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Middle East & Islamic Studies Resources

Middle East Visual Arts Resources

New & Noteworthy

10th International
Istanbul Biennial

Logo for 10th Int'l Istanbul Biennial

From the Biennial Website, by Hou Hanru, Curator of this year's event: "[...] Founded 20 years ago, the Istanbul Biennial should be understood as a part of the modernization project of Turkey in her search for both internal cultural development and international status. The Biennial has gained a certain maturity and is now facing the task of injecting new blood and reinventing itself as a forerunner in the creation of contemporary art. [...] To critically reexamine ‘the promise of modernity’, we have chosen some of the most significant modern edifices and venues including the AKM, İMÇ, Antrepo, santralistanbul and KAHEM. They symbolically and physically mirror the various facets and models of urban modernization in the city. In these sites, the utopian project of the republican revolution and modernization meets with the lively, ever-changing and ‘chaotic’ reality, at once harmonious and conflicting. They are sites where the top-down vision of the modern city clashes with the bottom-up imaginations and actions promoting difference and hybridity."

(Click on image to see larger version)

Lyric Visions from Nezami’s “Quintet”

A unique display of more than 20 works from San Diego Museum of Art’s collection showcases images from the Khamseh or “Quintet” of Nezami, one of the most renowned Persian poets of all time. The paintings on view were created for or inspired by Nezami’s texts, which are among the most celebrated and influential poetic works in all of Persian literature. More...

Notable Web Sites

Nafas
Online magazine: Contemporary art from Islamic influenced countries and regions

Since March 2003, this online magazine has presented articles, information, and visual material on current art whose essential point of origin or reference is in the Islamic world. Of course, this also includes the work of artists who live elsewhere, but who see their cultural home in countries and regions shaped by Islam. To prevent misunderstandings: this publication is not about "Islamic" art.

Arab Image Foundation

The Arab Image Foundation is a non-profit foundation that was established in Lebanon in 1996. The Foundation aims to promote photography in the Middle East and North Africa by locating, collecting, and preserving the region's photographic heritage. Our collections will be made available to the public at large in museum and gallery exhibitions and in published monographs.

Special Collections

Palestinian and Lebanese Poster collection, 1960-1991.: Click here to see Finding aid
Rubenstein Library
6th 16:D Acc. 09/128: Box 1 c.1
6th 16:D Acc. 09/128: Box 2 c.1
6th 16:D Acc. 09/128: Box 3 c.1
OC:VIII:5 Acc. 09/128: Ovsz. Folder 1
Summary: The majority of the collection consists of political posters from Palestine and tourism posters from Lebanon. Also included are some travel brochures and pamphlets about various sites in Jordan, Syria, Yemen, Egypt, and Lebanon. Materials largely date from the 1960s-1980s.

Turkish political poster collection, 1945-1978 and undated.: Rubenstein Library Ovsz. Box XX OC:VIII:XX Fully Processed: Folder 1-4
Description: see Finding Aid

Selected Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, and Monographs

Ådahl, Karin and Mikael Ahlund.: Islamic art collections : an international survey.
Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2000.
Lilly Library N6260 .I85 2000 Check availability @ Duke

Blair, Sheila.: The art and architecture of Islam 1250-1800.
New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, 1994.
Lilly Reference 709 P385x, v. 3 Check availability @ Duke

Chaudhuri, Shohini: Contemporary world cinema : Europe, the Middle East, East Asia and South Asia
Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2005
Lilly Library PN1994 .C34348 2005 Check availability @ Duke

Ettinghausen, Richard.: Early Islamic art and architecture.
New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, 2001.
Lilly Reference 709 P384, v. 51 Check availability @ Duke

Haus der Kulturen der Welt: DisORIENTation : contemporary Arab artists from the Middle East : literature, film, performance, music, theatre, visual arts = Zeitgenossische arabische Kunstler aus dem Nahen Osten
Berlin : Haus der Kulturen der Welt, 2003
Lilly Library 700.904 D612, 2003 Check availability @ Duke

