After Berlin and New York, here comes Roma !

Imran Qureshi's exhibition opens in Rome today. All of us are probably a little fatigued with looking at Imran's images, but do remember that no other Pakistani artist has gotten such a global profile with a series of globally important exhibitions in such  cramped period of time. So, dare I say, enjoy while it lasts as we are seeing history in the making!

Flowers of blood in Qureshi's Rome exhibition

Source: AFP / Various newspapers/websites

ROME: Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi brought his award-winning exhibition on beauty and violence to Rome Monday, unveiling the blood-themed creations which saw him appointed Deutsche Bank's 2013 “Artist of the Year.”

The 41-year-old, who was given the honour of creating an installation on the rooftop of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art this year, has brought 35 works to Rome's Macro museum for an exhibition which runs until November 17.

A rising star of South Asia's “neo-miniaturist” group of artists, Qureshi pays homage to the ancient Islamic art form of miniatures in the collection while simultaneously exploring elements of contemporary abstract painting.

Many of the works contrast life and brutal death, with splatterings of red acrylic paint to suggest blood and intricate foliage designs representing life.

In one, what appears to be the blood splatter from a gun shot wound drips down a white background to pool on the floor, while in another two giant, sun-like yellow spheres are tinged with a violent red.
Another sphere reminiscent of a fruit sports flowers of blood.

The artist, who teaches miniatures at Lahore's National College of Arts (NCA), has said the colour tone in his work is inspired by brutal bombings in Pakistan, in particular, one strike close to his family home which destroyed a market three years ago.

The instant transformation of place full of life to bloody landscape had a deep effect on his work, he said.




Artist Iman Qureshi poses next to his workon September 23, 2013 during the opening of his exhibition at the Macro Museum in Rome. PHOTO: AFP



Source: Facebook.

Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi poses in front of his work on September 23, 2013 during the opening of his exhibition at the Macro Museum in Rome. -AFP Photo

A visitor walks past the work of Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi on September 23, 2013 during the opening of his exhibition at the Macro Museum in Rome. -AFP Photo

Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi poses in front of his work on September 23, 2013 during the opening of his exhibition at the Macro Museum in Rome. -AFP Photo

 

A visitor walks past the work of Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi on September 23, 2013 during the opening of his exhibition at the Macro Museum in Rome. -AFP Photo

 

Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi poses next to his workon September 23, 2013 during the opening of his exhibition at the Macro Museum in Rome. -AFP Photo

Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi poses next to his work on September 23, 2013 during the opening of his exhibition in Rome (AFP, Tiziana Fabi)

Some more press coverage below.

1 - More press coverage in Italian Newspapers

2 - More press coverage in Italian Newspapers

3 - More press coverage in Italian Newspapers

4 - Press coverage in Dawn

5 - Press coverage in the Tribune

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Opens today.

Up and close # 1 -

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Artwallaa's Top 10 MUST SEE museums of the World

by Artwallaa

Artwallaa has gone through different sources to look deduce the list of top museums in the world. We have used four different sources plus our own judgement to come up with the list of the Top-10 museums to visit.

We have then also looked at the popularity of each museum by the number of visits done each year. This measure however is biased by the popularity of the host city/country of each of the museums. For example, even though The Hermitage is undoubtedly one of the top three fours museums in the world, it is ranked number 13 in the 'most-visited' list as the number of tourists going to Russia is much lower that the ones for the US or France (France and the US are top in tourist arrivals - 83mn and 67mn, while Russia is number 9 with 26mn - Source: Wikipedia).

Use this list as part of your travel plans over the next few years and before you know it, you would have visited most of these museums. If you do not get enough opportunities to travel, use the web to explore these museums. There is enough material available on the web to ensure that you can have good 'virtual visits'.

 

Artwalla's picks of top museums along-with rankings by other sources.

		National		Ucity	Lonely
#	Artwallaa	Geographic	Reuters	Guide	Planet
1	Le Louvre, Paris	2	1	1	1
2	State Hermitage, St. Petersburg	4	-	2	-
3	The Met, New York	7	3	6	5
4	The British Museum, London	5	-	3	2
5	Musee d'Orsay, Paris	-	5	-	3
6	Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence	9	6	5	6
7	Museo del Prado, Madrid	6	9	9	7
8	The Vatican Museums	8	2	8	8
9	Smithsonian, Washington	1	-	-	9
10	Tate Modern, London	-	8	-	10
11	The Egyptian Museum, Cairo	-	-	4	-
12	MOMA, New York	-	-	7	4
13	Paul Getty Center, Los Angeles	-	4	-	-
14	Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam	10	-	-	-
15	The Acropolis Museum, Athens	3	-	-	-

 

Artwallaa's picks of top museums versus rankings by the number of visits

		Most
#	Artwallaa	visited
1	Le Louvre, Paris	1
2	State Hermitage, St. Petersburg	13
3	The Met, New York	2
4	The British Museum, London	3
5	Musee d'Orsay, Paris	10
6	Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence	21
7	Museo del Prado, Madrid	11
8	The Vatican Museums	6
9	Smithsonian, Washington	8
10	Tate Modern, London	4
11	The Egyptian Museum, Cairo	-
12	MOMA, New York	14
13	Paul Getty Center, Los Angeles	24
14	Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam	66
15	The Acropolis Museum, Athens	59