By Fran Gillespie/DohaThe keynote speaker at the opening of the fourth biennial Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic Art on October 29 was Paul Goldberger, the distinguished architecture critic of the New Yorker and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for “distinguished criticism” in the New York Times.In his address, entitled Islamic Architecture, Modernism and I M Pei: The Challenge of the Museum of Islamic Art, Goldberger examined the museum as a key component of Pei’s later work, as a major museum completed during the recent wave of construction of museums worldwide, as a building within the cityscape of Doha and finally as an attempt to evolve a contemporary expression of traditional Islamic architecture.Describing the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) as the largest object ever to be studied in the history of the symposium, Goldberger said that the museum should be seen as the ultimate moment in the career of the renowned Chinese-American architect I M Pei.He emphasised that it was impossible to talk about the expansion of museums worldwide without referring to the work of Pei who has designed some of the greatest of them.
“Museums are the secular cathedrals of our time,” said Goldberger, “and museums today are community centres as well as places of enlightenment.”The speaker went on to discuss the building as a symbol of modernist architecture that combined both traditional and modern elements.In the course of his lecture, Goldberger took the audience through Pei’s career, and the museums designed by him.His work during the course of a 60-year career has included the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, the John F Kennedy Library in Massachusetts, the Des Moines Art Centre in Iowa, the Johnson Museum at Cornell University and the East Building of the National Gallery of Art.Goldberger went on to elaborate how buildings like the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio sowed the seeds for the kind of work Pei would eventually do while designing the Museum of Islamic Art – most prominently it being set on the water’s edge, away from the city and isolated from other buildings, but with a view of the city skyline.Pei, said the speaker, developed a whole new concept of sculptural imagery and has infused modern architecture with the quality of elegance, which has proved highly influential.Goldberger talked about Pei’s glass pyramid entrance in the Louvre museum courtyard in Paris, constructed in 1989, and the storm of protests and criticism which followed.“Nowadays, the pyramid is so widely accepted that it’s hard to understand why there was so much opposition at the time,” he said.During his retirement, well into his 90s, Pei has worked on three structures, said Goldberger: the Miho Museum in Kyoto, Japan, the Suzhou Museum near his childhood home in China, and finally his masterpiece, the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha.When he accepted the commission to design the MIA, Pei began by reading a biography of the Prophet Muhammad, and then went on to tour the Islamic world, visiting famous mosques and other buildings and looking for inspiration.He rejected totally the decorated style of such iconic buildings as the Ummayad Madinat al-Zabra near Cordoba in Spain, or Jean Nouvel’s Arab World Institute in Paris, with its intricate surface ornamentation, and eventually found what he was looking for in the simple geometric shapes of the ninth century fountain in the courtyard of the mosque of Ahmad Ibn Tulun, the oldest in Cairo.Pei’s trademark elements, said Goldberger, are the circle, the triangle and the square and these are a feature of early Islamic architecture.The architecture of the Ibn Tulun mosque had a profound influence on Pei, in the way its simple shapes are brought to life as the sun moves across the sky.The arcades facing the courtyard of the Ibn Tulun mosque are echoed in the rhythmic line of open arches of the courtyard that links the main building of the museum to its education wing.Goldberger went on to say: “Pei was able to create a meaningful synthesis of Islamic and Western architecture because they have many elements in common.“His goal was to create not only a modern building but one that would be a landmark, not just in Qatar, but in this entire region.“He suggested that the museum should be constructed on an island so that it could be seen against water and sky, rather than against other buildings.”Talking to Gulf Times, Goldberger said: “Although Pei had no previous experience of working in the Middle East and had never studied traditional Islamic architecture, I believe that he was chosen for this prestigious project because of his long history of deep engagements with places and culture.“When he was appointed, his clients could feel confident that he would seriously immerse himself in Islamic culture. Towards the end of his career he only accepted commissions which were important to him.”“Although he has faced criticism over the years, and not everyone admires the design of the Museum of Islamic Art, again and again Pei has been proved right.“I must admit that when the glass pyramid was constructed at the Louvre, I was amongst those who felt that it would not work. But now I have changed my opinion, and I can see now how it perfectly compliments the building behind it.”Asked whether he considered the MIA building to have achieved what Pei intended, Goldberger said: “Pei aimed to create a modern, landmark building that drew for its inspiration on certain elements of traditional Islamic architecture.“I believe that this museum is the ultimate expression of his quest for honesty and truth, and the capstone of his long career.”