Sheila R. Canby, a leading authority on Islamic art who curated a humanizing portrait of Islam through its cultural treasures at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, offering an alternative to the hostile narratives of religion and politics after 9/11, died on Aug. 17 in Milford, Del. She was 76.
Her death, in a hospice facility, was from complications of lung cancer, her husband, John Voss Jr., said.
In the days following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, wrote Holland Cotter of The New York Times, “many art-loving New Yorkers felt impelled to visit the overlooked Islamic galleries at the Metropolitan Museum, as if to get some grasp of a religion suddenly central to their lives.”
But in an awkward bit of timing, the galleries closed for renovation in May 2003 and did not reopen to the public until November 2011 — a decade after the attacks. By then, the museum had hired Ms. Canby, bringing her over in 2009 from the British Museum in London, where she had held a similar position as curator of Islamic art and antiquities since 1991. Part of her new job at the Met was overseeing the expansion and re-installation of the Islamic art galleries.
It turned out to be, Mr. Cotter wrote, “one of the hires of the decade.”
When the collection reopened, it had a new, more historically accurate name: the Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia. While somewhat ungainly, the name was meant to be more inclusive of diverse cultural works — secular and religious — from a vast region extending from Spain to India.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The post Sheila R. Canby, Curator at the Met Who Humanized Islam, Dies at 76 appeared first on New York Times.
