art and photography

By A. D. McKenzie PARIS, Jan 8 2015 (IPS) – “They are cowards who react to satire by going for their Kalashnikovs.” That was how renowned French cartoonist Plantu described the killers of 10 media workers and two policemen in Paris Wednesday. Drawing for peace – a signature cartoon by Plantu One of the murdered […]

art and photography

NASA Photo of Sahara: Richat Structure, Mauritania

contributors

NASA Richat Structure, Mauritania, Western Sahara Desert “Richat Structure, Mauritania This prominent circular feature in the Sahara desert of Mauritania has attracted attention since the earliest space missions because it forms a conspicuous bull’s-eye in the otherwise rather featureless expanse of the desert. Described by some as looking like an outsized fossil in the desert, […]

art and photography

Putting the ‘Hero’ back in ‘Superhero’: How the Muslim Superhero Can Save the Genre

contributors

By A. David Lewis for for ISLAMiCommentary A. David Lewis Muslims don’t present a problem for superhero comics. They present a solution. A previous installment of “Comics & Dialogue” addressed an apparent awkwardness for Muslims as superhero characters. How could they fulfill the generic role of a typical superhero, while also being true to Islamic […]

art and photography

Gaza and the Art of War: Palestinians Illustrate their Suffering

contributors

By Mariam Elba via Waging Nonviolence A breathtaking piece of art highlighting the struggles of Palestinians in Gaza (Bushra Shanan) It’s hard to find the words to encapsulate how infuriating and sorrowful the situation is getting to be in Gaza. As of this writing, over 750 Palestinians — the overwhelming majority are civilians — have […]

art and photography

George W. Bush Used Top Google Results For All His Paintings; Is he in Legal Trouble?

Juan Cole

You may have heard the recent stories about former President George W. Bush’s new exhibit of paintings of world leaders. There’s been plenty of chatter about the former President picking up painting as a hobby since leaving office. While many may have…

Arab Spring

The Arts of the Arab Uprisings at the Arab-American Museum

Juan Cole

VOA interviews my colleague Christiane Gruber of the Art History Department at the University of Michigan on the exhibit she helped curate at the Arab-American Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, which came out of our symposium in November at which Arab bloggers and graffiti artists and other practitioners of the arts of protest presented alongside academics […]

art and photography

Photo of the Day: Women in Mosul, 1902

Juan Cole

From M. E. Hume-Griffith and A. Hume, Behind the Veil in Persia and Turkish Arabia: An Account of an Englishwoman’s Eight Years’ Residence Amongst the Women of the East (1909). The authors note that these are Christian women, presumably Iraqi Chaldeans, and they alleged that Muslim women declined at that time to be photographed. Since […]

art and photography

The Wailing Wall, Jerusalem c. 1900 (Photo of the Day)

Juan Cole

The Wailing Wall, Jerusalem, c. 1900 (From Gertrude Bell, Syria: The Desert and the Sown, 1908)

art and photography

A Bridge of Boats across Frozen Tigris River, Mosul, 1903

Juan Cole

The authors say locals in Mosul told them that the last time the river froze was 1750. That freezing became more rare after that date is significant, since 1750 marks the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and increased coal burning for energy. The period 1250-1850 or the medieval cooling period (often incorrectly called the ‘little […]