scholarly journals Ikere-Ekiti in Art and Cultural Narratives

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dele Jegede
Keyword(s):  
Collective Identity ◽  
Art History ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Cultural Narratives ◽  
Southwestern Nigeria ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Site ◽  
Art And Architecture ◽  
The City

Ikere, a city in Ekiti State of southwestern Nigeria, comes up often in the literature of art history on two principal accounts: first, its art and architecture, and second, its major annual fesitval. These are the two central concerns of this paper. In the first part, the unique architecture of the afin and the traditional sculptures that were its central feature present the opportunity to examine the interconnectedness of continuity and change, tradition and modernity, and the centrality of art in the Oba's quest for political pre-eminence. Ikere came to in­ternational attention through the vlrtuoslc sculptures of one of Africa's master carvers--Olowe (ca. 1873-1938), who lived in Ise-Ekiti, a town about 15 miles east of Ikere. In addition to offering new insights into the relevance of Olowe to Ikere, this essay posits a re-examination of the birth year of Olowe. In the sec­ond part, this essay dissects the Olosunta festival, which remains central to the collective identity of a people who subscribe to different religious doctrines. The early history of Ikere acknowledges the city as a site for the simultaneous reign of two rulers, the Ogoga and the Olukere. But it is the annual celebration of the Olosunta festival that serves as the rallying point for the indigenes of the city at the same time that it provides a time-honored structure for handling potentially explosive cultural and political contestations.

Translating New York

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Regina Galasso
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
International Perspective ◽  
Cultural Narratives ◽  
Literary Achievement ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Literary Histories ◽  
The City

The cultural production of Spanish-speaking New York is closely linked to the Caribbean and to Latin America at large, but the city also plays a pivotal role in the work of a host of authors from the Iberian Peninsula, writing in Spanish, Catalan, and English. In many cases, their New York City texts have marked their careers and the history of their national literatures. Drawing from a variety of genres, Translating New York recovers cultural narratives occluded by single linguistic or national literary histories, and proposes that reading these texts through the lens of translation unveils new pathways of cultural circulation and influence. Looking beyond representations of the city's physical space, Translating New York suggests that travel to the city and contact with New York's multilingual setting ignited a heightened sensitivity towards both the verbal and non-verbal languages of the city, garnering literary achievement and aesthetic innovation. Analyzing the novels, poetry, and travel narratives of Felipe Alfau, José Moreno Villa, Julio Camba, and Josep Pla, this book uncovers an international perspective of Iberian literatures. Translating New York aims to rethink Iberian literatures through the transatlantic travels of influential writers.

The new Basrah Museum: dedicated to the archaeological and historical inheritance of Basrah and Iraq

Antiquity ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 93 (369) ◽  
pp. 811-813
Author(s):  
Adil Hashim Ali
Keyword(s):  
Material Culture ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
Arabian Gulf ◽  
Fertile Crescent ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
A Site ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
The City

Located in the Fertile Crescent and at the head of the Persian/Arabian Gulf, the city of Basra is steeped in history. Close to the heart of ancient Mesopotamia, the territory of modern Iraq was occupied variously by Achaemenids and Seleucids, Parthians, Romans and Sassanids, before the arrival of Islam in the early middle ages. In more recent history, the city's strategic position near the Gulf coast has made Basra a site of contestation and conflict. This exposure to so many different cultures and civilisations has contributed to the rich identity of Basra, a wealth of history that demands a cultural museum able to present all of the historical periods together in one place. The original Basra Museum was looted and destroyed in 1991, during the first Gulf War. The destruction and loss of so much of Iraq's history and material culture prompted official collaboration to build a new museum that would represent the city of Basrah and showcase its significance in the history of Iraq. The culmination of an eight-year collaborative project between the Iraq Ministry of Culture, the State Board of Antiquities and the Friends of Basrah Museum, the new museum was opened initially in September 2016. Already established as a cultural landmark in the city, with up to 200 visitors a day and rising, the museum was officially opened on 20 March 2019. The author was fortunate to be present for this event and able to explore the new galleries (Figure 1).

