Doris Duke’s Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape, and Islamic Art

September 7, 2012 - June 7, 2015

September 7, 2012-February 17, 2013, Museum of Arts and Design March 16-July 15, 2013, The Norton Museum of Art August 29, 2013-January 5, 2014, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University January 25-May 4, 2014, University of Michigan Museum of Art May 31-September 7, 2014, Nevada Museum of Art October 26-December 28, 2014, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery February 12-June 7, 2015, Honolulu Museum of Art

Organized on the centenary of Doris Duke’s (1912-1993) birth by guest curators Donald Albrecht, curator of design for the Museum of the City of New York, and Thomas Mellins, architectural historian, “Doris Duke’s Shangri La: Architecture, Landscape, and Islamic Art” explored the synthesis of 1930s modernist architecture, tropical landscape and Islamic art that Duke achieved at Shangri La. This was the first major exhibition about Shangri La to be shown outside Hawai‘i, taking the story of Duke’s transformative engagement with the Islamic world and her work at Shangri La to national audiences.

The exhibit featured photographs by Tim Street-Porter, archival materials, and a selection of more than 60 objects of Islamic art from the collection. The exhibition also included new art work by seven past artists-in-residence, including Zakariya Amataya, Afruz Amighi, Shezad Dawood, Emre Hüner, Walid Raad, Shahzia Sikander and Mohamed Zakariya.

The exhibition is accompanied by the book “Doris Duke’s Shangri La: A House in Paradise,” edited by exhibition curators Donald Albrecht and Thomas Mellins and published by Skira/Rizzoli.