Category: Art

The Louvre’s New Islamic Galleries Bring Riches to Light – NYTimes.com. Now the museum is again risking the public’s wrath as it introduces the most radical architectural intervention since the pyramid in 1989. Designed to house new galleries for Islamic art, it consists of ground- and lower-ground-level interior spaces topped by a golden, undulating roof that seems to float within the neo-Classical Visconti Courtyard in the middle of the Louvre’s south wing, right below the museum’s most popular galleries, where the Mona Lisa and Veronese’s “Wedding Feast of Cana” are hung.

What Does Islamic Music Have to do With Blues, Jazz, and Surf Rock? More Than You Think. | FrontRow. What do Bruce Springsteen, Mahalia Jackson, and John Coltrane all have in common? Well according to Dr. Hussein Rashid of Hofstra University  each bear witness to the Islamic Contribution to American Music. This was the title of his lecture at my law school alma mater, Southern Methodist University.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Contemporary Iranian Art from the Permanent Collection. This exhibition features seven works by three generations of Iranian artists—Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian (b. 1924), Parviz Tanavoli (b. 1937), Y.Z. Kami (b. 1956), Shirin Neshat (b. 1957), Afruz Amighi (b. 1974), and Ali Banisadr (b. 1976)—four of whom live and work in the United States, while two continue to work in Iran. Despite their diverse modes of expression, these artworks reflect an intrinsic connection with Iran and address issues of identity, political and social concerns, gender, nostalgia, and cultural pride.

Iranian Comic-Book Artists Seek a Unique, Local Identity – NYTimes.com. Many young Iranian artists admit to a passion for comic books from the United States and Europe. They can be purchased in Tehran, though they are expensive and often covered with the censors’ black ink. But local artists say they are trying to stamp their work with an Iranian identity.

A Turkish Fashion Magazine, Ala, Is Unshy About Showing Some Piety – NYTimes.com. Except for the religious headgear, the shoot could have been for any glossy fashion magazine. But Ala — called the “Vogue of the veiled” in the Turkish news media — is no conventional publication. In an unlikely fusion of conservative Muslim values and high fashion, it unabashedly appeals to the pious head-scarf-wearing working woman, who may covet a Louis Vuitton purse but has no use for the revealing clothing that pervades traditional fashion magazines.

Muslim actors (and others) take note of the quote below. We don’t need to be terrorists on television, or anywhere else. Peter Dinklage Was Smart to Say No – NYTimes.com. He sipped his coffee and pointed out that media portrayal is, in part, the fault of actors who are dwarves. “You can say no. You can not be the object of ridicule.”

Nice review of the state of architecture for Muslims (not necessarily Islamic architecture) in the US. I particularly like the point Maryam makes, let’s go back to praying together, instead of this modern notion of segregating the sexes. BBC News – Muslim America moves away from the minaret. Architect Maryam Eskandari, former associate director of the American Institute of Architects, is touring the US with a photo exhibition illustrating the transition of American mosques from traditional to postmodern design.  She says Islamic architecture has long been subject to personal interpretation and set in a cultural and historical context.

ArtLit Competition. Long gone are the days that teens would pick up a book and become utterly lost in the London slums and alleys of Dickens or caught up in the schemes and adventures of Twain’s Huckleberry Finn on the Mississippi River. Today these playgrounds of the mind have been replaced by video games, texting and the social networks of the internet. Our purpose of organizing this competition is to inculcate love for art and literature. The award ceremony brings together people of different backgrounds to promote arts, understanding and cross-cultural dialogue.