Afghanistan is situated at the heart of the 5,000 miles of ancient and medieval trade routes known as the Silk Road. This geography was a central reason for the development of a rich mixture of cultures and artistic styles as expressed by the region’s artists over thousands of years.
Experienced Afghan artists and artisans, typically trained through knowledge passed down from one generation to another in their families, have in recent years begun to train a new generation in their highly specialized—and stunningly beautiful—crafts. Afghanistan is home to thousands of years of creativity in the arts. The current revival within its borders is only the latest flowering of the country’s distinctive styles and techniques in pottery, glassmaking, goldsmithing, jewelry-making, and more.
In addition to the revival in contemporary arts at home, the historical and modern-day treasures of Afghan culture have also become in-demand items for exhibitions in Western museums. Here are glimpses of some of the most notable museum installations to highlight these glorious artistic traditions in the past 20 years:
2002: Houston Reintroduces Afghan Culture
From November 2002 to February 2003, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston hosted “Afghanistan: A Timeless History,” a show of more than 100 pieces of the country’s art. With this exhibit, American museum-goers had their first chance in 35 years to learn first-hand about the depth and breadth of the Afghan cultural heritage.
The show included paintings, sculptures, and even an ax fashioned from gold and silver with animal figures, thought to have been used for ceremonial purposes. The variety of the pieces indicated the variety of cultural influences on one of the world’s most distinctive artistic identities.
There were Bronze Age statuettes, busts produced at the time of the European classical period in Greece and Rome, and miniatures from the Mughal era in India, as well as clothing, jewelry, helmets, and other pieces that reflected Afghanistan’s status as a prosperous center of culture since ancient times.
Most of the pieces in “Afghanistan: A Timeless History” were borrowed from European museums, or from private collections, after years of conflict in Afghanistan itself. The show’s curators intended it as a tribute to the seemingly miraculous resilience and determination of the team at the National Museum in Kabul.
2008: A Historic Collaboration Highlights Cultural Richness
“Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul” made its United States debut in May 2008 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. It went on to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and other major venues worldwide.
The show was organized under the leadership of the National Geographic Society in partnership with the National Gallery, the Met, and other leading museums. It brought long-neglected pieces from four separate archeological sites in Afghanistan to Western audiences with little to no previous knowledge of them.
The more than 200 works on display in the exhibit highlighted the major contributions of Afghan artists to world culture, particularly during the time from the Bronze Age (c. 3300 to 1200 BCE) to the Kushan Empire (1st to 4th centuries CE).
Among the standout pieces in the exhibit was a collection of Bronze Age golden vessels. These items were part of a trove of gold and silver ornaments, coins, and other objects discovered at the Tepe Fullol site in the north of Afghanistan.
The city of Aï Khanum produced beautifully fashioned architectural elements in the Hellenistic style, examples of which were included in the exhibit. Aï Khanum was founded as an outpost of Greek culture sometime from the 4th to the 3rd century BCE, and it was abandoned about 130 to 120 BCE.
From the Begram site, the exhibition included examples of Silk Road trade goods such as Roman glass, ivory sculptures and other pieces. And from the tombs of nomadic peoples found at Tillya Tepe, the exhibit highlighted gold ornaments and jewelry encrusted with turquoise, part of what archeologists often call the “Bactrian hoard.”
2013: Building Bridges in the Artistic Community
In 2013, the British Council in London hosted the exhibition “Gem: Contemporary Jewelry and Gemstones from Afghanistan.” The show focused not only on jewelery pieces by contemporary artists in Afghanistan, but additionally on works by a few western artists working with the same gem-cutting and fashioning techniques.
The program represented a signal collaboration between the British Council and Turquoise Mountain. The latter is a Kabul-based nonprofit that works to promote the interests of Afghan designers, artisans, and craftspeople around the world.
One particular strength of the “Gem” exhibition was its detailed exploration of how contemporary jewelers in and outside of Afghanistan apply the country’s time-honored practices of crafting striking pieces from gold, precious and semiprecious stones, and other materials.
On display alongside the jewelry were tools of the Afghan jeweler’s trade, examples of raw gemstones, and maps showing the origin of these gemstones in Afghanistan. A short film on the craft of jewelry-making in Afghan culture complemented the exhibit’s other documentary materials. At the time of the “Hidden Treasures” exhibit a decade ago, one Afghan archeologist estimated that only about one-tenth of the archeologically significant sites in his country had even been discovered. What remains undiscovered could set the stage for future exhibitions that might surpass even these.