ART PATRON

doris duke
a haven of peace and artistry

For many, the pairing of Islamic art and a Hawaiian landscape is a surprising combination. Not so for the American heiress Doris Duke. In 1935, at 23 years of age, Duke encountered both during a honeymoon trip around the world. She was so captivated by the beauty of each that soon thereafter she purchased land in Honolulu, on which she built her home, Shangri La. For more than 60 years, Duke sustained her passion for collecting Islamic art to display here.

Duke’s dream for Shangri La was to build a home, a haven in which she could retreat from the attention of being one of the world’s wealthiest individuals. Born in 1912, she had inherited her money when aged 13, on the death of her father, JB Duke, who had amassed his wealth through tobacco and energy empires. Doris Duke left little in her own words, generally shunning the publicity that her fortune inevitably brought her. However, despite a streak of reclusiveness, she cultivated close friendships with individuals she met on her travels around the world. Duke maintained several houses around the US, but Shangri La was the only house which she had built for herself, and the imprint of its founder is everywhere. For her, the pairing of a Hawaiian setting and Islamic art fulfilled the need for tranquillity.

Shangri La consists of a handful of buildings nestled within approximately five acres (two hectares) of lush tropical landscape. The main residence lies at the eastern end of the property and faces a guesthouse, the Playhouse, located at the western end. Both buildings formed Duke’s canvas for the display of her Islamic art treasures. The relationship between the collection and the built environment is so symbiotic that it can be difficult to discern the estate’s underlying Modernist architecture...