Motions to Dismiss: Images of the Prophet Muhammad and the Loss of Visual Ambivalence

In April 2023, I was informed by a colleague that two Islamic paintings included in the Asia Society Art Museum’s exhibition Comparative Hell: Arts of the Asian Underworlds were blurred in its online virtual tour. I examined the pixelated imagery and immediately recognized the paintings as containing figural depictions of the Prophet Muhammad. Their identification was quick and easy since I had served on the show’s scientific committee and was tasked with the catalogue’s essay and entries on Islamic hell imagery. These alterations were neither brought to my attention nor were the curators at lending institutions informed. Moreover, within the gallery spaces, “No Photos” signs were placed above the blurred paintings’ labels and a Muslim-Iranian journalist was accosted by security guards when she attempted to visually record these signs. This talk examines the Hell show along with the museum’s various “motions to dismiss”: through digital blurring, photographic prohibition, physical intimidation, and the bypassing of scholarly expertise—all moves detectable at Hamline University, the Tropenmuseum, the Florida charter school, and elsewhere. By connecting these recent image debacles, this presentation investigates which actors lay claim to religiosity and rectitude (as well as how and why), the processes that lead to a purging of the richness and complexity of Islam’s artistic heritage, and, above all, the loss of visual ambivalence that results from the juggernaut project of modernity in today’s polarized, viral world.