Marwan, Marionette 2 (2007), gouache on paper, 21 x 30.2 cm 2011,6020.2. Mirrored from [pdf] the British Museum Modern Syrian Art Collection. Marwan (Kassab Bachi), born in Damascus, Syria, in 1934, did his studies in literature at the University of Damascus and then went to Berlin, Germany, to pursue painting with Hans Trier. He has […]
Is Michele Bachmann an agent of the Muslim Brotherhood?
It has become increasingly apparent that politics and business often attract psychopaths, because of the opportunities they offer for the gratification of narcissism, grandiosity, sadism and other severe pathologies. For psychopaths, really on an Anders Breivik pre-massacre level, no one takes the cake in American politics more than Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, of Minnesota’s 6th District. […]
Street Art in Honor of 100 Years of LaMarsa, Tunisia (Photo)
Photo by Juan Cole, LaMarsa, Tunisia, May 2012 (Note that if you are viewing with an internet browser, you can enlarge the photo by pressing Control and the plus sign.) In May, the upscale neighborhood of LaMarsa in the northeast of Tunis commemorated the hundredth anniversary of its founding. A street was blocked off, with […]
Omar Khayyam (442) “I wish there were a place to rest…”
I wish there were a place to rest or that this long, long road would end; and that a hundred thousand years from now, there were a hope that from the earth we’d bloom to breathe again. Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 442
The Moroccans (Matisse Painting)
The Moroccans Henri Matisse (French, 1869–1954) Issy-les-Moulineaux, late 1915 and fall 1916. Oil on canvas, 71 3/8″ x 9′ 2″ (181.3 x 279.4 cm). Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel A. Marx. © 2012 Succession H. Matisse, Paris For Matisse in Morocco, see this page. Here is the MOMA audio description: See also my previous […]
Fighting Spreads to Damascus; but is it a Turning Point
It is significant, but not decisive, that fighting raged for a second day in the Syrian capital of Damascus Monday. The southern district of Tadamun was especially affected, though there were reports of clashes even in Midan, right down town. There also continued to be demonstrations and clashes around the country, which left 67 dead […]
The Tanks that did not Defeat Misrata (Photo)
Photograph by Juan Cole, May 2012 Line of tanks that Mu’tasim Qaddafi deployed against the civilians of the city of Misrata, Libya, March-August 2011– destroyed and kept as a memorial outside the city.
Omar Khayyam (493) “I passed a potter at his wheel”
The other day I passed a potter at his wheel, displaying every moment a new skill; and it occurred to me, though one less clear-eyed wouldn’t see it: It is our ancestors’ clay in a potter’s hands! Translated by Juan Cole from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 493
Matisse: “Algerian Woman” (Painting)
Henri Matisse. The Algerian Woman. 1909. Oil on canvas. Musee National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France The depiction of the Middle East has, since Edward Said’s Orientalism, often been approached in binary terms and in the framework of “power/knowledge” in the tradition of Friedrich Nietzche and Michel Foucault. There is, however, an argument […]
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