Category Archives: Blog

Over the week-end, Hajooj Kuka’s new film from Sudan, Beats of the Antonov, won the People’s Choice Documentary Award at the 39th Toronto International Film Festival. The film features Sudanese rebels and refugees from the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains who turn to music and dance to deal with the trauma of the civil war, and experience the healing power of community…

EXHIBIT: SUPREMATISM, UNOVIS & LAZAR KHIDEKEL
September 11, 2014 to October 15, 2014
Columbia University/Harriman Institute Atrium
420 West 118th Street

“Suprematism, UNOVIS and Lazar Khidekel” is an exhibition of 24 prints of works from the Khidekel Archive, one of the most comprehensive archives of the Russian avant-garde. The pieces displayed will include prints of paintings, drawings, period photographs, UNOVIS documents, publications, and pages from the legendary AERO, Khidekel’s handmade book from 1920, which is considered to be one of the first ecological manifestos of the modern era.

Lazar Khidekel worked closely with Marc Chagall, El Lissitzky and Kazimir Malevich in Vitebsk from 1918 to 1922, where he became an important proponent and theoretician of Suprematism and a founding member of the UNOVIS group (Affirmers of New Art), which included other notable artists such as El Lissitzky, Nina Kogan, Vera Ermolaeva, Ilya Chashnik, and Nikolai Suetin. There will be a panel discussion and reception in honor of this exhibit on October 8, 2014. This exhibit is made possible by the Russian-American Cultural Center (RACC).

My students in Beirut who are taking my class on Sudan were surprised to learn this week about some of the contributions that Lebanese expats have made to Sudan–such as the first bilingual newspaper, and the first milk delivery service…

This dazzling exhibition focuses on the Museum’s world-class collection of jewelry from Ancient Nubia (located in what is now Sudan). The Nubian adornments housed at the MFA constitute the most comprehensive collection outside Khartoum. As the conduit between the Mediterranean world and lands south of the Nile Valley, Nubia was known for its exotic luxury goods—especially gold. “Gold and the Gods” focuses on excavated ornaments from an early 20th-century expedition by the Museum with Harvard University, dating from 1700 BC to 300 AD, including both uniquely Nubian and foreign imports, prized for their materials, craftsmanship, symbolism, and rarity. “Gold and the Gods” includes more than one hundred treasures, including a gilt-silver mummy mask of Queen Malakaye and the famous Hathor-headed crystal pendant. The MFA is the only US museum able to mount an exhibition devoted solely to Nubian adornment drawing exclusively on its own collection.

Such Beautiful People
September 17, 2014 at 7:30 PM
Columbia University
614 Schermerhorn Hall

Celebrate the opening of the Ukrainian Film Club’s tenth season at the US premiere of the best Ukrainian film you’ve never seen. Dmytro Moyseyev’s Such Beautiful People depicts three people living by the sea and explores the beauty and pain of their choice to lead lives of meaning. The depth and sincerity of the characters’ relationships belie their superficial simplicity and will make viewers long for their own such human interactions. We are proud to screen the film before its theatrical release in Ukraine. Polina Voinevych, the female lead of the film, will be at the screening.

The All-Knowing Buddha: A Secret Guide
The Rubin Art Museum
October 3, 2014 – April 13, 2015

The All-Knowing Buddha: A Secret Guide focuses on an exceptional set of paintings in the intimate format of album leaves from 18th-century China that illustrate the meditation practice of Sarvavid Vairochana, a primordial Buddha central to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. The album is one of only two of its kind in existence to depict visually a secret esoteric practice. The presentation at the Rubin is the first time that these important paintings are exhibited in the United States.

The 54 richly detailed paintings provide step-by-step guidance to visualization of the Buddha Sarvavid Vairochana and offer unique insight into the meditation and rituals of Tibetan Buddhism. These practices are normally not meant to be depicted and are usually restricted to oral transmission by a teacher to his initiated disciple. The album is displayed at the Rubin alongside an array of sculptures and paintings that provide an artistic, religious, and historical context for Buddhist practices related to Vairochana.

On loan to the Rubin from the Museum aan de Stroom in Antwerp, Belgium, the album was first brought to the West in 1923 by a Christian missionary who acquired it from a Buddhist monastery in Jehol, Inner Mongolia. It is believed to have been commissioned by a Mongolian patron during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), whose rulers sponsored extensive artistic production and supported Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. Drawing together Tibetan Buddhist content with the aesthetic traditions of Qing-era Chinese art in Inner Mongolia, the album exemplifies the rich patterns of cross-cultural exchange that characterized the period and region.

I was delighted to stumble upon this beautiful 100 year old silk vest embroidered with verses from the Qur’an at the National Museum of Malaysia…

Tantric Art: Erotic & Divine
The Rubin Museum of Art
September 17, 2014 – October 29, 2014
Every Wednesday @ 6:00 PM
Free with Admission

Join us for an in-depth exploration of sex and eroticism in objects from the Rubin Museum’s permanent collection and Francesco Clemente’s Black Book. The tour begins examining the ideas of divine union with tantric pieces from the third floor exhibition, Masterworks: Jewels of the Collection. Culminating with the sixth floor exhibition, Francesco Clemente: Inspired by India, visitors will reflect on similarities and differences between Clemente’s work and the Rubin’s esoteric tantric art.

This special public tour will be running weekly on Wednesday evenings at 6:00 pm through November 19th.

Yesterday in Beirut, the American University of Beirut launched a National Suicide Awareness Campaign organized by the Department of Psychiatry and the Embrace Fund. One person commits suicide in Lebanon every three days. Today in Lebanon, Lebanese drift champion Jad Himo reportedly committed suicide on the Beirut-Metn Highway. To raise awareness about suicide prevention, there will be a march in Beirut on September 21st at 5 a.m. called “Into the Dawn” from the Beit Ward Restaurant near the Movenpick to the Raouche rocks.