DESIGN AND ANCIENT TREASURES DOMINATE BIG APPLE VENUES (c) By Polly Guerin

Grand openings, Islamic Art, Master Painters of India, a rich cultural heritage offers a wide range of ancient treasures in museum collections and design options. It’s the Best of New York my friends, the very best inviting the masses and intelligentsia to enlarge their experience. Here’s the scoop!!!
Pictured: Praca Cantao Favela Painting Project
DESIGN WITH THE OTHER 90% CITIES Examines the complex issues arising from unprecedented urban growth, primarily in the informal settlements and slums of the Global South. The exhibition explores the design solutions to the challenges created by rapid urban growth in informal settlements, commonly referred to as slums. Case in point, I recently returned from Rio de Janiero and had my first experience with the Favelas like the Praca Cantao Favela Painting project in Santa Marta, Rio, where artists engaged community members to paint the building exteriors in their neighborhood, calling international media attention to their need for improvement. On view off-site during Cooper-Hewitt’s renovation at the United Nations Visitors Center, main gallery, First Ave. at 46th St. October 15-January 9, 2012.
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM of ART’S GRAND OPENING of a suite of 15 New Galleries for the Art of the Arab lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia opens on November 1, a not to be missed opportunity to view ancient treasures in greatly enlarged and completely renovated galleries. house “The opening of these extraordinary new galleries underscores our mission as an encyclopedic museum and proves a unique opportunity to convey the grandeur and complexity of Islamic art and culture at a pivotal moment in world history,” stated Thomas P. Campbell, director. Highlights include the sumptuous ornamented Damascus Room, built in 1707, one of the finest examples of Syrian homes of the wealthy during the Ottoman period and rich holdings of the Islamic and Asian departments. www.metmuseum.org At 1000 Fifth Avenue.
TREASURES OF ISLAMIC MANUSCRIPT PAINTING For the first time the Morgan Library & Museum has gathered its spectacular collection of Islamic manuscripts together in a single exhibition with important religious and secular works, including a rare, illustrated translation of the life of Rumi, Our’ans and Qur’anic leaves, a thirteenth-century treatise on animals and their uses, individual miniatures, and an illustrated text on astrology, wonders of the world, demonology, and divination. Not to be missed. Bring a magnifying glass to view the colorful and intricate miniature works of art. Opens Oct. 21-January 29, 2012. www.themorgan.org.
MASTER PAINTERS OF INDIA, 1100-1900 Gives credit where credit is due and pushes the trend for explicitly proclaiming that individuals with distinctive artistic voices shaped Indian painting. The show is divided into six chronological sections from Early Hundu-Sultantate paintings to the Golden Age of Mughal painting with exquisite variety of works with jewel-like decorations and rich colors. These miniature paintings deserve magnifying glass inspection which are provided by the musem. Metropolitan Museum of Art through January 8, 2012. www.metmuseum.org.
Ta Ta Darlings!!! It’s plain to see that ancient treasures deserve my scrutiny and with magnifying glass I venture forth to view these miniature works of art. Fan mail welcome: pollytalk@verizon.net. Visit Polly’s Blogs at www.pollytalk.com and click in the right-hand column for the Blog of your interest like amazingartdecodivas, thefashionhistorian or poetryfromtheheart.