Arts During Social Distancing

The Louvre Abu Dhabi will be running an online showcase in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The museum will be updating the content on it’s Art From Home page every few days with graphics, audio, and even downloads. The Louvre Abu Dhabi also has an exhibition accompaniment app that can be enjoyed from home as well.

Shah-nameh, or the classic Book of Kings by Firdausi in its original published version is available in full high-resolution scans from the Library of Congress. This epic covers the history and making of Persia up until the 10th century A.D. The scans of the Shah-nameh capture the ornate beauty of written text from various muslims empires from the medieval centuries.

The city of Palermo came under Byzantine rule in 535 A.D. and then under Arab control from 831-1071. During this time Arab ideas and influences began to take shape over former Byzantine styles of building. Domed buildings, arches, and gardens with arabic influence were used in reconstruction of older or destroyed buildings. After the Arabs had left 1071 A.D Norman architecture melded with the styles of its former Arab occupiers.

A FIND by NYU Abu Dhabi fellow, Reem Falaknas photo essay goes into the village life of the UAE. Largely left out from media related to the UAE, the rural area inhabited by the emirati people is dramatic and captivating.

Fakir Khana located in Lahore, Pakistan is a large private collection of miniature painting, porcelain, carpets, islamic art, mughal art, and pieces of traditional woodworking.

Istanbul Modern Museum is one of Turkey’s largest modern museums, located in an industrial complex right off the sea, the Modern Museum houses a large collection on two floors. The virtual tour offers a 3D model of the museum’s floor space as well as a high resolution tour of its current exhibits. In a “Google street view” style tour, you can have a first person view of the Modern Museum floor.

In this series, surveys from the German Archaeological Institute Istanbul present wooden style architecture on housing dating back to the 17th century. The research is presented by date and style. This online curation will take to villas on the shores of the Bosphorus to the dense urban centers of Istanbul. This collection also showcases building techniques and methods used throughout the centuries.

In this anthropological photo essay, a photographer who resides in Abu Dhabi UAE finds the beauty within an average bus station. The essay explores the multifaceted aspects of society in Abu Dhabi all through the social instances that occur in this bus station. The photographer, Mo Ogrodnik is a contributor from FIND, an NYU Abu Dhabi cultural laboratory.

This series features high resolution scans of Qurans from varioues centuries, universities, and cities. Throughout the middle ages rulers commissioned artists to produce beautifully written and printed Qurans, features detailed calligraphy, gold inlays, and leather covers and bounds. This collection has a wide range of scans that showcase all of the various methods in which Qurans were created and printed. IF this one catches your interest, here is another collection of scans of beautifully printed Qurans.

This collection captures a unique period in Turkey’s history that spans the transition of Ottoman Turkey to a Republic Turkey, covering the early 20th century to the mid 20th century. Exhibiting a period of Turkish realism, the collection mainly contains oil paintings of Mosques, Fruits, and portraits.