Cover image: An installation at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto with Kamrooz Aram’s Lapis Intervention and historical objects. All photos in this post are by the author.
The Aga Khan Museum is a museum of Islamic art located in Toronto, Canada. It’s rooted in the collection of spiritual leader and humanitarian Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, Aga Khan IV (1936-2025). The museum, which opened in 2014, displays historical and contemporary artworks from Islamic cultures in a cool modernist building that has nice decorative details and a lovely interior courtyard.
The Collection
The museum’s main exhibition space displays historical artworks from across the Islamic sphere of influence. There are objects from places like Iran, Egypt, Spain, Turkey, Syria, India, and even China, with examples of ceramics, metalwork, illuminated manuscripts, miniature paintings, calligraphy, textiles, wood carvings, architectural fragments, and more. There are also a couple of contemporary artworks related to the historical offerings in juxtapositions I found quite effective. There’s not a huge selection from any particular art form or culture except Iran, and I feel like I’ve seen more exciting individual pieces in the Islamic galleries of the Met and the V&A. Thus, I think the museum’s real strength comes from seeing all these objects together in a museum dedicated to them.
Text panels and videos in both English and French explain the major cultural and artistic traditions on display. The start of the exhibition includes a giant digital map that highlights the geographic areas associated with each culture or dynasty represented. There was also some good education material about things like calligraphy, rugs, and more.
Highlights (at least for me)
- An Egyptian marble-and-mosaic fountain
- Examples of Iznik pottery from Turkey, alongside other ceramics
- Persian and Indian miniature paintings and illuminated manuscripts
- Architectural wood carvings with elaborte geometric motifs
- Copious amounts of metalwork in all styles and forms, including serving vessels, candlesticks, incense burners, and a large standard with silhouettes of dragon heads
- Kamrooz Aram’s Lapis Intervention, a blue-toned abstract painting paired with an Iranian ceramic vase (shown in the top image)
- A 15th-cenury, Turkish-style carpet made in Spain that’s on loan from the MFA Boston.
In addition, there is a separate gallery filled with display cases showing all different sorts of ceramics. It’s really fun to see so many different styles, forms, color palettes, and types of decoration all together. These pieces were collected by Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan (1933-2003), the museum founder’s uncle, and his wife. A selection of contemporary pieces inspired by ancient Egyptian statues appeared amidst the ceramics as part of an installation for the Toronto Biennial of Art.
This museum also hosted an exhibition about the history of games (board games, sports, etc.) as told through art and objects. I saw it just a few days before it closed, so I’m not going to talk about it in detail except to say that I was really impressed. The curation was fun and engaging, especially in the many interactive elements. If this is an indication of what special exhibitions are generally like at this museum, they must be pretty fantastic.
Details
The Aga Khan Museum is located in Toronto, Canada. General admission for adults costs $20 Canadian. Parking is adjacent to the museum and costs $10 Canadian for the day. The museum is lovely and I definitely recommend it; plan just a few hours for your visit.
This museum has adjacent gardens in its 17-acre Aga Khan Park, but I didn’t get to visit them because there was a severe storm on the day of my visit. The little bit I saw on my walk from the parking lot included reflecting pools and lines of trees and seemed really lovely. I believe there are art installations in the park as well.
There’s also a nice gift shop with some great decorative items, like reproductions of ceramics from the collection, books, scarves, and jewelry – above average museum shop fare in my opinion, though I didn’t buy anything. There is also both a cafe and a sit-down restaurant.
