Breaking the Veils
Women Artists from the Islamic World
On display at the Institute of Sacred Music
409 Prospect Street, New Haven
Exhibition on display from September 1 - December 11, 2009 on Weekdays from 9-4
The ISM is pleased to collaborate with the Council on Middle East Studies at Yale to bring to New Haven the acclaimed touring exhibition of works by women artists from the Islamic world.
The exhibition, presented by the ArtReach Foundation, brings together the works of 51 women artists from countries as varied as Indonesia and Yemen in an attempt to break the stereotyping attached to women from the Islamic world. In the introduction to the book that accompanies the exhibition, Wijdan Ali, the president of the Royal Society of Fine Arts in Amman writes, “The term Islamic [here] refers to a civilization that construes one of the richest and most prolific phases in the cultural history of humanity; and is used in its cultural and not religious sense…. The exhibition spans the paintings and etchings of women artists who live in 21 Islamic countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. They are gifted individuals of various faiths (Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism), who, like their forebears, live in Islamic countries and contribute to the enrichment of their cultures. Their subject matter includes issues related to gender, the environment, politics, nationalism, social mores as well as abstract works……. [T]he media of the works are as varied as their subjects and include oils, acrylics, watercolors, inks, gouaches, dry cacti, silkscreen, etching, collage, and treated photographic print. The works come from the permanent collection of the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts founded by the Royal Society of Fine Arts in Amman in 1980.”
In addition to the ArtReach Foundation, the exhibition’s main sponsors are The Royal Society of Fine Arts Jorday, F.A.M.-Femme Arts Mediterranée, and Delta Airlines. At Yale the exhibition is hosted by the Council on Middle East Studies with support from the ISM, Yale Divinity School, the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale, the Yale Office of International Affairs, the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization, Yale Women’s Faculty Forum, the Program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the Council on South Asian Studies, the Stanley T. Woodward Lectureship, and the Council on African Studies. The exhibition will be on display weekdays 9 – 4 at the Institute from September 1 – December 12.
see also the website of the Yale Council on Middle East Studies.