A Tribute to Islamic Art

The other day I watched a documentary on Channel 4 called "Paradise Found" where the presenter set "out on an epic journey of discovery across the Muslim world from Central Asia, to the heart of the Middle East and beyond to reveal a world of awe-inspiring architecture, spectacular Islamic treasures and a host of artists and craftsmen – to bring the largely unknown and fascinating story of Islamic art and architecture to the attention of the British public."

The presenter of the show, Waldemar Januszczak did such an amazing job, that I felt it an obligation to paste below his closing words. Enjoy!

"You must have noticed that you never see ugliness in Islamic art or neurosis or personal problems or any of that dark stuff that so obsesses western artists. Islamic art always, ALWAYS tries to look as beautiful as it can. Why? Because it recognises that the problems of the artists are just storms in a teacup utterly irrelevant in the wider scheme of things. In the end all that matters is the beauty of God and the artist's task is always to reflect that beauty. To do otherwise, to fret about yourself, to go all dark and miserable in your art is to waste your artistic time."

Now I'm off to do some painting of my own...