Modern art from the Middle East on view in Yale's gallery exhibition

YALE NEWS

A detail from Egyptian artist Effat Naghi's "The High Dam," 1966. Collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. © Effat Naghi.

CONNECTICUT---The Yale University Art Gallery will mark the 175th anniversary of the field of Arabic studies at Yale with the exhibition “Modern Art from the Middle East,” a selection of paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by Middle Eastern artists rarely exhibited in the United States. The exhibition is part of a campus-wide, yearlong celebration. The field of Arabic studies was inaugurated on campus in 1841 when Edward Elbridge Salisbury, B.A. 1832, became the first professor of Arabic and Sanskrit in the United States. The 19 artworks on display in the exhibition are on loan from the Barjeel Art Foundation, a collection of modern and contemporary art located in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates. Established by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, the foundation promotes the art of the Middle East through international collaborations. [link]