Mary McWilliams – författare

The diverse and beautiful art of Qajar Iran (1779–1925) has long been understudied and underappreciated. This insightful publication reassesses Qajar art, particularly its four principal mediums—lacquer, painting and drawing on paper, lithography, and photography—and their intertwined development. The Qajar era saw the rise of new technologies and the incorporation of mass-produced items imported from Europe, Russia, and India. These cultural changes sparked a shift in the Iranian art world, as artists produced printed and photographic images and also used these widely disseminated mediums as sources for their paintings on paper and in lacquer. Technologies of the Image illustrates dozens of Qajar works, including sketches and designs from Harvard’s extraordinary album of artists’ drawings, photographs by Ali Khan Vali, and stunning Persian lacquer from private collections. The book considers Qajar art as the product of a rapidly changing art world in which images moved across and between media, highlighting objects that span contexts of production and patronage, from royal to sub-royal.  Distributed for the Harvard Art MuseumsExhibition Schedule:Harvard Art Museums(08/26/17–01/07/18)

Exploring prize textiles known as tiraz, whose meaning and materiality illuminate the interwoven communities of the medieval Islamic worldSocial Fabrics looks at tiraz—highly prized textiles enhanced with woven, embroidered, or painted inscriptions in Arabic—to trace the structure of medieval Egyptian society during a transformative period. It reveals a story as interwoven and complex as these delicate objects themselves. A foundational introduction to the topic, this exhibition catalogue combines richly illustrated entries with essays on the history of Egypt at the time, the meaning and materiality of tiraz, and the history of collecting these objects in US institutions. Created throughout the region (including lands now in Iran, Iraq, and Yemen) in the centuries following the Arab Muslim conquest of Egypt, inscribed textiles were a visual form of communication in a society that was ethnically, linguistically, and religiously diverse. Those with inscriptions regulated by the government were particularly valued, proclaiming their owners’ membership in the ruling elite.Distributed for the Harvard Art MuseumsExhibition Schedule:Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA(January 22–May 8, 2022)