Social Smoking and French Fancies: The Dublin Art(s) Club, 1886–98

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-380
Author(s):  
Kathryn Milligan
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Art History ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
Art World ◽  
Active Engagement ◽  
Cultural Revival ◽  
British Art ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

Abstract ABSTRACT The Dublin Art(s) Club, which operated in the Irish capital from 1886 to 1898, offers an intriguing case study for modes of artistic networks and cultural exchange between Ireland and Britain in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. Despite this, the history of the Club has been little explored in historiography to date, often confused with other ventures by artists in the city. Examining the rise and fall of the Dublin Art(s) Club, along with its members and activities, this article retrieves its history and posits that it offers an example of an aspect of art in Ireland which was conspicuous for its cosmopolitan outlook and active engagement with the wider British art world, which then spanned across both islands. The history of the Dublin Art(s) Club poses a challenge to the extant scholarship of this period in Irish art history, which to date has been largely understood to be focused on themes of national identity, the cultural revival, and artists who left Ireland to train in Belgium and France. This article posits that by re-engaging with the activities of art clubs and societies, a more complex reading of artistic life in Victorian Dublin can emerge.

JEFFREY A. NEDOROSCIK, The City of the Dead: A History of Cairo's Cemetery Communities (Westport, Conn.: Bergin and Garvey, 1997). Pp. 140.

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 574-575
Author(s):  
Camilla Gibb
Keyword(s):  
Housing Sector ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Housing Crisis ◽  
Informal Housing ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Dead ◽  
A Site ◽  
The City

Jeffrey Nedoroscik's book is a sensitive sociological survey of life in Cairo's City of the Dead, where more than 500,000 people are now enlisted to reside. In an attempt to both demystify and account for this phenomenon, Nedoroscik argues that life in the City of the Dead is as old, and as rich, as life in Cairo itself. Today, residence in and among the family tombs stretching across some five square miles at the base of the muqattam Hills, constitutes an informal housing sector that has developed as a response to Cairo's severe housing crisis. Historically, though, the cemetery also teemed with life as a religious center housing some of the Muslim world's most important monuments, and a site of temporary and permanent shelter to relatives to the deceased, guardians of tombs, itinerants, the poor, the sick, Sufis, and other religious leaders.

Approaching the Mughal Past in Indian Art Criticism: The case of MARG (1946 –1963)

2012 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 167-203
Author(s):  
DEVIKA SINGH
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Art History ◽  
Art Criticism ◽  
Art Journal ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Art And Architecture ◽  
Indian Art ◽  
Contemporary Artists

AbstractThe paper examines the model value of the Mughal period in MARG, the leading art journal of 1940s and 1950s India. It combines a discussion of some of the key historiographical questions of Indian art history and the role played by specific art historians, including European exiles who were among the contributors to the journal, with broader questions on the interaction of national cultural identity with global modernism. In this context, the Mughal period—celebrated in MARG for its synthesis of foreign and indigenous styles—was consistently put forward as an example for contemporary artists and architects. From its inception in 1946 until the 1960s the review favoured a return to the spirit of India's prestigious artistic past, but not to its form. Its editorials and articles followed a clearly anti-revivalist and cosmopolitan line. It aimed at redressing misunderstandings that had long undermined the history of Indian art and surmounting the perceived tensions in art and architecture between a so-called Indian style and a modern, international one.

scholarly journals Making History Usable: Al-Andalus as a Site of Identity Construction in Arab American Women’s Narratives

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-28
Author(s):  
Al-Jayikh Ali Kareem
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Cultural Memory ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
Arab American ◽  
Ethnic Literature ◽  
Women's Narratives ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Site

AbstractIn ethnic literature, the historical and cultural past constantly haunt the present, producing contemporary narratives which emphasize how the heritage plays an essential role in preserving ethnic identity. From a trans-historical perspective, Arab American women’s narratives tend to turn the history of Al-Andalus (Medieval Moorish Spain) into cultural memory as a way of coping with the threats to their existence in the United States, particularly post-9/11, as well as of resisting the hegemonic culture. The aim of this paper is to investigate how Al-Andalus is intended to be seen as a construct of cultural memory and how this site of memory has the power to reshape individual and collective identity.

