September
Latifa Echakhch.
Latifa Echakhch creates sculptures and installations that explore the visual and architectural codes of identity. The Moroccan-born artist makes allusions to Islamic geometric patterns and minimalism, colorfield painting, radical politics and the bureaucracy of residency visas, examining how even the most banal objects can be infused with cultural assumptions. (SO08)
Tate Modern, London
September 19 through November 23.
Color and Light.
Saudi artist Sameera Ismail steps away from her impressionistic images to more pointillist, brighter, post-impressionist renderings. Her layered washes and spontaneous and dramatic brush strokes result in highly interactive images. (SO08)
Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, Arabian Collections Gallery,
through September 21.
Art and Empire: Treasures from the ninth to the seventh centuries BC.
The Assyrians emerged as the dominant power in the Near East, controlling all of present-day Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt, as well as large parts of Turkey and Iran. This exhibition includes the most powerful and moving of the art of the Assyrians. Military dress and equipment, horse trappings and harnesses illustrate life in the army. Carved ivories, furniture fittings and metal vessels showcase the luxurious lifestyle enjoyed by the king and his court. An array of three-dimensional objects—figures of deities, clay tablets, clay seals and sealings—address the administration of the empire, trade, legal and social issues, and interrelationships between religion, magic and medicine. Exorcisms, omen texts, mathematical texts and literary compositions from the royal library enshrine the wisdom of ancient Mesopotamia, the cradle of western civilization. (SO08)
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts,
September 21 through January 4.
Utopian Visions.
Utopian Visions brings together four Arab female artists living and working in various locations around the globe. They explore the idea of a perfect world, each with her own unique vision and style. Works by Rima Al-Awar (North Carolina and Toronto), Rana Chalabi (Cairo), Roula Ayoub (Beirut) and Emna Zghal (Tunis and New York) will be on display. (SO08)
Dearborn, Michigan, Arab American National Museum,
September 25 through March 29.
Painted Photographs: Colored Portraiture in India From the Alkazi Collection of Photography.
Photography reached India in 1840, and artists swiftly engaged with the new medium. This exhibition presents a unique Indian art form: color tinting of photographic images. It includes portraits of Indian rulers standing against dramatic and theatrical backdrops as well as studio images. Organized by such themes as aspects of kingship and modes of art practice, they explore the period from the 1860’s to the 1930’s. Catalog £20. (SO08)
London, Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and Asian Studies [SOAS],
through September 27.
Sunken Treasures of Egypt: .
A spectacular collection of some 500 artifacts recovered from the seabed off the coast of Alexandria and in Aboukir Bay
The Greeks presents more than 180 artifacts that shed light on the imprint left by the Greeks on world civiliza-tions and cultures. The exhibition is divided into sections that cover pre-history and antiquity, the Byzantine period, the Greeks in the Ottoman Empire and the creation of today’s modern Greek state. Exhibits, from the Benaki Museum in Athens, include sculptures, ceramics, jewelry, textiles, paintings, metalwork, icons, toys, figurines, lamps and wooden chests. (SO08)
Gatineau, Quebec, Canadian Museum of Civilization,
through September 28.
Magic in Ancient Egypt: Image, Word, and Reality.
This explores how the Egyptians, known throughout the ancient world for their expertise in magic, addressed the unknown forces of the universe. Ancient Egyptians did not distinguish between religion and magic, and believed that the manipulation of written words, images and ritual could influence the world through a divinely created force known as Heqa, personified as the eldest son of the solar creator Atum. The exhibition also examines connections between magic and medicine and the use of magic after death. (SO08)
Brooklyn [New York] Museum,
through September 28.
Orientalism: An Eye for the Exotic.
In the 19th century, technology, trade and politics opened up exotic locations to both travel and the imagination. Artists were already captivated by Japanese art and design, and the phenomenon called Orientalism added a focus on other eastern cultures, including those of Iran, Turkey, Algeria and India. In homes and galleries, imported objects from exotic lands mingled with European and American versions of Oriental art, designs, scenes and life. Morse Museum of American Art, Winter Park, Florida, through September 28.Sarcophagi From Ancient Egypt: Gardeners of Amon in the Valley of the Queens features 40 heretofore unexhibited pieces, including 28 sarcophagi and one mummy, from the collection of the Egyptian Museum of Turin, where they were transferred in 1903 from the collection of Italian archeologist Ernesto Schiaparelli, who discovered them during his excavations in the Valley of the Queens. The exhibition’s sections are “Thebes, the City of Kings and Gods,” “Tombs for the Princes of Egypt,” “The Reuse of the Princely Tombs” and “Oblivion and Rediscovery.” (SO08)
Barcelona, Spain, Museu Egipci de Barcelona
through September 30.
The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design without end.
Design without End illustrates the diverse classical textile genres created by artists in West Africa, displaying some of their earliest-documented and finest works. Textiles have constituted an important form of esthetic expression throughout Africa’s history and across its cultural landscape, and have been a focal point of the continental trading networks that carried material culture and technological innovations among regional centers and linked Africa to the outside world. Exhibits include items from the Metropolitan’s own holdings along with some 20 works that had entered the British Museum’s collection by the early 20th century, as well as works by seven living artists. (SO08)
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art,
September 30 through March 29.
October
The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting, 1830-1925.
The exhibit shows more than 110 images of bazaars, baths and domestic interiors in the Near and Middle East by such artists as Joshua Reynolds, J. F. Lewis, W. H. Hunt, David Wilkie, John Singer Sargent, William Holman Hunt, J. M. W. Turner, Roger Fenton, Andrew Geddes and Edward Lear. It is the first exhibition to survey British painters’ representations of the Middle East from the 17th to the early 20th century; their responses to the people, cities and landscapes of the region; the cross-pollination of British and Islamic artistic traditions; and the use of “the Orient” as an exotic backdrop. (SO08)
Istanbul, Pera Museum,
October 1 through January 11.
Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs.
Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs includes 130 works from the Egyptian National Museum, among them a selection of 50 spectacular objects excavated from the tomb of Tutankhamun, including one of the canopic coffinettes, inlaid with gold and precious stones, that contained his mummified internal organs. An additional 70 pieces in the exhibition derive from the tombs of royalty and high officials of the 18th Dynasty, primarily from the Valley of the Kings. These additional works place the unique finds from the tomb of Tutankhamun into context and illustrate the wealth and development of Egyptian burial practice during the New Kingdom. The exhibition is more than twice the size of the 1979 “King Tut” exhibition, and is on an “encore tour” of US museums. Tickets: 1-877-888-8587. (SO08)
Dallas [Texas] Museum of Art,
October 3 through May 17.