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| Wijdan | | ( Jordan ) |
Wijdan Al-Hashemi is an art historian, painter, art curator and diplomat. Following her undergraduate studies in history at Beirut College for Women, in 1961, she gained a PhD in the history of Islamic art from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 1993. Her art training began in the late 1950’s under Muhana Durra, the leading precursor of the modern art movement in Jordan.
Wijdan Al-Hashemi has written, edited and contributed to a number of publications on traditional and contemporary art from the Islamic world. She is the founder of the Royal Society of Fine Arts (1979) and the National Gallery of Fine Arts (1980) in Jordan, as well as founder and dean of the faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Jordan (2001-2005). Since October 2006, she is the Ambassador of Jordan to Italy and currently lives and works in Rome.
 WIJDAN EXHIBITION: I AM YOU (ROME)
Location: LipanjePuntin artecontemporanea
Rome via di Montoro 10 – 00186 Rome
Duration: May 28 – July 31 2009
Opening: Thursday May 28, from 7 to 9.30 pm
LipanjePuntin artecontemporanea - Rome is proud to present I Am You, a solo show by Wijdan curated by Khalid Khreis.
The exhibition I Am You is the artist’s humble gift to Rome, the city she loves, and to its people. Love is the feeling at the core of this exhibition. For Wijdan love is above all an enduring and sublime source of inspiration and has to be conceived as a condition of harmonious coexistence, as the willingness to establish a direct communication between the self and the other.
Wijdan’s own artistic practice is situated at the cutting edge of the modern calligraphic styles in the visual arts that incorporate contemporary ideas and western media. Attempting to catch the deep essence of the relation between human beings and surrounding environment, as according to the Sufism, Wijdan lives a perpetual state of enamourment with the world, people, beauty, nature and love itself: “…in my second solo exhibition in Rome I depict love with colour and line. I continue to play on the Sufi idiom You Are Me that signifies the unity between the lover and the beloved, be it God, person or nature. I deeply believe that sufis have attained the highest form of love through their acceptance of all regardless of difference in faith, nature, appearance, weakness or strength”. Therefore for Wijdan the word “love” does not refer to an amorous feeling between two persons, as in all the anthropocentric narratives by now turned into a profitable source of gain (not only in the “western” world), as much as a not exclusive branched scheme of deep-rooted relationships linking all that exists in an animistic union. Wijdan is a calligraphic artist, not a calligrapher, a reason why she loves to work on the two levels of words: form and meaning. The bright colours and their pattern support the text in an unpredictable and peculiar combination; likewise the text seems to evoke the energy materialized by shapes and colours. The perfect harmony between these elements is just one of the many expressions of love as it is described by the Sufi doctrine.
LIPANJEPUNTIN artecontemporanea
via di Montoro 10 – 00186 Roma
Tel. + 39 06 68307780 Fax + 39 06 68216758
www.lipanjepuntin.com
roma@lipuarte.it
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Wijdan
| Education |
| 1993 | | Ph.D. in Islamic Art, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, England. |
| 1990 | | MA, Islamic Art, SOAS, University of London. |
| 1961 | | BA, History, Lebanese American University, Beirut, Lebanon. |
| 1958-63 | | Private training in painting with Armando Prön (Italian) and Muhanna Durra (Jordanian), Amman. |
| Solo Exhibitions |
| 2003 | | "Honored Artist at the Sharjah Biennale" Sharjah, U. A. E. |
| 2002 | | "Three Phases in Four Decades" Darat Al-Funun, Amman, Jordan |
| 2001 | | "al-Riwaq Gallery" Manama, Bahrain |
| 1994 | | "Riwaq al-Balqa'", Fuhais, Jordan. |
| | | "Shawa & Wijdan", October Gallery, London. |
| | | "Umaniyat", The Literary Club, Muscat, Oman. |
| 1993 | | "Galligraphy in Watercolor"The Gallery, Amman, Jordan. |
| 1992 | | "Wijdan and Franco de Courten", Shoman Gallery, Amman, Jordan. |
