Islamic Architecture and Art from Doris Duke’s Shangri La
Two of Duke’s greatest passions – her love of the water and her love of Islamic art and architecture – came together spectacularly at Shangri La, her exotic ocean front estate in Honolulu and the only home she built for herself from ground up beginning in the late 1930s. In 2016 at Rough Point, Waterscapes explored the theme of water through objects loaned from Shangri La; photographs of the property and other historic sites that inspired its many fountains, pools, and cascades; and home movies of Duke’s travels in North Africa, the Middle East, and India to buy art and furnishings for the house.
The exhibition was accompanied by a fully illustrated publication by guest curators and noted Islamic art scholars Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom, with contributions by Kent Severson, conservator at Shangri La. Copies are available for purchase at Rough Point, or online here. For more information about Shangri La, which operates today, according to Duke’s wishes, as a house museum and a center for the study of Islamic arts and cultures, please visit www.shangrilahawaii.org