scholarly journals WILLI DROST: THE LAST DIRECTOR OF THE STADTMUSEUM (CITY MUSEUM) IN GDAŃSK

Muzealnictwo ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 108-120
Author(s):  
Iwona Kramer-Galińska
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
100Th Anniversary ◽  
Scholarly Activity ◽  
Art Theory ◽  
Ww Ii ◽  
Art Works ◽  
History Of ◽  
German Nationality ◽  
Free City Of Danzig ◽  
The City

As much as the history of the Free City of Danzig (1920–1939) has been dedicated numerous academic studies, the activity of its institutions and people, particularly Gdańsk residents of German nationality who played a significant role in the city’s political, cultural, scientific, educational, and spiritual life until 1945 has been hardly investigated. One of such individuals is Willi Drost born in Gdańsk in 1892. Following his studies and academic work in Leipzig, Marburg, Cologne, and Konigsberg, in 1930 he returned to Gdańsk, where he was offered the position of a custodian and later conservator of monuments of the Free City of Gdańsk; furthermore, as of 1938 he was appointed Director of the City Museum, which he remained uninterruptedly until 1945. Beginning from 1930, he was also professor of art history at the Technischer Hochschule, engineering university, as well as curator of Museum Collections for the whole region of Gdańsk – Western Prussia. His scholarly activity yielded numerous publications in art theory, North European modern painting, and Gdańsk art. Furthermore, Drost takes credit for the inventory of Gdańsk historic churches conducted from 1934 onwards. Resorting to the preserved materials, in 1957–1964, Drost published a 5-volume series titled Art Monuments of the City of Gdańsk (Kunstdenkmäler der Stadt Danzig). During WW II, together with Prof. Erich Volmar, he supervised the action of protecting and evacuating art works from the City Museum, Town Hall’s Red Room, Artus Manor, Uphagen’s House, as well as from churches and other historic facilities. Directly following the end of WW II, Drost stayed on in Gdańsk, helping Polish art historians to recover art works hidden in the city and its vicinity. Having left for Germany in the spring of 1946, he was professor at Hamburg and Tubingen universities. Until his last days he continued to promote the cultural heritage of Gdańsk. In recognition of his merits, Drost was honoured with numerous awards in Germany, while in 1992, on the 100th anniversary of his Birthday, a plaque commemorating him was unveiled in front of the building of the former City Museum (Stadtmuseum), today housing the National Museum in Gdańsk. The paper’s goal is to popularize Drost’s endeavours as a museologist, and to recall all he did for Gdańsk.

The Archaic Acropolis: Some Problems

1960 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 127-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh Plommer
Keyword(s):  
Archaic Period ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of ◽  
A Site ◽  
The City ◽  
Large Building

