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BREAKING
THE VEILS: WOMEN ARTISTS FROM THE ISLAMIC WORLD
Catalogue of the exhibition, Naples
Palazzo Reale 12nd July – 15th September 2004 – Text
by Wijdan Ali and design by Khalid Khreis, Amman 2002 (en.); format
26x26 - pp. 149; ISBN 1975/8/2002
“Breaking the Veils: Women Artists from the Islamic World”
is such an attempt. By bringing together the works of 51 women artists
from as varied countries as Indonesia and Yemen, the exhibition
is attempting to break the stereotyping attached to women from the
Islamic world; the term “Islamic” is used in its cultural
and not religious sense: neither the artists are all Muslim nor
do the works represent any part of the religion.
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The exhibition spans the painting
and etchings of women artists who live in 21 Islamic countries including:
Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, l’Iran, l’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); their subject matter includes issues related
to gender, the environment, politics, nationalism, social mores
as well as abstract works that only carry pure aesthetic values
to elevate the soul and mind of the viewer. Meanwhile the 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 exhibited works come from the permanent collection of the Jordan
National Gallery of Fine Arts that was founded by the Royal Society
of Fine Arts in Amman, in 1980.
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