Fig. 5). Originally pan-Asian in design, the estate underwent a shift midway through the design phase to become a melange of modern and Islamic-inspired architecture. From the moment the design was set, Duke’s purchases were guided by her plan to furnish the house with Islamic art and architecture. No particular region, time period or medium was favoured over others. Her purchases seem to have been mostly opportunistic: she tended to buy what she happened to see and admire—while travelling, at auction, from dealers—rather than seeking out art of a certain type or origin, apart from the fact that it was Islamic in inspiration. Her collecting was most focused when she commissioned, for she worked with designers in distant regions (communicating in person, by telegram and through the post) to ensure the resulting aesthetic would be to her taste.

Fig. 4 View of the foyer showing architectural elements commissioned in Morocco in 1937
Shangri La
Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 
(Photograph: David Franzen, 2010)

Fig. 5 View of the main residence exterior, oceanside
Shangri La 
Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Honolulu, Hawai‘i  
(Photograph: David Franzen, 2011)

One type of object she did explicitly seek out was 13th and 14th century monochrome-glazed turquoise cross tiles from Iran. Originally, these were made to be paired with luminous lustre-painted star tiles to form dynamic interior wall decor. But unlike star tiles, for which there was a ready market, cross tiles were difficult to source in 1939. Because they were not unique from one to the next but instead showed a certain uniformity of aesthetic, they were of little interest to connoisseurs in search of the extraordinary. Duke, who had purchased a number of star tiles in 1938, felt she needed both types. She wished to show the star tiles in context—not to isolate them for their individual merits—and knew they would look best offset by cross tiles following their original arrangement in Iran (Fig. 6). So unfashionable were these humble tiles in 1939 that she was unable to track down more than a handful to buy. As a result, Duke exercised her practice of commissioning and had new cross tiles made. Working with a tile-maker in Iran would have been a logistical quagmire in the midst of World War II, so she waived cultural authenticity in favour of local practicality by hiring a ceramicist at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa to create the tiles. Mixing historic with modern, East with West and original with copy was acceptable to Duke in her quest to create a total aesthetic. Museums, too, have come to favour exhibiting the two types of tiles together; however, locating cross tiles remains a challenge even today. In 2004, the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar implemented a solution akin to Duke’s by also exhibiting their historic star tiles with newly made cross tiles.

Doris Duke did not limit her purchases to the recent, the modern, the contextual or the obscure. Her collection also features more traditional choices, objects of a type coveted by collectors and museums. One such example is a superbly illustrated manuscript of the poem Yusuf and Zulaykha made in Bukhara, Uzbekistan in 944 A.H. (1537–38) (Fig. 7). This acclaimed version of the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife was written by one of the greatest Sufī poets, Jāmī (1414–92). His poem was transcribed for this manuscript by Mīr ‘Alī al-Kāteb al-Soltāni (c. 1465–1544), also known as Mīr ‘Alī Herāvī. A renowned calligrapher, Mīr ‘Alī was one of several artists working in the cultured city of Herat (in present-day Afghanistan) when it was captured in 1529 by a rival power. Mīr ‘Alī and his colleagues were taken to Bukhara, the capital of the Shaybānid dynasty (1500–98) and the centre for its arts and cultural patronage, where they produced exceptional manuscripts for the court, including this one for Abd’l-‘Azīz Bahādur (r. 1540–50). The manuscript contains only a few paintings, each of which is a delightfully delicate illustration showing a particular moment in the story and a lovely complement to the beauty of Mīr ‘Alī’s written words.

