The Visual Islamic and Traditional Arts Department of the Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture is pleased to announce its Summer Degree Show. With Professor Critchlow as Director, Paul Marchant as Deputy Director and other specialist tutors, the Department continues in its comirutment to the teaching of both the practice and theory of the visual Islamic arts with the arts of the other great Traditions of the world.
The work on exhibition is by the four degree candidates who have just completed our two year M.A. Course. The skill and beauty of their work demonstrates the dedication and commitment of each one to their chosen fields of interest in the traditional arts.
In the first year of the V.I.T.A. Course, all the M.A. students attend classes in a variety of traditional practical arts including geometry, Islami (arabesque) and calligraphy (the three principle "languages" of Islamic art), as well as techniques shared by other traditions such as letter-carving in stone, architectural drawing, traditional painting techniques - for example gesso, pigments, gold-leaf and so on. The work on exhibition shows the individual responses of each student to hese classes and the wide variety of techniques and crafts employed. These include: Mark Mills' letter-cutting and lettering in stone and other materials;
Una Goodman's ceramics and glass inspired by the Celtic tradition; Justin Hedley's panel painting in the medieval Italian tradition as well as ceramics inspired by early Islamic pottery; Stephen Windsor-Clive's mosaics inspired by Byzantine and Islamic patterns.
The wide range of arts and crafts practised by the V.I.T.A. students all demonstrate an integrity, discipline and commitment to the values inherent within the traditional skills. The Department teaches and encourages an understanding of the culture and background of the traditional arts and the timeless values that they represent; the contemplative nature of, for instance, the careful execution of a geometric design is a lesson in itself showing that the resulting intricate and subtle pattern is not simply decorative but becomes beauty embodied by the human hand and thereby experienced by the heart. The distinction made between "Fine Art" and "Craft" is entirely modern - in a traditional society an artist was someone who practised an art or a craft and, in the words of Rene Cuenon, "his activity was bound up with the principles of a much more profound order".
The work of the V.I.T.A. Department demonstrates that students from different backgrounds and traditions can work well together, learning from each other's knowledge and experience, and, most importantly, through the study of the objective language of geometry, can understand the universal basis underlying he art and architecture of the great Traditions of the world - whether it is Islamic, Christian, Buddhist, North American Indian, Hindu and so on. Islamic art is predominantly concentrated on as it is one of the few remaining living traditions. Many people living in the mainly secular culture of the West who have lost touch with the sacred find great compensation and inspiration in the study of the sacred art produced by a spiritual tradition other than their own. ll over the world artistic traditions have either died or are under imminent threat of being overwhelmed by mechanical mass production.
The work of the V.I.T.A. Department offers some practical support in helping to restore cultural dignity, offering a livelihood and also in creating teachers; and in the process it is hoped that a greater understanding and tolerance between cultures is established. Our work has become of great practical help to those in education as well as to students seeking to find a context for their inner need for meaning in their art.
For further details, please contact the V.I.T.A. Administrator at: The Visual Islamic and Traditional Arts Department,
The Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture,
44 Cloucester Avenue,
London NW1 8JD.
Tel no.0171 916 9740
Fax no.0171 9169741