The literature on the Acropolis seems to me as untidy as the site itself. Every discovery that could, on the present evidence, be made about its history, every truth that could be pertinently stated has already appeared, I should imagine, in one or other of the books or articles devoted to it since the Greek excavations of the eighties. I am merely attempting the humble but, I think, necessary task of sifting out what seem to me the more interesting discoveries, the more significant conclusions. Before we form any more theories, we must try to discover what under present circumstances we can reasonably know.In this paper I shall have space only to consider the history of the main buildings, one or perhaps two large temples and perhaps a large propylon, up to the Persian destruction of the archaic Acropolis in 480 and 479. The minor buildings of poros, with triglyphs barely 1 foot or 15 inches wide, and walls or columns consequently less than 15 feet high, will interest me only incidentally. I have found no clear evidence for the sites of any of these, not even Wiegand's ‘Building B’, considered by J. A. Bundgaard (pp. 55 ff.) to be the precursor of the north-west wing in the Periclean Propylaea. Moreover I can isolate the problem of the large buildings more conveniently and with a clearer conscience, because it has already been isolated by C. J. Herington in his stimulating book,Athena Parthenos and Athena Polias(Manchester, 1955). His thesis is an interesting one, that from far back in the archaic period two important temples stood on the Acropolis. The more southerly, dedicated to Athena the Warrior Maiden (Parthenos), occupied a site somewhere within the limits of the present Parthenon. The more northerly and the more important in state ritual was dedicated to Athena as the City Goddess, and occupied the site between the present Parthenon and Erechtheum, generally known as the ‘Doerpfeld Foundation’. Every visitor to Athens will know this series of old broken walls just south of the Caryatid Porch. Wiegand's is still, I think, the most workmanlike plan of it (Wiegand, figs. 72 and 117—my Fig. 1). Herington's thesis, then, enables me to arrange my questions as follows. How many successive temples occupied the Doerpfeld Foundation, what did they look like and how were they related to one another? And again, was there any important temple on the site of the present Parthenon before the decade 490–480, generally considered the date when a marble Parthenon was first attempted ? Because of its possible scale, I shall also have to consider the date and form of the archaic Propylon. If it were a large building, it could be the source of various large fragments hitherto assigned to temples; and Heberdey, the latest American books, and now Bundgaard all make it rather large, between 15 and 20 metres square. (For the actual dimensions they give, see below, pp. 146 ff.)

A Work for the Jewish Soul of Warsaw, Old and New

2017 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 57-58
Author(s):  
Lukas Ligeti
Keyword(s):  
Jewish Community ◽  
Computer Technology ◽  
Jewish Life ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
Interactive Performance ◽  
History Of ◽  
Polish Jews ◽  
A Site ◽  
The City

In 2015, Lukas Ligeti created a site-specific, audience-interactive performance work while in residence at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. Based on interviews with residents of Warsaw, the piece examined aural memories of Jewish life in the city, tracing the extermination and re-emergence of the Jewish community through speech and songs as well as creative musicians’ reimaginings of these memories, with computer technology as a mediator.

scholarly journals A Study of Islamic and Arab Markets' Role in Revitalizing Urban Spaces

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 193
Author(s):  
Mohamed Yasser Lotfy ◽  
Abdullah Soliman ◽  
Alaa Mandour
Keyword(s):  
City Planning ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Modern City ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Times ◽  
The One ◽  
A Site ◽  
The City

<p>Market places have occupied a major role in most cities around the world, being a site for more than just economic interactions, but rather a cultivating agent for social and cultural growth. The Arab and Islamic cities have a proud history of market places, most of the times being the main core of the city, with urban development encompassing it, and till the present day market places are in the heart of most communities. The <em>modern city </em>brought with it a devaluing of the traditional market places, making it a tourist attraction as in the case of <em>"khan el Khalil",</em>or leaving it to rust like <em>"bab el louq" </em>market. Those markets while playing a big role historically, <em>modern city planning </em>moved the services and markets into other form, thus becoming less important, abandoned, or even demolished at cases.</p><p>The issue at hand deals with how the contemporary urban planning affected market places, with emphasis on <em>closed markets</em> (Bab el-louk)which can be said to be the successor of the ancient <em>Bazaar </em>or <em>Wekala</em>.  Bal el-Louk market was once in the heart of Cairo and vital part of its community life, but now the market after more than a 100 years, is in ruins, but hope is not yet all lost, since the market can still be revived and revitalized.</p><p>To tackle this issue a combination of <em>comparative and field studies </em>must occur. On the one hand, comparative studies with <em>markets </em>in the US or closed markets in European cities such as Paris or Copenhagen would be done to find the necessary elements and goals that would make those markets vital, and the necessary steps to revitalize our own forgotten markets. The other study would have to deal with the current condition of bab el louk market in Cairo, finding out the reason behind its demise, the owners and users feedback on said market, and the opportunities for change.</p><p>With the results of the studies, general recommendations would be made for the <em>revitalization </em>of the Egyptian marketplaces, using an urban framework that would lead to those markets be available for costumers again and back to playing their major cultural and social rule.</p>

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