Ottoman miniatures meet Hollywood film

Turkish student Murat Palta has done something very creative for his senior thesis project – he  merged the language of Hollywood film posters  with Ottoman miniature paintings.    He has captured the compositional style, colours and patterns, and general authentic “look” of the miniatures.  Capturing a moment of high tension and drama from the films (Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, A Clockwork Orange, and many more – see Scarface at right) he has created a unique mash-up of genres.

See all the paintings from Palta’s portfolio here; and some more background from this Slate article.

Middle Eastern image resources on ARTstor

One of the ways ARTstor helps users find material relevant to their teaching or research is through their subject guides.  They have just published an excellent user guide on finding materials relevant to Middle East studies, covering the whole geographic/social/cultural region.  In addition to objects from museums and archives, the rich holdings include contemporary and historic photographs of archaeological sites, people, architecture, and events.

Latest images and agreements from ARTstor

ARTstor’s Digital Library now has these collections available:

• Shangri La, Honolulu, Hawaii (Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art): 400 images of Islamic and South Asian art from the collection at Shangri La, the former home of Doris Duke (1912-1993) [1/2 of the projected 800]
• Yao Ceremonial Artifacts Collection (Ohio University): 3,714 art works and objects created by the Yao people, an ethnic minority from northern Vietnam
• Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South (Library of Congress): 6,884 documentary photographs taken between 1933 and1940 by Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952) of buildings and gardens throughout nine Southern states
• Contemporary Art (Franklin Furnace): 3,345 images and documentation of ephemera and events presented and produced by this renowned venue [2/3 of the 5,000 expected total]
• The Warburg Institute: 10,157 images of Renaissance and Baroque book illustrations from the Warburg Institute Library

ARTstor also anticipates additional images from these contributors:

• Columbia University: Architectural photography from Chicago and more than 150 QTVRs of architecture in Chicago and Peru
• Pre-Columbian Artifacts (Justin Kerr and Barbara Kerr): Still and rollout photographs of objects from the various cultures of Mesoamerica
• Via Lucis: High-resolution images of medieval Christian churches in France and Spain

New ARTstor images available

The ARTstor Digital Library has just announced these images are now available:

• ART on FILE: 1,100 images of contemporary architecture in the United Arab Emirates, which brings the final total to 11,743 views of contemporary architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, and public art from around the world
• Islamic Art and Architecture Collection: 250 images of Iznik ceramics, rounding out the total to 19,009 images from the personal archives of scholars Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair (Boston College) and Walter B. Denny (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

Additionally, a new agreement has been reached with Baltimore Museum of Art and its archives to share roughly 2,000 images of works from the permanent collection, including the historical Cone Collection, and 100 photographs of exhibition installations

Get camera implanted in head: check! (Or, Now that’s artistic devotion, Part 2)

Wafaa Bilal, a professor of photography at NYU, has had a camera implanted into the back of his head.  His project, called “The 3rd I”, was commissioned by the Arab Museum of Modern Art.   Photos will be taken every minute, and will be streamed from his website beginning December 15.  He will wear the camera for one year, with the goal of “constructing a methodical documentation of his existence and surroundings after having no ability to do so during a nomadic existence in the Middle East”  ( Bilal is Iraqi).  He is required to cover it with a lens cap while on NYU property.

Bilal had the camera “surgically” implanted into the back of his head – first, titanium plates were installed under the skin, then a camera attached  – all at a piercing studio (!?).

Read an interview and more on the project at The Wall Street Journal.

MEGA – a new database of Middle Eastern antiquities

After four years of collaboration and hard work, MEGA  (Middle Eastern Geodatabase for Antiquities) will launch next month.  It was designed to inventory archaeological sites so conservators and archaeologists can monitor and preserve them more easily.  It was developed at the Getty Conservation Institute, with funding aid from the World Monuments Fund and in partnership with the Jordanian Department of Antiquities.

It was originally intended as a catalogue of Iraq’s antiquities, which was particularly important in light of the looting the took place during and after the invasion (and which has apparently heated up again); however the chaos there caused the plans to be shelved and Jordan stepped in as the primary partner.  According to this  NY Times article both the Getty and the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage in Iraq hope to expand MEGA to add Iraq’s materials.

It’s not clear if the database will be made available to a wider audience in the future – it would certainly be a valuable asset in other areas of teaching and research.

Alka Patel’s collection now available in ARTstor

Professor Alka Patel of UC Irvine has worked with ARTstor and UCI VRC staff to contribute over 7,000 of her field research images to the main ARTstor collection.   These include the art and architecture of South Asia and Cuba.  Read more about the content of this new addition here.

This is an important project for all to note as it a) illustrates collaboration between a scholar and ARTstor, b) shows how a partnership with the Visual Resources Collection can benefit all, and c) is an excellent example of how centralized collection building works.  Prof. Patel has contributed these images for all ARTstor users, as have other individual and institutional participants.

To explore these images, go to Browse by collection, and click “Alka Patel: South Asian and Cuban Art and Architecture;” or, Search using the keyword: alkapatel.

ARTstor, Archivision and CDL deliver a payload!

With some end of the year money available, the California Digital Library has licensed three huge segments of the vendor Archivision‘s fantastic images of architecture and public art for all UC campuses.  The Archivision Base Collection has 16,370 images “representing major Greek, Roman, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, 18th & 19th Century and Modern sites”.   Archivision Module One has 5,893 images that build on the above periods and also includes Ancient and Islamic Egypt.  Archivision Module Two has 6,395 images of Early Modern and Modern European architecture, Islamic Turkey, and more US sites.   All the collections include drawings and plans that complement Scott Gilchrist’s stunning photographs.  You can explore the more than 28,000 new images through ARTstor – look under “Institutional Collections”.

Very soon we hope to have Module 4 up and running (remember that wonderful VRA raffle prize??) – with that we’ll have access to a total of nearly 35,000 of these wonderful vendor images.  Just the boost we need right now!

New ARTstor collection releases

ARTstor announced the following collections are now available:

• The Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art (approximately 800 images, learn more)
• The Roy Lichtenstein Collection (800 images, learn more)
• MoMA Exhibition Installation Photograph Collection [The Museum of Modern Art Archives] (last release completed and totals roughly 16,700 images, learn more)
• Larry Qualls Archive of Contemporary Art (digitized in multiple releases; more than 56,400 of the projected 100,000 total are currently available, learn more)