From the Series "Modesty"
Acrylic on Digital Print
8"x10"
Showing posts with label islamic women in art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label islamic women in art. Show all posts
Islamic Erotica
Max Emadi's “Islamic Erotica” series was begun in 2002, following the infamous events of September 11th. In the following weeks and months, I started to feel my “otherness” once again, recalling my feelings from 1979 when my family immigrated to the United States from Iran. The familiar sting reminded me of how I felt as a fourteen- year old entering high school in California without a mastery of the English language, and only days after my countrymen had found it necessary to take a number of hostages from my newly-adopted land’s U. S. embassy. These periods in history, I suspect, made many Iranians feel similarly complicated emotions in our new “western” homes. I was almost ready to address my cultural conflicts through my art then, but it was not until Bush declared war on Iraq that my feelings actually boiled over!
As an atheist, I had always been critical of the state of my home country and the other theocracies of the world. However, I was not entirely a western convert either. Just because I hated the Iranian government more, I was not blind to the hypocrisies and travesties carried out by imperialists in the name of democracy.
In this series, I wanted to examine gender issues from both sides of the aisle. By combining the seemingly contradictory images of Islamic dress and American pinup art, we see a nightmarish vision of a possible future in the Middle East, as globalization and American and European democracy attempt to dominate while fundamentalist traditions hold fast in the region.
Sexism exists in all societies. The sexism of the East is direct. It is most apparent in its mandated repressive female clothing and legal and cultural restrictions on women’s freedom. Here, the double-standard between men and women cannot be denied. Perhaps the West objectifies women more “lovingly”. The traditional art of this culture exalts the “weaker sex,” though with a constant emphasis on her sexuality and little else. Overexposure and the unnatural poses of the female models are most clearly evident in modern advertising, entertainment media, and in the traditional pinup art of the 1940s and 50s. My work juxtaposes these two very different, but related, representations of the female.
I have been criticized by feminists and Muslims alike, but I believe my work supports the positions of both of them! After all, isn’t it true that erotic art, as a tool of sexism in a culture that objectifies women sexually, should really empower women who live in a culture that strips them of their sexuality and the power it brings? A type of image that, in secular societies, has been reduced to a pedestrian tool of commerce, titillation, and subjugation, is anything but that in a theocratic region. It may very well be a tool of revolution!
Islamic Erotica picture gallery
As an atheist, I had always been critical of the state of my home country and the other theocracies of the world. However, I was not entirely a western convert either. Just because I hated the Iranian government more, I was not blind to the hypocrisies and travesties carried out by imperialists in the name of democracy.
In this series, I wanted to examine gender issues from both sides of the aisle. By combining the seemingly contradictory images of Islamic dress and American pinup art, we see a nightmarish vision of a possible future in the Middle East, as globalization and American and European democracy attempt to dominate while fundamentalist traditions hold fast in the region.
Sexism exists in all societies. The sexism of the East is direct. It is most apparent in its mandated repressive female clothing and legal and cultural restrictions on women’s freedom. Here, the double-standard between men and women cannot be denied. Perhaps the West objectifies women more “lovingly”. The traditional art of this culture exalts the “weaker sex,” though with a constant emphasis on her sexuality and little else. Overexposure and the unnatural poses of the female models are most clearly evident in modern advertising, entertainment media, and in the traditional pinup art of the 1940s and 50s. My work juxtaposes these two very different, but related, representations of the female.
I have been criticized by feminists and Muslims alike, but I believe my work supports the positions of both of them! After all, isn’t it true that erotic art, as a tool of sexism in a culture that objectifies women sexually, should really empower women who live in a culture that strips them of their sexuality and the power it brings? A type of image that, in secular societies, has been reduced to a pedestrian tool of commerce, titillation, and subjugation, is anything but that in a theocratic region. It may very well be a tool of revolution!
Islamic Erotica picture gallery
Max Emadi's Paintings of Veiled Islamic Women as Pinup Girls Gaining Notoriety
Max's series of paintings on the Islamic dress code has been attracting a fair amount of attention of late it seems. The Arab American News posted an article on August 4th titled Are drawing and painting haraam? in which they mention Max's series of Islamic Erotica in a discussion of nudity in art. As one would expect it seems to be a big "No! No!" for strict Moslems. Same goes for strict Christians, and no doubt strict Jews, strict Hindus...
Iran Politics Club also posted a piece about Max this past August 2nd titled Max Emadi's Islamo-Erotic Paintings!
And last but not least, Max was approached recently to exhibit in a London event called "The Erotic Awards". Prints of some of his works will be exhibited at an event called "Night of the Senses" taking place in Brixton, London on the evening of September 2nd! We aren't going to link to either of the associated websites because of the explicit nature of images on both sites but you can no doubt search them down if you must. Max and I believe his works will appear rather tame in the context of what we've seen.
Read Max Emadi's comments on his Islamic Erotica series
Iran Politics Club also posted a piece about Max this past August 2nd titled Max Emadi's Islamo-Erotic Paintings!
And last but not least, Max was approached recently to exhibit in a London event called "The Erotic Awards". Prints of some of his works will be exhibited at an event called "Night of the Senses" taking place in Brixton, London on the evening of September 2nd! We aren't going to link to either of the associated websites because of the explicit nature of images on both sites but you can no doubt search them down if you must. Max and I believe his works will appear rather tame in the context of what we've seen.
Read Max Emadi's comments on his Islamic Erotica series
Islamic Marilyn Monroe
 |
| Islamic Marilyn Monroe
God is Great
36 x 48 inches oil on canvas
Max Emadi 2006
(Sold)
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The photograph of Marilyn Monroe with skirt blown up from the movie "The Seven Year Itch" is one of the most well-known images of the movie goddess. In a painting after this image, Max Emadi captures an Islamic woman in traditional dress and veil in front of the mosque with her dress blown up exposing her legs.
Mirror Mirror
Veiled Woman's Eye MakeupMax Emadi makes reference to the story of "Snow White" in this painting of a veiled Islamic woman applying her mascara in a work title "Mirror, Mirror"
Mirror, Mirror
Oil on canvas
20x24 inches
Max Emadi 2006
$900
Persian Belly Dancer
This painting of a Persian woman belly dancing doesn't feature as one of Max Emadi's Islamic Calendar Girl paintings. Perhaps she'll make next year's calendar? You don't get to see her face or much of her body as she writhes into view. Her curvaceous hips are in full swing as she works her way towards you.
Ms November - Dancer's Cymbals
Ms. November
Max Emadi starts to turn down the volume as the year winds up. No more legs or seductive eyes in this painting; just a pair of hands of a belly dancer with her maracas.Ms October Islamic Calendar Girl
Ms October Ms. October doubles the stakes offering us the prospect of both sex and alcohol as she takes up her revealing pose in a martini glass.
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