Dr. Marika Sardar

Associate Curator of
Southern Asian and Islamic Arts

Vision

When dealing with cultures and forms of art so different from what we encounter in our everyday American lives, I feel like a curator of any kind of Asian art has a duty to explain a lot to visitors. I want people to know what they are looking at, why it was made the way it was, and how it was originally displayed or used. But it is important to balance this desire to explain with providing the opportunity for visitors to simply look at and appreciate the objects for what they are—works of first-rate artistic quality and craftsmanship. It is these twin goals that I strive to achieve in my galleries.

I hope over the next months to make the five impressive galleries we have dedicated to Asian art a more cohesive space, with the chance to compare works of art across cultures, learn more in detail about what is on display, and see the deep strengths of our collection by putting study collections out on view. I also hope to bring a range of special exhibitions to the Museum.

About Dr. Marika Sardar

Marika Sardar has been Associate Curator of Southern Asian and Islamic Art at The San Diego Museum of Art since August 2013. Marika received her Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU (2007) with a dissertation on Deccani architecture. She worked for six years in the Department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she was involved with the reinstallation of 15 galleries for Islamic art (2011) and the exhibition, The Interwoven Globe: Worldwide Textile Trade, 1500–1800 (2013).

Publications include essays on the architectural, textile, and painting traditions of the Deccan; on the Metropolitan Museum’s excavations at Nishapur, Iran; and on Safavid and Ottoman textiles. She has also written the section on South Asian art for the textbook Asian Art (2014), and co-edited, with Navina Haidar, the volume Arts of India’s Deccan Courts, 1323-1687 (2011).

News:

Our curator has been with the Museum for a year, and we want to know what interests her and how we can help. We also want to give her a forum because she hopes many will find out what’s new and interesting and visit the Museum often! Dr. Sardar is also involved with rotations in the Art of East Asia galleries.

Art Stop - Click for printable notes

Summary of the July 15th ArtStop talk by Dr. Sardar: In Gallery 11, the Persian art gallery, we are able to represent several of the different kinds of painting and craftmaking traditions of the region, and one place we are able to do that in some depth is with ceramics. The Museum has a representative collection of ceramics made between the 10th and the 17th century, demonstrating a variety of styles and techniques.

Especially interesting to me are two black-and-white bowls from about the 10th century, attributed to the city of Nishapur in northeastern Iran. Extensive excavations were undertaken at this site—continuing even today—because it was such an important trade center in the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries, a major point for transshipment of goods between the Middle East, Iran, Central Asia and China.

The two Nishapur bowls on view in Gallery 11 are experiments with a very modern black-and-white palette that gave rise to many kinds of decoration. One very popular type is adorned only with calligraphy, mostly proverbs. Another major type made use of a bird motif combined with writing. On the example illustrated here, as well as on another bowl in the same case, the Arabic word baraka (blessing) is repeated around the rim, but the letters have been almost totally transformed into decorative shapes far removed from the original letter forms. In the center is an equally abstracted bird with folded wings. We wonder why this particular combination became so widespread, but the answer eludes us today.

Curator’s Web Stop

ArtStop Thursday, November 6, 2014
Topic: Lacquerware from Iran

Lacquer box from Iran — *Pen box with grisaille birds and flowers*, Signed by Fathullah Shirazi, Iran, 1840-41. Papier-maché; painted and lacquered.

ArtStop August 28, 2014

Shri Devi, India, Tamil Nadu, Bronze, 11th century owned by the San Diego Museum of Art, 2004.3 — Shri Devi, India, Tamil Nadu, Bronze, 11th century, Museum accession number 2004.3.

Four to six times a year, Dr. Marika Sardar presents Museum objects to the public in an ArtStop. Dr. Sardar’s last ArtStop was August 28th at noon. The topic was the Female Figure in Indian Art.

An AAC member, Dr. Laurel Holloway, had the original idea for Curator’s Web Stops four years ago. Finally, we can all know what the Curator is researching.

Previous Curator’s Web Stop

ArtStop July15, 2014

Click for printable notes

Persian Ceramic bowl owned by the San Diego Museum of Art, 1971.72 — Bowl with Bird Design, Iran, Nishapur, 10th century, Gift of Edwin Binney, 3rd, 1971.72.

... of The San Diego Museum of Art

Archived Curators Page - FY14 - FY15

Dr. Marika Sardar

Associate Curator of
Southern Asian and Islamic Arts

News: