Another Major Islamic Art Exhibit Heads to US Museums in 2013

THE OREGONIAN
By D.K. Row

Qurâan Manuscript Endowed as Waqf

OREGON - The Portland Art Museum will be one of four museums to host a major exhibition on Islamic art over the next two years. The exhibit, "Beauty and Belief: Crossing Bridges With the Arts of Islamic Culture," is being organized by the Brigham Young University Museum of Art in Provo, Utah, and spans Islamic culture from the seventh century to the present. More than 250 artworks and artifacts from 40 collections in nine countries, including Kuwait, Morocco, Great Britain and the United States, will be featured in the show. Besides Brigham Young and the Portland museum, the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Newark Museum are the other venues, so far, who've signed on to present the exhibit. The show will run in Portland from June 15, 2013, to Sept. 8, 2013. [link]

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Year 2011: Declining Number of Atheists, But More Believers

VATICAN INSIDER
By Marco Tosatti

The Dali Lama

ITALY - According to the annual “Status of Global Missions” study, in this first part of the millennium non-believers will lose two million seven hundred thousand members, whilst declared atheists will lose one million and 370 thousand “faithful”. Religions are flourishing in the twenty-first century, with no exception. Christianity, in all its possible variants, totals two billion three hundred million followers, and is growing more than any other faith: according to the calculations made by the study, more than 83 thousand faithful come under the sign of the Cross. Following close behind, of course, is Islam. Hinduism is in third place. Its believers add up to 952 million, who live primarily in India, but also in neighbouring parts of Asia. Still in Asia, although present in statistically small numbers elsewhere, is Buddhism. [link]

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Book Picks: 5000 Years of Indian Art by Sushma K. Bahl

THE HINDU

INDIA - 5000 Years of Indian Art by Sushma K. Bahl. This work demystifies the story of India art spread over the millennia. This visually stunning book is a rare example of a volume that offers a panoramic view of Indian art from the pre-historic times to contemporary period. [link]

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Dalai Lama Unveils New Coffee Table Book, "Sharnam Gacchami"

THE TIMES OF INDIA

INDIA - Today, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will unveil a coffee table book, "Sharnam Gacchami: An Album of Awakening". The book portrays India as the land where Buddha preached and where great scholars planted the roots of Buddhism. The unveiling is part of a multi-disciplinary festival of Buddhist arts and culture will bring to the capital performances and art from across Asia from Nov 28-Dec 1. The festival will be presented by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) to coincide with the Global Buddhist Congregation to commemorate the 2,600th year of enlightenment of Lord Buddha. The objective of the festival is to showcase influence of Buddhism in performing arts and traditions which have impacted not only India but other countries where Buddhism is the prominent religion or the social factor. [link]

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The New Mass Translation in Here! Why the Change? Why Now?! - Chicago Catholic

EXAMINER
By William M. Leubscher, Chicago Catholic Examiner

ILLINOIS - Chicago Catholics, were you in church last Sunday? If so, you may have noticed some changes. We have officially entered the Advent season, and for Chicago’s Roman Catholics that means the church is finally implementing the much talked about “new Roman missal” that’s been announced for over a year. On the plus side, they seem to have prepared parishioners pretty well. On the downside, reactions to most of the changes have been mixed. Much of the music that Chicago area Catholics grew up with is being discarded or changed. For example, the hymn “Glory to God in the highest/ Sing Glory to God/ Glory to God in the highest/And peace to his people on earth” cannot be used anymore because the new English translation reads "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to people of good will”. Happy Advent! [link]

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Gay Americans, Censorship, And ‘After The Gold Rush’ At The Metropolitan Museum Of Art

THINK PROGRESS
By Alyssa Rosenberg

I spent a day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York over the holiday, and saw two terrific exhibits: the reopened Islamic art wing, about which much more to come, and “After the Gold Rush,” a contemporary photography show. Two pieces in the latter exhibit struck me in particular. First, Philip-Lorca diCorcia took his 1991 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and used it to tweak conservatives who were hysterical over NEA funding for a traveling show of Robert Mapplethorpe’s work. In the second, Robert Gober superimposes a man’s hand between two newspaper articles, clipped neatly and placed on a shell-strewn beach. Below his hand, the article refers to Matthew Shepard’s death. Above it, a letter to the editor argues that “Orthodox Jews, conservative Christians and others have a right to speak out against homosexuality without being placed in the category of thuggery.” [link]

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Hanukkah Lamps Selected by Maurice Sendak Opens at The Jewish Museum

THE BROADWAY WORLD

Final illustration for In Grandpa’s House (1985) by Philip Sendak, 1982

NEW YORK - The Jewish Museum will present An Artist Remembers: Hanukkah Lamps Selected by Maurice Sendak from December 2, 2011 through January 29, 2012. This exhibition features thirty-three Hanukkah lamps of varied eras and styles, chosen by renowned author and illustrator Maurice Sendak from The Jewish Museum's extensive collection. This highly personal selection of lamps, many never before exhibited, echoes the quality of line and depth of emotion that define Sendak's work. Hanukkah begins at sundown on Tuesday, December 20 and continues until sundown on Wednesday, December 28, 2011. [link]

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Fashion Designer Joseph Altuzarra's Muse is a Virgin Mary Santos

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By David Colman

Joseph Altuzarra with his santos, an antique statue of the Virgin Mary.

NEW YORK - [Mr. Joseph Altuzarra, 28, plays] the fashion game well enough to engineer a cannily timed fashion revival, like this fall’s grunge-inspired collection. So it’s surprising to hear that, until his sophomore year at Swarthmore, Mr. Altuzarra had only a personal interest in fashion, dead set on a career pursuing his concentration, art history. But then, speaking of art history, it wasn’t really a mannequin that Mr. Altuzarra bought upon arriving in New York. It was a santos, or cage doll: an antique Provençal statue of the Madonna, similar to the carved wooden ones he remembered from his childhood, when he and his parents spent August in Provence. “She does make me feel very safe,” he said. But of course, that has been part of the Virgin Mary’s success as a subject of artistic inspiration. She is the supermodel of all who worship her. [link]

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Documentary "Art as a Weapon" Needs to Raise $30,000

AOA NEWS

Burmese Monk by Shepard Fairey. Courtesy of Downtown San Diego Murals

The producers of the new documentary, "Art as a Weapon" featuring celebrated street artist Shepard Fairey need to raise $30,000 by December 9 to complete the project. According to their press release, director/producer Jeff Durking was inspired to make the film when Shepard painted a 30' tall Burmese monk in his neighborhood in San Diego. The film will give the audience a peek into the lives of Burmese school children learning how to use spray paint, Buddhist monks who write poetry, and street artist Shepard Fairey creating a three-story mural in support of Burma. Part art film, part political film, the goal is to help end human rights abuses by spreading the word about the oppression in Burma. Donations can be made through the Kickstarter.com website.

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High School Art Contest in India Features both Religious & Secular Images

THE HINDU

Aakriti, VI, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Keltron Nagar, Kannur.

INDIA - The Hindu Young World painting competition was started way back in 1992 as an initiative to encourage students in art. Students from across India were asked to paint and send in their entries by post to The Hindu. Subsequently, in 2007, it was decided that all this precious talent should be highlighted for all to see and selected paintings of the winners of the consolation prizes in the senior and junior categories were displayed in popular art galleries in the city. [link]

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Jewish Marriage Contract Combines Art, Love, and Faith

THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
By Lisa Schencker

Ketubah by Salt Lake City artist Suzanne Tornquist

UTAH - For thousands of years, ketubot (plural of ketubah) have been signed at Jewish weddings, in accordance with Jewish law. And though the contracts have changed over time, the tradition lives on, even experiencing, in recent years, a surge in popularity, with couples now often choosing ketubot with an eye toward displaying them in their homes. "To a certain degree, it has to do with a pride in having this wedding and a pride in the Jewish aspect of it," said Rabbi Ilana Schwartzman of Salt Lake City’s Congregation Kol Ami. "It is a piece of artwork that you and your beloved have together, and, for a lot of people, it may be the first piece of artwork they get together as a new family. [link]

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Video: Advent installation at Salisbury Cathedral.

CLAYFIRE
by Linda Parriott



UNITED KINGDOM - Every year, Salisbury Cathedral marks the beginning of Advent with the Procession, “From Darkness to Light.” Last year’s service featured an art installation, “Light Shower,” by lighting designer and installation artist Bruce Munro. [link]

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Twin Brothers Create African American Bible Images

URBAN FAITH
By Jenet Grier

"Jesus loves the little children"

ILLINOIS - Aaron and Alan Hicks, identical twins from Chicago, have found a way to use their dual passion for art to honor God and celebrate their African American heritage. With virtually identical styles, the Hicks brothers create unique and inspiring images of favorite and lesser-known Bible characters, as well as wholesome, true-to-life depictions of African Americans of all ages. Through their company, Twin Hicks, the brothers provide illustrations for several of the Sunday school publications produced by UrbanFaith’s parent company, Urban Ministries Inc. (UMI). UrbanFaith caught up with the talented brothers as they launched their newest art offering — the 2012 Faith and Hope calendars from UMI. [link]

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What is Culture? Singapore Artists Fight for Methodist Landmark

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Justin Zhuang

Illustrator Tan Zi Xi, better known as MessyMsxi, solo exhibition ‘Ten Years of Work for Every Minute on Stage’

A tattered sticker on a lamppost greets visitors who have climbed up the 143 steps to the top of Singapore’s Mount Sophia with this question: “What is our culture?” One answer may sit just beyond, at the former Methodist Girls’ School campus that now houses Old School, an art space that has been an important part of the city’s local art scene since it was established in 2007. Old School sits in a prime location, just off the shopping area of Orchard Road and Bras Brasah, the arts and culture district. It began in 2007, when five entrepreneurs turned the abandoned campus into work spaces for creative professionals. The initial two-year lease was extended twice over four years, and Old School became one of the city’s few independent arts and culture hubs, regularly hosting free events for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians and photographers. [link]

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RELIGIOUS ART | TALK OF WEEK

AOA NEWS
By Tahlib

"ABHAYA: AUNG SAN SUU KYI" (above) by James MacKay is one of 244 color portraits in an unprecedented new gallery show in Burma. "Abhaya" means "fearless, and is a hand gesture symbolizing peace, and dispelling fear. The gesture is made with the right hand raised to shoulder height, arm bent, and palm facing outward, and originated from the fifth Buddha, Amoghasiddhi who first used it when he gained "enlightenment" and later when facing an angry elephant who was calmed by the gesture. In each of the 244 palms is written the name of a Burmese political prisoner, and for us at Alpha Omega Arts seemed a fitting way to acknowledge the freedoms we enjoy in US during this Thanksgiving week. Listed below are the other news stories of the past week from the world of religious art. The stories are grouped by the five largest faith traditions, with an additional category for other/interfaith.

BUDDHIST ART:

• Theme for Burmese Human Rights Exhibit is Buddhism's "Fear Not" (Bangkok Post)
• Art As A Weapon Documentary Project Features Shepard Fairey (Stupid Dope)
• Hanoi's Dream in Canada Thru December 5th (Vietnam News)

HINDU ART:

• Hindu Temple Art is Part of Story in MET's Islamic Art Galleries (The Hindu)

ISLAMIC ART:

• Muslim Self Portraits Defy Stereotypes (Washington Post)
• Book Review: New Book Examines Relationship Between Fine Art & Islam (ABNA)
• Jordan's Nadia Dajani Creates Wearable Islamic Jewels (Arab News)
• "Art of the Arab Lands" is New Name for "Islamic Art" Gallery in NYC (Montreal Gazette)
• Houston Museum Highlights Islamic Gifting Over the Centuries (Voice of America)
• Muslim Women's Art Project of Australia Nears Ready (The Australian)

JEWISH ART:

• Chagalls Synagogues up for Sale at Sothebys on Dec. 14 (Russia Today)

CHRISTIAN ART:

• Indiana University Art Museum Returns Painting to Berlin Museum (Fox News 59)
• Tiny Church Beats Cathedral for UK's Biggest Art & Faith Prize (Guardian)
• Want Catholic Art in USA? Head to Bob Jones University (Washington Post)
• Bob Jones University Questions "Fundamentalist" Label (Christian Century)
• Vatican Cracking Down on Church Art, Architecture and Music (Vatican Insider)
• VIDEO: 2011 Brehm Lectures on Art & Faith (Brehm Center)
• VIDEO: Cutting Arts in Schools is Unacceptable in Portland (Christian Today)

INTERFAITH & OTHER ART:

• Colorado Art Museum Honors Patron Saint of Artists with "Windows to the Divine" (AOA News)
• 7 Suggestions for Congregations Seeking to Launch "Arts Ministries" (AOA News)
• Activist Painter, Scott LoBaido Paints Protest of Brooklyn Museum's Art Show (AOA News)
• Nude Islamic Artist-Activist Draws More Fire Plus Some Support (Telegraph)
• Egyptian Sculptor & Performance Artist Stages “Baptism in Black" (ArtInfo)
• Three Faiths in Art at London's RED Gallery (Independent Catholic News)
• VIDEO: Atheists Launch Campaign to Get Unbelievers to ‘Come Out’ (AOA News)

Get your daily dose of Alpha Omega Arts on Facebook and/or Twitter, or just come back each day. There's always something new to talk about in today's interfaith world of art.

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Cutting Arts in Schools is Unacceptable in Portland

CHRISTIANITY TODAY | This is Our City



OREGON - Creativity is essential to the human experience. So what happens when arts and music become a victim of budget cuts? For Laura Streib this was a reality that was unacceptable. For Streib, cuts to arts programs meant getting involved in Portland public schools. [link]

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Atheists Launch Campaign to Get UnBelievers to ‘Come Out’

THE WASHINGTON POST
By Kimberly Winston

The young man in the video pulls in close to his computer camera with the trappings of a typical college dorm room — a loft bed and the clutter of cast-off clothes — piled behind him. Alex Fiorentini isn’t talking about girls, beer or football. Instead, it’s a coming-out moment of sorts. “Is it acceptable to the majority of the population to be an atheist?” he asks the camera. “Nope. Are all of your friends going to accept you as an atheist? Probably not all of them. And yeah, those things are gonna suck. But the real question is, ‘Is it OK to be me?’ That is the real question if you are an atheist.” For Fiorentini, a student at the University of Illinois, the answer is yes. He and scores of other atheists, young and old, have made similar videos for a new campaign designed to build community and support among nontheists around the world. Dubbed “We Are Atheism,” the campaign was launched this fall by three students at the University of Kansas. [link]

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Three Faiths in Art at London's RED Gallery

INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC NEWS
By Anita Boniface

UNITED KINGDOM - Collaboration was clearly a key to success at last night’s Faith in the City festival, part of a week long celebration of the Abrahamic faiths, hosted by the RED Gallery in London. Here, artists from Christian, Jewish and Muslim backgrounds exhibited artwork exploring common elements in their lifestyles, beliefs and practices. The central focal point of the exhibition was three, multi-faith pieces of artwork exploring common aspects of the religions. Funded by Urban Dialogues, A3 depicts the letter A in Hebrew, Latin and Arabic alphabets. Night/Light explores the symbolism of light through urban associations, and Thresholds shows how religious custom and beliefs are embedded in the design and decoration of buildings. [link]

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Egyptian Sculptor & Performance Artist Stages “Baptism in Black"

ARTINFO
By Jason Frydman

"Baptism in Black"sculpture-and-performance by Nader Sadek

Nader Sadek’s 2011 sculpture-and-performance piece “Baptism in Black” staged a Satanic ritual that desecrated the artist’s uniquely fabricated bust of Hosni Mubarak. Performed in the politically charged White Tower in Thessaloniki, Greece, at the end of September, Sadek’s piece channeled and connected the unrest fueling both Arab revolutions and Eurozone crises. “Baptism in Black” links the Egyptian government’s persecution of heavy metal music and culture to the 2011 uprising that overthrew Mubarak’s 30-year dictatorship. Nader Sadek is a Cairo-born multimedia artist based in New York who explores the intersectino of heavy metal culture with political discourse. [link]

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Muslim Women's Art Project of Australia Nears Ready

THE AUSTRALIAN
By Ian Cuthbertson

Alissar Chidiac, Producer of the Muslim Women's Art Project

AUSTRALIA - On the outskirts of western Sydney, the Casula Powerhouse is a suburban cultural oasis. Restored from derelict status to an elegant arts pavilion in 1994, the building sits in a quiet pasture, the silence broken only by the chiming of bellbirds and the occasional thrum of a train. It is to this bucolic setting that community arts producer Alissar Chidiac has been brought to finalise the Muslim Women's Art Project, a national arts engagement initiative funded by the Human Rights Commission and the Australia Council for the Arts. The art forms include installation, photography, henna, painting, etching, textiles, jewellery, sculpture, sound and video, and the project has been invested with grand ambitions such as creating a dialogue between Muslim and non-Muslim communities. "The Muslim women in our project are from very diverse backgrounds," she says. [link]

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Houston Museum Highlights Islamic Gifting Over the Centuries

VOA | VOICE OF AMERICA
By Greg Flakus

Shah Jahan Receives the Persian Ambassador,
ink, colors and gold on paper from around 1633.

TEXAS - Islam has spread to cultures and regions far beyond its birthplace on the Arabian peninsula. Among its traditions is the value placed on gift giving. That Muslim tradition of gift giving is the focus of an exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. The theme of the exhibit, which bears works ranging from the 8th to the 19th centuries, is in its title: “Gifts of the Sultan: The Art of Giving at the Islamic Courts.” Curator Francesca Leoni says every piece on display reflects that concept. “This exhibition uses gift exchange as the framework.” A decorative plate at the entrance is inscribed with a verse from the Koran; ”He who believes in recompense from God is generous with gifts.” [link]

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Hanoi's Dream in Canada Thru December 5th

VIETNAM NEWS

"Space of Buddha" in laquer by Trinh Quoc Chien

CANADA - The exhibition opened on November 22 at the “Art Square” Gallery, introducing artworks by five contemporary artists from Vietnam: Trinh Quoc Chien, Vu Huong Quynh, Nguyen Minh Thanh, Ngo Van Sac and Nguyen Quang Minh. The art, which represents five ways of dreaming, features a dream-like quality — including Chien’s Buddhist-inspired mixed media lacquer paintings, Sac’s intricate wood engravings and Thanh’s haunting, poetic water colors. Since his graduation from the Hanoi Fine Arts institute in 1993, Chien has been developing a unique style to express his perspective of oriental abstractionism, according to a press release from the Canadian organizer. Art Square Gallery is located on 334 Dundas Street West (across the street from the AGO), Toronto. The exhibition will close on December 5. [link]

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Happy :Thanksgiving" 2011

"Thanksgiving"
John Currin (b. Colorado, 1962)
C. 2003, Ink and Gouache on Paper, 15" x 18"
Location: Sadies Cole, London, England and Gagosian, NYC

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Nude Islamic Artist-Activist Draws Fire Plus Support

THE TELEGRAPH

Israeli women posing for a photograph in Tel Aviv,
to show solidarity with Egyptian blogger Aliaa Magda Elmahdy 

EGYPT - Nudity is strongly frowned upon in Egyptian society, even as an art form. Some liberals feared that the posting by 20-year-old university student Aliaa Magda Elmahdy would taint them in the eyes of deeply conservative Egyptians ahead of Nov. 28 parliamentary elections in which they are trying to compete with fundamentalist Islamic parties. Elmahdy and her boyfriend Kareem Amer, also a controversial blogger, have challenged Egypt's social strictures before. Amer, who spent four years in prison for blog posting deemed insulting to Islam and for calling Mubarak a "symbol of tyranny," chided liberals who condemned Elmahdy. [link]

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Art As A Weapon Documentary Project Features Shepard Fairey

STUPID DOPE
By LaVar Thomas

Art as Weapon Posters by Stephen Fairey

Shepard Fairey of Obey is well known for his works that test political beliefs and expose social disparities. To further his cause, he has explored human rights culture in Myanmar and participated in film that documents the nonparallel worlds of Buddhist morals and political ideals in the region. Art As A Weapon features interviews with the people of the struggle along with Fairey explaining the Art As A Weapon movement while he paints a mural for peace in Burma. [link]

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"Art of the Arab Lands" is New Name for "Islamic Art" Gallery in NYC

THE MONTREAL GAZETTE
By Ellen Freilich

Closeup detail of an artwork done in ink, watercolor and gold on cotton cloth, entitled "Hamzanama (The Adventures of Hamza)" and attributed to artists Dasavanta and Mithra, is seen in this photo from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

NEW YORK - Fifteen renovated galleries offer fresh perspective on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection of more than 12,000 Islamic works of art spanning 13 centuries and an area ranging from Spain to India. While the collection was once succinctly termed Islamic Art, the museum now describes the works inhabiting the galleries as “Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia.” The new emphasis on geography grew out of the view that while religion unifies the collection, region diversifies it. “Islam is not a single lense through which we view and interpret the art,” said Navina Najat Haidar, curator and coordinator in the Met Museum’s department of Islamic art. “Rather, it’s an inverted lense that reveals great diversity.” [link]

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Jordan's Nadia Dajani Creates Wearable Islamic Jewels

ARAB NEWS
By Marian Nihal

JORDAN - For a designer, a jewel represents an art form. Nadia Dajani feels a piece of jewelry exudes a woman’s mood, her identity and her frame of mind. Inspired by Islamic art and interacting with people, Nadia releases a new collection once a year.  They are a continuation in progression of a traditional Arab and Islamic art, where the Arabesque and Arabic calligraphy are customized to create the aesthetic that we are now familiar with. “Our interpretation of this old tradition is done in a contemporary way, to reflect the modern Arab woman and her aesthetic in the 21st century.” At an average, a customer can expect prices from as low as $10 and up. Nadia Dajani has one store in Jordan, but her jewels can be purchased online from the website, nadiadajani.com. [link]

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Theme for Burmese Human Right's Exhibit is Buddhism's "Fear Not"

BANKGKOK POST
By Yanapon Musiket

Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi..
The name written on her palm is Soe Min Min, imprisoned since 2008.

BURMA - With the recent announcement from the Burmese government about its plan to release the remaining political prisoners, the world has suddenly turned its eye to our neighbouring country and awaits groundbreaking developments. Premiering tomorrow at Serindia Gallery is "Abhaya: Burma's Fearlessness", an unabashed photography exhibition by British photographer James Mackay, featuring a series of 244 portraits of Burmese former political prisoners who have come together to raise awareness of the tragic plight of their colleagues still detained in jail. The daring lensman captured each of his subjects with their right hand raised to reveal the name of a current political prisoner written on their palm. The theme of this collection of photographs is derived from the sacred Buddhist gesture of abhaya, meaning "fear not", which is not only an act of silent protest, but also one of remembrance and fearlessness. [link]

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2011 Brehm Lectures on Art & Faith

2011 Brehm Lectures - Part 1 from Brehm Center on Vimeo.

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Vatican Cracking Down on Church Art, Architecture and Music

VATICAN INSIDER
By Andrea Torniello

VATICAN CITY - A team has been set up, to put a stop to garage style churches, boldly shaped structures that risk denaturing modern places for Catholic worship. Its task is also to promote singing that really helps the celebration of mass. The “Liturgical art and sacred music commission” will be established by the Congregation for Divine Worship over the coming weeks. This will not be just any office, but a true and proper team, whose task will be to collaborate with the commissions in charge of evaluating construction projects for churches of various dioceses. It will only be responsible for liturgical art, not for sacred art in general; and this also goes for liturgical music and singing too. [link]

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Colorado Art Museum Honors Patron Saint of Artists with "Windows to the Divine"

AOA NEWS

"Virgin with Child" by Tatiana Grant

COLORADO - The Madden Museum in Greenwood Village (near Denver) hosts the juried exhibition, "Windows to the Divine" through December 3. The exhibition is part of the year-long program, Fra Angelico Celebration of Art & Spirituality sponsored by the Colorado Dominican Vocation Foundation and inspired in part by a letter from Pope John Paul ll to artists in 1999. The exhibition of over 100 works is billed by the foundation as, "the most comprehensive juried exhibit of spiritual art in the country" and includes  many spiritual paths, including artists from the Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Native American traditions. The Madden Museum exhibit is located in the Palazzo Verdi Building (next to Fiddler's Green Amphitheater) at 6363 S. Fiddler's Green Circle in Greenwood Village, Colorado.

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Muslim Self Portraits Defy Stereotypes

THE WASHINGTON POST
By Cecile S. Holmes, Religion News Service

'Nushmia' is one of the self portraits in the 'Esse Quam Videri'
exhibition on display in Rubenstein Hall. Courtesy of "Duke Today"

NORTH CAROLINA - Artist Todd Drake has aimed his camera lens at truck drivers, Alzheimer’s patients and employees of an exotic nightclub. But he’s trying to build interfaith bridges by asking Muslims to turn the lens on themselves. Drake’s traveling exhibit, “Esse Quam Videri: Muslim Self Portraits,” started after he decided he needed to learn more about his Muslim neighbors. “I just started cold-calling mosques,” Drake said during an exhibition of his work at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. “I had an intuitive feeling that they would be interested in this project. I asked them to represent themselves, not to let me define them.” In January, the exhibit opens at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures at Indiana University in Bloomington. St. Thomas Aquinas College in Sparkill, N.Y., will host the exhibit beginning in April 2012, and the University of Chicago also plans to show it next year. [link]

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Advice for Churches Seeking to Launch "Arts Ministries"

AOA NEWS
By Ernest Britton

In a recent blog post in the Gospel Coalition Blog, P.D. Young offers timely, and clear advice to the growing number of churches seeking to launch an "Art Ministry." His six suggestions are:

1. First define what you mean by "Art."
2. Name at least 5 contemporary artists before beginning your plans. 
3. Don't do it because you think it will make your church gallery the center of the art world.
4. Don't do it to evangelize the arts community. 
5. Showcase the art being created in your own community.
6. Read-up on Art: Art Theory, Art History, etc. 

P. D. Young is the music coordinator for Cityview Presbyterian Church in Chicago and a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and so he's a good source for these suggestions. I'd add two more items: #7. Ask some local artists what they'd like to see; and #8. Buy some local artwork for your church collection. [Read: GospelCoalition]

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Indiana University Art Museum Returns Painting to Berlin Museum

FOX NEWS 59

Flagellation of Christ  (15th C)

INDIANA - More than 60 years after it disappeared from a Berlin museum in the chaotic aftermath of World War II, a painting depicting the flagellation of Christ will return home. The Indiana University Art Museum returned the painting to the Jagdschloss Grunewald in a ceremony Nov. 21 at Charlottenburg Palace in Germany. Created by a Cologne master, the Flagellation of Christ dates to the late 15th century and originally formed part of a wing of an altarpiece. It was one of more than a dozen paintings that disappeared from the Berlin museum during the summer of 1945, looted by Russian and British soldiers. The IU Art Museum acquired the painting in 1985 as a gift from former IU President Herman B Wells. IU officials said Wells purchased the work in good faith from a London art gallery in 1967. [link]

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Tiny Church Beats Cathedral for UK's Biggest Art & Faith Prize

GUARDIAN | NORTHERNER BLOG

Anne Mou's engraving. Intimations of frost which can be enhanced by the real thing. Photograph: John McKenzie/Healey Parish Church

UNITED KINGDOM - Tiny Tyne Valley church beats Canterbury cathedral and Gormley in arts competition. Engraved glass so delicate that frost can change its nature helps scoop top prize for Northumberland to win this year's Art in a Religious Context award from the charity Art & Christian Enquiry.  The biennial award was made for two commemorative stained glass windows commissioned for St John's church, Healey, in Northumberland, by artists Anne Vibeke Mou and James Hugonin. [link]

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Bob Jones University Questions 'Fundamentalist' Label

THE CHRISTIAN CENTURY
by David Gibson

SOUTH CAROLINA -  [Bob Jones University] leaders are weighing alternatives to the "fundamentalist" label that has proudly defined the school (and a wide swath of the Bible Belt) since the 1920s. The Fine Arts program remains a distinctive feature. Music and drama are the lifeblood of the curriculum as students perform Shakespeare and other theatrical productions, and the university puts on a major opera every year. An art museum on campus features Renaissance and Baroque religious paintings in a collection that is one of the best in the country. School officials insist that BJU's beliefs and mission have not changed; it's just the focus is more than ever on a "biblically-based liberal arts education" for students, as Weier pus it, be they aspiring housewives or pastors. It started in 2005, when the mantle of university president passed to Stephen Jones, Bob Jones III's son and the first person not named Bob Jones to lead school since its founding in 1927. The youngest Jones quickly distanced himself from the political legacy of his predecessors. "There were things said back then that I wouldn't say today," Stephen Jones said in 2005. [link]

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Want Catholic Art in USA? Head to Bob Jones University

WASHINGTON POST | BLOG
By John Gibson

Bob Jones University Art Museum Gallery lll

SOUTH CAROLINA - Walking across the tidy campus of Bob Jones University, there’s no obvious sign this bastion of Christian fundamentalism is also home to one of the nation’s largest collections of Renaissance and Baroque religious art from the heart of Catholic Europe [BJU Museum]. It’s all the more surprising since the school’s old-time Protestant leaders have for years taught that Catholicism is a “cult” and even the “Mother of Harlots.”  Just as surprising as the collection itself, however, is that the man who started it 60 years ago was Bob Jones Jr., the school’s second president and the son of the university’s namesake. “He really thought that paintings can reach people and talk to people in ways that that reading books cannot,” said David Steel, curator of European art at the North Carolina Museum of Art and a longtime fan of the BJU collection. [link]

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Activist Painter, Scott LoBaido Paints Protest of Brooklyn Museum's Art Show

AOA NEWS
By Tahlib

Scott LoBaido, a NYC artist and practicing Catholic has created a new work to illustrate his scorn for the decision of the Brooklyn Museum to show the video art by fellow artist "& Catholic", David Wojnarowicz. The provocative protest painting, according to The Staten Island Advance, "has found a place of honor in Borough Hall" after LoBaido was banned from the Brooklyn Museum. The painting in question depicts Arnold Lehman, director of the Brookly Museum, "shown slouching in the nude on the rim of a toilet bowl filled with green ooze." Earlier this year, LoBaido made the news when he protested the infamously anti-gay Westboro Church with a painting entitled, "The Truth (Welcome Home)" which he sought to deliver to their church in Topeka, Kansas. The good news is that works of both Wojnarowicz and LoBaido are prompting more New Yorkers to talk about religion & art in different ways.

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Chagalls Synagogues up for Sale at Sothebys on Dec. 14

RUSSIAN TODAY (RT)

Marc Chagall. Synagogue in Vilna, the "Kloyz" of the Vilna Gaon (1931)

NEW YORK - Three rare Marc Chagall paintings featuring interiors of synagogues are to be auctioned at Sotheby’s, prompting huge interest for the Russian-rooted artist. These works are coming to the art market for the first time ever from a descendent of the original owner of the works, Max Cottin, who bought them at a 1945 exhibition at the Gallery of Jewish Art in New York. The artist is known to have finished only six synagogue paintings. Speaking about his Jewish identity, Marc Chagall declared, "If a painter is Jewish and paints life, how can he help having Jewish elements in his work? But if he is a good painter, there will be more than that. The Jewish element will be there, but his art will tend to approach the universal." The sale is part of Sotheby's Israeli & International Art auction scheduled for December 14. [link]

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Review: New Book Examines Relationship Between Fine Art & Islam

AHLUL BAYT NEWS AGENCY

Latest book on Islam analyzes the artistic origins in Islam, providing the chance for artists to look at this holy religion through the lenses of fine arts. "Islam and Fine Arts" is the latest publication which explains variety of arts, their interaction with Islam and the way religious themes have appeared in artistic presentations. Written by Seyyed Abol Hassan Omrani, the ways fine arts affect the society to create a spiritual atmosphere, the relation between religion and performing arts, modern mass media and also the way for realization of high objectives of religion are among the topics discussed in this book. While this book praises the sacredness of arts and its accordance with human nature, it denounces arts when it is merely a means of non-human enjoyments. [link]

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Rembrandt Pays a Visit to Detroit to Show Painter's Impression of Christ

THE WINDSOR STAR
By Ted Shaw

MICHIGAN - The face that stares back at you from 17th-century Amsterdam is the model of serenity. An anonymous young Jew, his hair tucked behind his ears and his eyes gazing upwards, has come down to us as an idealized image of Jesus Christ in paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn and his students. Just who he was is a mystery. But few artist's models have had such a profound impact on art and art history. Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus is a stunning and provocative new exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts, organized by the DIA, the Louvre in Paris and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It opens to the public Sunday and continues through Feb. 12, 2012. The exhibit consists of 64 works, including 52 small, intimate paintings, drawings and prints by Rembrandt and his school. The star of the show is a wood panel from the Louvre, Rembrandt's Supper At Emmaus, which dates from 1648. [link]

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Mac Miller and a generation of Jewish hip-hop

JEWISH JOURNAL
By Danielle Berren

Earlier this week, the 19-year-old “white Jewish rapper” known as Mac Miller reached the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts with his debut album,  “Blue Slide Park.” Miller was born Malcolm McCormick in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to a Christian father and Jewish mother, according to Wikipedia. Miller was reportedly raised Jewish, became a Bar Mitzvah and is chatty about his Jewish identity during interviews. he Jewish relationship to self-expression is complicated, since, for much of history Jews were safer if they hid or downplayed their identity. But for these young artists, Jewish identity is a source of pride (as Mac Miller raps in the video below, “I read the To-rah!”); its central focus is not on survival, but rather, flourishing in an age of unprecedented possibility. [link]

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RELIGIOUS ART | TALK OF WEEK

AOA NEWS
By Tahlib

'FIRE IN MY BELLY" (above) by artist David Wojnarowicz is once again America's most talked about work of art dealing with religion. The 4-minute video which went on display this past Friday at the Brooklyn Museum has been condemned, again, by the Roman Catholic leadership, but are they right? We invite readers to watch the video, and to share your thoughts on whether the attacks are justified?

1. Yes, justified. This video is sacrilegious, and the museum is dead wrong for showing it.
2. Not justified. The video is a challenging work of religious art created by a Roman Catholic to reflect his religious beliefs. We should be learning not protesting.
3. Neither. It's just Art, and instead we should be talking about the Egyptian artist who posted her nude photographs online to protest Islamic extremism.

Listed below are the other news stories of the past week from the world of religious art. The stories are grouped by the five largest faith traditions, with an additional category for other/interfaith.

BUDDHIST ART:

• Buddhist Artwork Teaches Key Lesson of Faith: "Impermanence" (Evansville Courier Press)
• Bonsia Art of Ancient Buddhist Monk's Birthed Today's Arborsculpture (Columbia Daily Tribune)
• Colorado Museum Exhibit Features Art by Tibetan Priests (The Coloradoan)

HINDU ART:

• Hindu God's Artistic Talents Inspire 7-year-old Google Doodler (The Hindu)
• When a Hindu Paints Quranic Verses: United We Stand (Weekend Leader)
• New Film Explores Religious Censorship of India's Artists (Economic Times)
• Hindu Temple Art is Part of Story in MET's Islamic Art Galleries (The Hindu)

ISLAMIC ART:

• Egyptian Artist Poses Nude via Twitter to Protest Islamic Extremism (International Business Times)
• New York's Met New Islamic Art Wing Seeks to Overturn Prejudice With Beauty (Radio Free Europe)
• NYC Museum Galleries Refocus Gaze on Islamic Art Calligraphy (Rueters)

JEWISH ART:

• Hillel in Canada Offers Arts Fellowship (Canadian Jewish News)
• The First Jewish Museum Opened During Nazi Era (ArtDaily)
• Art's Doing Well as Path to Interfaith Dialogue in Philadelphia (Jewish Exponent)
• Video: Jewish Art Salon Creates Online Exhibit for Global Day of Jewish Learning (AOA News)
• Mac Miller and a generation of Jewish hip-hop (Jewish Journal)
• Siona Benjamin Exhibits at Princeton Through Dec. 31 (Central Jersey.com)

CHRISTIAN ART:

• Detroit Institute of Art Embraces Challenge on Marketing Religion, Art (Detroit Free Press)
• Martini's and the Ecstacy of St. Terese on Menu in Indianapolis (AOA News)
• Mendelsshohn's Elijah, a Concert in Today's Context (AOA News)
• Video: "The Four Gospels" featuring Makoto Fujimura (AOA News)
• ‘I’m a Mormon’ Advertising Campaign Seeks to Improve Image (The New York Times)
• Museum Advertising Brings Art and Artists to Life (The New York Times)
• Rembrandt pays a visit: Detroit Institute of Art exhibit shows painter's impression of Christ: (The Windsor Star)
• Sister Wendy's Advice on Art Beyond My Comfort Zone (AOA News)
• Catholic Church Buys the Crystal Cathedral in California for $57.5M (Los Angeles Times)
• "Seven Days of Creation" by Edgar G. Boevé (1958) | (Calvin Theological Seminary)
• Springville Museum Hosts 26th Annual Spiritual and Religion Art Show (Daily Universe)

INTERFAITH/RELATED ART:

• If Scientology Made a Hip-Hop Video (Flavorpill)
• Video of the Week: Artist EJaaz Collins Winning Entry for A&O Scholarship (AOA News)
• Benetton’s New Kissing Ads, includes Pope Kissing Imam (Washington Post)
• Video: Unhate Campaign - The film by Benetton (Benetton)
• Video: Unhate Campaign - Press Meeting in Paris on November 16th (Benetton)
• Catholic League won't Fight Ant-Crucifix Video at Brooklyn Museum (NY Daily News)
• Brooklyn Museum Salutes Catholic Artist, David Wojnarowicz for Fire in My Belly (AOA News)
• Brooklyn Bishop Attacks Video in Gay Art Show "HIDE/SEEK" (Daily Beast)
• Sneak Peak at Brooklyn Museum's Controversial "HIDE/SEEK" Exhibit (NY Daily News)

Get your daily dose of Alpha Omega Arts on Facebook and/or Twitter, or just come back each day. There's always something new to talk about in the world of religious art.

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Video: "The Four Gospels" featuring Makoto Fujimura

AOA NEWS

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‘I’m a Mormon’ Advertising Campaign Seeks to Improve Image

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Laurie Goodstein

The campaign, which uses the tagline “I'm a Mormon,”
has recently been extended to 21 media markets, including Seattle, above.

Top Mormon leaders had hired two big-name advertising agencies in 2009, Ogilvy & Mather and Hall & Partners, to find out what Americans think of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Using focus groups and surveys, they found that Americans who had any opinion at all used adjectives that were downright negative: “secretive,” “cultish,” “sexist,” “controlling,” “pushy,” “anti-gay.” On seeing these results, some of those watching the presentation booed while others laughed, according to people at the meetings. But then they were told that the church was ready with a response: a multimillion-dollar television, billboard and Internet advertising campaign that uses the tagline, “I’m a Mormon.” The campaign, which began last year but was recently extended to 21 media markets, features the personal stories of members who defy stereotyping, including a Hawaiian longboard surfing champion, a fashion designer and single father in New York City and a Haitian-American woman who is mayor of a small Utah city. [link]

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Benetton’s New Kissing Ads, includes Pope Kissing Imam

THE WASHINGTON POST
By Maura Judkis

Controversial mocked up image courtesy of Daily Mail

FRANCE - Benetton returns to its controversial marketing roots with a new campaign that features photoshopped images of President Obama and other world leaders engaging in a kiss. In two separate ads, Obama is made to appear as if he is kissing Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, and Chinese President Hu Jintao. The Unhate Foundation, founded by the Italian clothing company, is an advocacy group for tolerance. The controversial ad campaign is an attempt for Benetton to regain its status from the “United Colors” ads that regularly shocked viewers with subjects that had nothing to do with clothing: A priest kissing a nun, a man dying of AIDS, a just-born baby with umbilical cord still attached, a trio of real human hearts. The most controversial of the [new] pairings has proven to be the Pope kissing Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb, the Imam of al-Azhar mosque in Egypt. The Vatican condemned the image, and the company decided to remove it from all publications after complaints. [Watch WP: Slideshow]

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Unhate Campaign - The film by Benetton

BENETTON

FRANCE - The official film of the Unhate worldwide communication campaign launched in Paris on November 16th and presented by Alessandro Benetton. unhatefoundation.org.

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Scientology Made a Hip-Hop Video

FLAVORPILL
By Judy Berman



According to The Village Voice, the song was probably created by Scientologist rapper Chill EB, although you won’t see him in the clip. Lyrics include such stunners as “Psychotropic drugs we make a thing of the past/ Expose the fraud of the psychs and watch them dwindle real fast,” and while we won’t ruin the visuals for you, we will say that quite a bit more breakdancing happens at Scientology events than we would ever have guessed. [link]

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Catholic Church Buys the Crystal Cathedral in California for $57.5M

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
By Nicole Santa Cruz, Ruben Vives and Mitchell Landsberg

Crystal Cathedral designed by Phillip Johnson, Richard Neutra and Richard Meier.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times / November 14, 2011)

CALIFORNIA - In the end, 2,000 years of tradition carried the day. An Orange County bankruptcy judge ruled Thursday that the Crystal Cathedral, a monument to modernism in faith and architecture, will be sold for $57.5 million to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, which plans to consecrate it as a Catholic cathedral.  It also marked the end of a remarkable chapter in the history of American Christianity, one that was written in glass and steel by the Crystal Cathedral's founder and guiding light, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller. Under terms of the bid, the diocese will let the church lease back core buildings for three years, but then it has to find a new home. [link]

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"Seven Days of Creation" by Edgar G. Boevé (1958)

CALVIN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

Edgar G. Boevé, 1958, encaustic on masonite, 12 ½" x 16 ½"

Seventh Day of Creation: "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation." Genesis 2:1-3 [link]

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Museum Advertising Brings Art and Artists to Life

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Andrew Adam Newman

A NEW commercial for the Detroit Institute of Arts opens with a woman responding to an off-camera interviewer, although the question is not revealed: “He had olive skin.” “He looked like a hippie.” “Yeah, he was Jewish.” “He was black like me.” The commercial, by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Detroit, part of the Omnicom Group, is for “Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus,” opening Sunday, an exhibit that features 64 works by the Dutch master and his students in the 1640s that depict Jesus and biblical events. The museum is taking the unusual step of placing print ads in religious publications including The Michigan Catholic newspaper and The Detroit Jewish News. Those likely to resonate with Christians, like an ad that says, “See Jesus in a new light,” will not be placed in the Jewish publication, where readers will instead see this ad copy: “Painter. Carpenter. Masterpiece.” In 2010, 48 percent of art museums reported increasing marketing efforts over the previous year, according to an annual survey by the Association of Art Museum Directors. [link]

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The First Jewish Museum Opened During Nazi Era

ARTDAILY
By Dr. Kai Artinger

Jewish Museum, entrance hall, c. 1933. © New Synagogue Berlin - Centrum Judaicum.

GERMANY - Perhaps only a few people in Berlin and elsewhere know that there was a Jewish museum in the German capital from 1933 to 1938. Astonishingly enough, the first Jewish museum worldwide was opened one month before the seizure of power by the National Socialists. Finally the museum was closed down on the 10 November 1938 and its collection seized. The small but fine exhibition presents above all a selection of the paintings which survived the Third Reich and the Second World War. The paintings are scattered all over the world. But the organizers have traced them to Poland, the United States and Israel. It shows that Jews tried to withstand the fascist terror and barbarism even in the field of arts. [link]

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Hindu Temple Art is Part of Story in MET's Islamic Art Galleries

THE HINDU

NEW YORK - The renovated ‘Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia' that were opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York this past month showcased the richness and grandeur of Islam's artistic and cultural heritage. India's presence was seen in a few galleries, including ‘Mughal South Asia (16th–19th centuries) Gallery' and ‘Later South Asia (16th–20th centuries) Gallery'. Works of art on display in this gallery are drawn mainly from the courts of Rajasthan, the Punjab hills and the expansive Mughal sphere. This gallery also provides useful and vital information on how Nayak Dynasty patronage in the 17th century sustained both Hindu temple art, an opulent court culture in Madurai and in Kerala, which drew much of its inspiration from the preceding Vijayanagar tradition. [link]

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Colorado Museum Exhibit Features Art by Tibetan Priests

THE COLORADOAN
By Stacy Nick

Tibetan Losel dolls are on dispay at the Global Village Museum in Fort Collins. / CAMERON REDWINE / THE COLORADOAN

COLORADO - The Global Village Museum of Arts and Cultures' new exhibit on Tibet seeks to go above the highest region on Earth's social and political strife to celebrate its traditions and its beauty. "Tibet: Rooftop of the World" is a three-part show that honors both Tibet's past and present, as well as its impact around the globe, said Erik Hofseth, Coordinating Director for the Global Village Museum of Arts and Cultures. The main portion of the exhibit includes more than 45 Losel dolls collected by museum co-founder Jeanne Nash, who died last summer. One of the largest collections of its kind in the country, the dolls were all made by Tibetan monks in exile, Hofseth said. The dolls serve as both an ethnographical record - preserving traditional crafts, as well as representing various regions, rituals and heritages - as well as works of art. [link]

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NYC Museum Galleries Refocus Gaze on Islamic Art

RUETERS
By Ellen French

Folio from the Blue Qur'an [Watch: Slideshow]

NEW YORK - Fifteen renovated galleries offer fresh perspective on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection of more than 12,000 Islamic works of art spanning 13 centuries and an area ranging from Spain to India. While the collection was once succinctly termed Islamic Art, the museum now describes the works inhabiting the galleries as "Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia." The new emphasis on geography grew out of the view that while religion unifies the collection, region diversifies it. "Islam is not a single lens through which we view and interpret the art," said Navina Najat Haidar, curator and coordinator in the Met Museum's department of Islamic art. "Rather, it's an inverted lens that reveals great diversity." A striking, unifying element of the Met's new galleries is calligraphy, a form of artistic expression that acquired great prestige because it was used to transcribe the Koran.[link]

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