Southeast Asia - Sculpture of a seated Buddha. Alabaster with traces of lacquer, on ateak base. Burma, c1800. Mr & Mrs F Thomas Bircham bequest, 1950; once the property of King Thibaw of Burma
Lucy Watts, a SOAS graduate and Executive Officer of the International Council of Museums, goes back to school to find out what they were hiding from her.
I jumped at the chance to be one of the first through the door of the new Foyle Foundation gallery at the Brunei Gallery at SOAS. This gallery, a short leap away from the British Museum, will now permanently show the collection that has until three years ago been hidden away in the SOAS library and director's office. For anyone interested in art and artefacts from Africa, South Asia and the Far East this gallery is big news.
The precious collection was threatened when the University was in financial strife a few years ago but Anna Contadini, then a post-graduate student, realised the value of the treasures. It was she who drew up plans for the present exhibition, Objects of Instruction: Treasures from the SOAS collection.
The collections speak of colonial links and travellers’ tales, highlighting SOAS as a place of political contradictions with its own intriguing history. Modern paintings and textiles are interspersed with manuscripts dating back to the 1570CE (The ‘Anvar-i Suhayli' (Lights of Canopus) India, an Islamic illustrated Mughal manuscript book of animal fables).
Oil painting of explorer Sir Richard Burton, 1879. Photo: Isla Harvey
These strong educational links with the world from such an early period are unique. For instance, the album of 10 paintings that were a present by Puyi, the last Emperor of China to his tutor, Sir Reginald Johnston (who later became the first Professor of Chinese at SOAS) is a fascinating glimpse of early cultural diplomacy.
Contadini’s enthusiasm for the collection is engaging; she talks proudly of how she had chosen the 120 pieces, working on the research and conservation of each one. The pieces look good together, they are intriguing and well presented and items are beautifully if somewhat formally displayed in glass cases with good lighting. Small text panels (some written by SOAS staff) explain the provenance of the objects and paintings.
Text panels however only hint at how the objects had found their ways into the SOAS collection, or indeed the hands of the donors, travellers or marauders. The catalogue delicately skirts this issue, mostly adhering to an art historical approach.
The exhibition shows the ‘European reactions to Asia and Africa’ and in time the history of the collectors should develop into a great piece of supporting research and gallery text. There is a humanity in the collection too, not all the pieces are from a regal collector (although the Percival David Foundation is heavily represented here). The subtle and effective sub-text is that the visitor will become fascinated in all aspects of history as well as battling the more unsavoury aspects of the developing world.
Middle East - Muraqqa. Persian. Iran, Binding dated 1165AH (1751CE),Manuscript 17th to 19th century. Donated in 1935 on behalf of the late Mr RS Greenshields
Pieces like The Unfortunate Wife. The Chinese Opium Smoker - twelve illustrations Showing the Ruin which our Opium Trade with China is bringing upon that Country (London c1877 on permanent loan from the Council for World Mission Archive) and the painting by the South African Billy Buyisile Mandini untitled (illustrating in bold primary colours grim clown like figures showing the uneasiness and sheer horror that the apartheid regime brought upon the country) are perfect tools for political lessons current and past.
Despite the tempting hint of the powerful nature and history of the collection, no story is told completely (like most political histories) and there is a feeling that history and Britain’s relation to the countries represented here in the gallery are still being written. The gold threaded embroidery from Burma is either used as a curtain in a room of a palace or monastery or is a ‘cover to drape over the coffin of a revered monk’, the poignancy of these words, written before the recent protests in Burma, made me stop and think.
The exciting thing about the collection is that there are a lot more treasures in the collection still in storage, un-researched and in need of conservation work, which means that the new curatorial team can keep the exhibits fresh and people coming through the doors. Contadini is a very enthusiastic curator, and she has every reason to be as she literally holds the key to a much-coveted collection, rich with potential.
Find out more about the work of ICOM here www.uk.icom.museum.
