Middle East - Anthony Ham [65]
It was from exile that Güney produced his masterpiece, the Palme d’Or–winning Yol (The Way; 1982), which was not initially shown in Turkish cinemas; its portrait of what happens to five prisoners on a week’s release was too grim for the authorities to take. His following within Turkey was also never as widespread as his talents deserved, not least because his portrayal of the difficulties faced by Turkey’s Kurds alienated many in mainstream Turkish society.
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DECORATIVE ARTS
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Calligraphy is an expression of the belief that Arabic is a holy language revealed by Allah to the Prophet Mohammed in the Quran. Derived from the Greek words kala (beautiful) and graphos (writing), calligraphy was a way of glorifying the word of God.
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The serpentine swirl of a calligrapher’s pen. The exquisite intricacy of exotic arabesques, geometric patterning and illuminated manuscripts. The microscopic detail of thousands of mosaic pieces combined to create large-scale masterpieces. These are the images that rank among the greatest signifiers of the Middle East’s artistic and aesthetic richness.
Islam’s restriction on the portrayal of living figures could have sounded the death knell for Middle Eastern artists. Instead, the exploration of the artistic possibilities of the Arabic script and the application of geometric principles to the world of decorative arts produced a distinctive and highly original artistic tradition very much rooted in the region’s cultural and religious history. Wedded to these post-Islamic forms were adaptations from the long-standing figurative art traditions of Asia Minor, Persia and areas further east. Granted special dispensation to glorify the sacred, the illuminated manuscripts from Turkey and Iraq, and miniature paintings from Iran, provided a bridge to earlier art forms and depth to a decorative arts tradition of extraordinary diversity.
In the areas of calligraphy, metalwork, ceramics, glass, carpets and textiles, Islamic art has had great influence on the West. Middle Eastern artisans and craftspeople (Armenians, Christians, Jews and Muslims) have for more than 1200 years applied complex and sumptuous decorations to often very practical objects to create items of extraordinary beauty. Plenty such items are on view in the region’s museums, including the Topkapı Palace (Click here) in İstanbul. However, to appreciate the achievements of Islamic art, visit one of the older mosques in which tiling, wood carving, inlaid panelling and calligraphy are often combined in exaltation of Allah.
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Contemporary Art in the Middle East, Nadine Monem (ed), which came out in early 2009, is the first overview of the region’s modern art; it includes essays about the state of the art and leading contemporary artists.
Decorative Islamic art is, for a Muslim, foremost an expression of faith, and nowhere is this more important than in the most sophisticated of these arts – calligraphy. Early calligraphers used an angular script called Kufic that was perfect for stone carving. Modern calligraphy uses a flowing cursive style, more suited to working with pen and ink.
Another of the region’s signature art forms is the mosaic, traditionally made from tiny squares called tesserae, chipped from larger rocks. The tesserae are naturally coloured, and carefully laid on a thick coating of wet lime. Mosaics depicting hunting, deities and scenes from daily life once adorned the floors and palaces of the Byzantine Middle East and, before them, the extravagant public and private buildings of the Romans. The art of mosaic making continues in such places as Madaba (Click here) in Jordan, but