| 1990 | | The Gallery, Amman, Jordan. |
| 1986 | | Petra Bank Gallery, Amman, Jordan. |
| 1981 | | Alia Art Gallery, Amman, Jordan. |
| | | Fine Arts Council, Karachi, Pakistan. |
| 1980 | | Jordan National Gallery, Amman, Jordan. |
| 1977 | | The Gallery, Amman, Jordan. |
| 1979 | | Middle East Institute, Washington D.C., USA. |
| 1973 | | Thor Gallery, Louisville, USA. |
| 1972 | | Gallerias Melia, Madrid, Spain. |
| | | Jordan Intercontinental, Amman, Jordan. |
| 1967 | | British Council, Amman, Jordan. |
| 1965 | | Le Centre Culturel Français, Amman, Jordan. |
| | | Woodstock Gallery, London, England. |
| 1965 | | Galerie Wirth, Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany. |
| 1964 | | Le Centre Culturel Français, Amman, Jordan. |
| 1963 | | American Cultural Centre, Amman, Jordan. |
| Artistic Awards |
| 1995 | | Al-Hussein bin Talal Gold Medal for Artistic Achievement. |
| 1987 | | Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres - Ministere de la Culture en France. |
| 1981 | | Medaille d'Or - Academie Internationale de Lutèce, Lille, France. |
| 1981 | | Diplome d'Honneur - Institut Européen de Science Humaine dans la Discipline Academique Beaux Arts, Brussel, Belgium. |
| Selected Solo Shows |
| 1965 | | Woodstock Gallery, London, UK |
| | | Galerie Wirth, Berlin, West Germany |
| | | Le Centre Culturel Francais. Amman,Jordan |
| 1972 | | Gallerias Melia, Madrid Spain |
| 1973 | | Thor Gallery Louisville, Kentucky, USA |
| 1979 | | Middle East Institute, Washington D,C |
| 1980 | | Jordan National Gallery. Amman, |
| 1981 | | Fine A.rts Council Karachi Pakistan |
| 1992 | | Wijdan and Franco de Courten, Shoman Gallery Amman. Jordan |
| 1993 | | The Gallery, Amman, Jordan |
| Selected Mixed Shows |
| 1961 | | Jordanian Artists' Exhibition, Amman Municipality, Amman, Jordan |
| 1982 | | Jordanian Art Exhibition, Moscow |
| | | Assila Art Exhibition, Assila, Morocco |
| | | Four Artists from Jordan, The Wraxall Gallery, London, UK |
| | | Arab Artists Exhibition, Centre D'Art Vivant de la Ville de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia |
| 1983-84 | | Jordanian Contemporary Art, Ankara State Museum, Ankara, Turkey (toured Istanbul, Turkey). |
| | | Jordanian Contemporary Art, Zacenta Art Gallery, Warsaw, Krakow and Poznan, Poland |
| 1986 | | Cairo Biennial, Cairo, Egypt |
| | | Baghdad International Festival of Art, Saddam Centre for the Arts, Baghdad, Iraq. |
| | | La Vie Royale: L 'Art Contemporaien Jordanie, Musee du Luxembourg, Paris, France |
| 1989 | | Contemporary Art From the Islamic World, Barbican Centre, London, UK. |
| 1990 | | Arab Artists, Damascus and Alleppo, Syria |
| 1991 | | An Arist's Point of View, McIntosh Gallery, Toronto, Canada |
| | | South of the World, Galleria Civica D' Arte Contemporanea, Marsala, Italy |
| 1991 | | Baghdad International Festival of Art, Saddam Centre for the Arts, Baghdad |
| 1992 | | Contemporary Jordanian Art, International World Fair, Seville, Spain |
| | | Forces of Change: Artists of the Arab World, The Notional Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C. USA |
| 1993 | | Re-creations, Le Centre Culturel Francais, Amman, Jordan |
| | | Sixth Asian Art Biennial, Dhaka, Bangladesh. |
| | | Contemporary Jordanian Art, Qasr AI-Bustan, Mascot, Oman |
| | | Exhibition of Arab Art, Darat al-Funun Arts Centre, Amman, Jordan |
| 1994 | | Laila Shawa: The Walls of Gaza and Wijdan: Calligraphic Abstractlons, The October Gallery, London, UK |
| Selected Public Collections |
| The British Museum, London, UK |
| Shoman Foundation, Amman, Jordan |
| Jordan Notional Gallery, Amman, Jordan |
| Centre D'Art Vivant de la Ville de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia |
| Musee d'Asilah, Asilah, Morocco |
| National Gallery, Islamabad, Pakistan |
| Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amman, Jordan |
| Selected Publications |
| Contemporary Art From the Islamic World, Scorpion Publishing Co. London, UK, 1989. |
| Introduction to Islamic Art: Umayyads, AbbaSlds, Andaluslons and Fatlmlds, Vol I (English). Under publication. |
| Development of Modern Art In Jordan, to be published. |
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