Leaman, Oliver: Companion encyclopedia of Middle Eastern and North African film
London ; New York : Routledge, 2001
Lilly Library Reference 791.4375 C737, 2001 Check availability @ Duke

Lemke, Wolf-Dieter.: Staging the Orient : fin de siècle popular visions = Représentations de l'Orient : imagerie populaire fin de siècle.
Beirut : Editions Dar An-Nahar, 2004.
Lilly Library N8217.E88 L46 2004 Check availability @ Duke

Maasri, Zeina.: Off the wall : political posters of the Lebanese Civil War.
London ; New York; New York: I.B. Tauris; Distributed in the USA by Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Lilly Library NC1806.8 .M33 2009 Check availability @ Duke

Melis, Wim.: Nazar : photographs from the Arab world.
New York : Aperture ; London : Thames & Hudson [distributor], 2005.
Lilly Library TR114 .N39 2004 Check availability @ Duke

Özgüç, Agâh, 1935-: Türk film yönetmenleri sözlüğü.
Taksim, İstanbul : Agora, 2003.
Lilly Library PN1993.5.T8 O267 2003 Check availability @ Duke

Porter, Venetia.: Word into art : artists of the modern Middle East.
London : British Museum Press, 2006.
Lilly Library N7265 .P67 2006 Check availability @ Duke

Roques, Karin Adrian von, et al.: Lughāt al-ṣaḥrāʻ = Sprachen der Wüste : zeitgenössische arabische Kunst aus den Golfstaaten = Languages of the desert : contemporary Arab art from the Gulf States.
Köln : DuMont, 2005.
Lilly Library N7265.5 .L844 2005 Check availability @ Duke

Shafik, Viola: Arab cinema : history and cultural identity
Cairo, Egypt : American University in Cairo Press, 1998
Lilly Library 791.4309174 S525, A658, 1998 Check availability @ Duke

Vernoit, Stephen.: Discovering Islamic art : scholars, collectors and collections 1850-1950.
London : I. B. Tauris, 2000.
Lilly Library 709.17671 D611, 2000 Check availability @ Duke

Zuhur, Sherifa (ed.): Images of enchantment : visual and performing arts of the Middle East.
Cairo, Egypt : American University in Cairo Press, c1998.
Lilly Library 700.956 I31, 1998 Check availability @ Duke
Contents: Introduction / Sherifa Zuhur -- Changing images and shifting identities : female performers in Egypt / Karin van Nieuwkerk -- Women’s performance in ritual context : wedding among the Rashayda of Sudan / William Young -- Folk music and dance in the Arabian Gulf and Saudi Arabia / Kay Hardy Campbell -- A procession through time: the Zaffat al-ʻarusa in three views -- Asmahan : Arab musical performance and musicianship under the myth / Sherifa Zuhur -- Performance, political identity, and memory : Umm Kulthum and Gamal 'Abd al-Nasir / Virginia Danielson -- Western classical music in Umm Kulthum’s country / Selim Sednaoui -- The music of Arab Americans : aesthetics and performance in a new land / Anne Rasmussen -- Beyond the performance / Simon Shaheen -- Gender and politics in contemporary art : Arab women empower the image / Salwa M. Nashashibi -- The artist’s voice / Chaibia Talal -- Imagery and invention : Sudanese at home and in the world conversations with Mohamed Omer Bushara and Musa Khalifa / Sondra Hale -- Image and experience : why cinema? / Farida Ben Lyazid -- Victims or actors? centering women in Egyptian commercial film / Sherifa Zuhur -- Iranian cinema under the Islamic Republic / Hamid Naficy -- Reverse imagery : Middle Eastern themes in Hollywood / Rebecca Stone -- Farida Fahmy and the dancer's image in Egyptian film / Marjorie Franken -- Terrorism and Kabab : a Capraesque view of modern Egypt / Walter Armbrust.