91 Generalisations about Pop Art and Islamic Art

My first trips east left undoubtedly the most enduring impressions. I studied art in a time that ‘rationalisation’ was the most prominent feature in Western art. It permeated all levels of the prevalent culture. Being in art school I had the feeling that things were happening on a cultural level that were me. I was connected. Pop replaced figurative art. Numerical systems akin to cybernetics were dominating abstract art. In fashion simple lines and pret-a-porter transformed ‘Haute Couture’. In literature the French Nouvelle Vague concentrated on the cool description instead of emotion. Even in cinema the laws of storytelling were challenged by notions of ‘real life’. Pop culture seemed to do away with the ‘originality’ of individual expression. We were seeking the ‘common denominator’ and we were aiming for the ‘highest’ common denominator. By being ‘ordinary’ we hoped to become less ‘ego centric’ human beings. A lot of these ‘modern’ notions I found to my amazement back in Islamic Art. For me simply stated: ‘Islam’ was the popular culture of the Islamic world and the Koran was the ‘common denominator’. Calligraphy, numerology and mathematics that combine both in a ‘rational’ way were the artist’s tools of expression. This ‘rationalisation’ was used to conceptualize spirituality. For me the results were very much the same level as what I saw in the contemporary art of where I came from. The beauty of the mathematical patterns of shapes in all forms of calligraphy, architecture and crafts and its availability to all was totally ‘Pop’ to me. It opened up an interest in Islam.