To celebrate the opening of the newly refurbished permanent installation of Islamic art, the Art Institute of Chicago has organized the exhibition Arthur Pope and a New Survey of Persian Art, which shows masterpieces comprising the permanent collection of the museum, developed under the guidance of Arthur Upham Pope (1881–1969).
A great art historian, curator and collector, Pope also published “A survey of Persian Art” between 1938 and 1939. This work is composed of several volumes and still today considered to be one of the most complete works on Persian Art.
In this publication, with the help of his wife Phyllis Ackerman, he analyzed the figurative and artistic culture of the area comprising modern Iran, west Afghanistan and central Asia, all from a western aesthetic perspective.
The display includes ceramics, majolica, textiles, paintings, glassworks and lacquers, which show the development of the permanent collection of ARTIC as well as the evolution in the approach towards the study of Islamic Art.

The Art Institute of Chicago
July 17 – October 3, 2010