Fig. 6 Door surround composed of historic lustre star tiles and modern turquoise cross tiles
Shangri La
Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 
(Photograph: David Franzen, 2010)

Fig. 7 Page from an illustrated manuscript of Jāmī’s Yusuf and Zulaykha
Transcribed by Mīr ‘Alī al-Kāteb al-Soltāni (c. 1465–1544)
Uzbekistan (Bukhara), dated 944 A.H. (1537–38)
Ink, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, gilded leather binding, 31.1 x 21 cm
Shangri La (10.6)
Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 
(Photograph: David Franzen, 2010)

Arts of the book are, however, only minimally represented in the collection. By choice, Duke was more of a context-setter than a connoisseur, and this desire not only to acquire but also to situate objects is a remarkable feature of the collection and its presentation at Shangri La. Historic doors, which might be mounted on walls in a museum gallery, are used functionally to open or close off rooms, closets and storage areas—tangible reminders of the purpose for which they were made and a striking way to show off their artistry. Massive painted ceilings serve as actual ceilings, coloured-glass windows filter exterior sunlight, and inlaid furniture fulfils the functions for which it was intended—as bookshelves, chests of drawers, trunks, tables and seating (Fig. 8). Tile panels are embedded throughout the estate’s interior and exterior walls to create environments replete with vivid colour and elaborate pattern (Fig. 9). Working fountains bring the sound of water into ornate interiors, offering a total sensory experience. While Shangri La is very much the product of Duke’s imagination and creativity, it provides an efficacious context for beholding and understanding particular types of Islamic art.

Doris Duke’s self-guided journey through the world of Islamic art was one of liberty. Simply put, she bought what she liked. Her project was driven by neither shrewdness nor snobbery but by passion for form, colour and texture in their many manifestations over time and space around the Islamic world. From the mundane to the magnificent, the minute to the massive, and the sensible to the sumptuous, the collection at Shangri La is a testimony to its founder’s nonconformity. Had the collection been made public before Duke’s death in 1993 its reception would no doubt have been a mixed one given its unconventional make-up, but it was not until Shangri La opened for tours in 2002 that her private collection became publicly accessible. By then, world events had altered the way Islamic art was interpreted and valued, and the Shangri La collection has been able to realize its potential to bridge cultural divides. A philanthropist for much of her life, Duke launched a plan as early as 1966 to open Shangri La after her death to promote the understanding of Islamic art and cultures. She could not have known then how important that legacy would become. But the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which today owns and manages Shangri La through the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, resolutely fulfils her sagacious vision and carries out her mission in the humanitarian spirit in which she conceived it.

Fig. 8 Armchair
Syria, 19th century
Wood, mother-of-pearl, bone, paint and tin wire inlay, 71.1 x 71.1 x 71.1 cm
Shangri La (65.118)
Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 
(Photograph: David Franzen, 2014)

Fig. 9 View of the central courtyard showing Iranian tile panels from the 13th to 20th century
Shangri La
Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 
(Photograph: David Franzen, 2011)

Sharon Littlefield Tomlinson is Consulting Curator for Shangri La.

For further information about Shangri La, Doris Duke and the Islamic art collection, see <www.shangrilahawaii.org>.

Selected bibliography

Saima Akhtar, ‘Shangri La: Architecture As Collection’, International Journal of Islamic Architecture 3, no. 1 (March 2014): 103–28.

Olga Bush, ‘Relocating to Hawai‘i: Dwelling with Islamic Art at Doris Duke’s Shangri La’, International Journal of Islamic Architecture 3, no. 2 (July 2014): 437–71.

Layla S. Diba and Maryam Ekhtiar, eds, Royal Persian Paintings: The Qajar Epoch 1785–1925, New York, 1999.

Navina Najat Haidar and Kendra Weisbin, Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Walking Guide, New York, 2014.

Sharon Littlefield, ‘Doorways to Paradise: Islamic Art for Doris Duke’s Honolulu Home’, in Inge Reist and Mamoli Zorzi, eds, Power Underestimated: American Women Art Collectors, Venice, 2011, pp. 211–26.

—, Doris Duke’s Shangri La, Honolulu, 2011 (4th edition).

Thomas Mellins and Donald Albrecht, eds, Doris Duke’s Shangri La: A House in Paradise, New York, 2012.

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