Inspiring Art!

[Allyourbase]

Inspired by the Inspiring Architecture thread, I thought I would share with you some art, seeing as your typical nomad would never be caught dead in a museum, perhaps talking about it online would ease the process of introducing folk to works of Art. We could start with sharing a few of our favourite artists?

 

Del Sarto

 

 

Rembrandt:

 

 

Norman Rockwell:

 

 

John Singer Sargent

 

 

Ilya Repin

 

 

An other one of his is in my top 10 of all time:

 

 

[Hobbesian_Brute]

^ what is it with atheists and Art, bal ? y'all are pretending to be so sophisticated always. don't you know drawing a depiction of living things is Haraam.

[Hobbesian_Brute]

I see what what kind of art appeals to you.

 

[Hobbesian_Brute]

[Hobbesian_Brute]

[Allyourbase]

Hobbesian_Brute;973776 wrote:

^ what is it with atheists and Art, bal ? y'all are pretending to be so sophisticated always. don't you know drawing a depiction of living things is Haraam.

Well played!

 

Its a 'Somali' thing though isnt it? This lack of visual artistic language. There are some great muslim artists so its surely not a Muslim thing.

Some more:

 

Hokusai:

 

 

 

And his most famous creation:

 

 

And for all of you sneaker enthusiasts this is the winged Goddess of victory:

Nike of Samothrace

 

[Allyourbase]

And you are absolutely right, I friggin' love Gerome!

 

 

Damn!

[Hobbesian_Brute]

Allyourbase;973785 wrote:

Well played!

 

Its a 'Somali' thing though isnt it? This lack of visual artistic language. There are some great muslim artists so its surely not a Muslim thing.

Absolutely, somalis have high verbal skills but atrocious visuospatial skills. our brains are so skewed towards oral side of things, that somalis can't appreciate visual art.

[Carafaat]

http://harunyahya.com/en/books/975/Existence_Of_Allah/chapter/1795

Take a look around you from where you sit. You will notice that everything in the room is "made": the walls, the upholstery, the ceiling, the chair where you sit, the booklet you hold in your hand, the glass on the table and countless other details. None of them happen to exist in your room of their own accord. Even the simple loops of the carpet were made by someone: they did not appear spontaneously or by chance.

 

A person who is about to read a book knows that it has been written by an author for a specific reason. It would not even occur to him that this book might have come into being by chance. In the same manner, a person who sees a sculpture has no doubt whatsoever that it was made by a sculptor. And not just works of art: even a few bricks resting on top of one another make one think that they must have been brought to rest just so by someone within a certain plan. Therefore, everywhere where there is an order - either small or big - a founder and protector of this order must also exist.

If, one day, somebody came forward and said that raw iron and coal came together to form steel by chance, which in turn constructed the Eiffel Tower again by chance, would not he and those who believed him be regarded as insane?

 

The claim of the theory of evolution, the unique method of denying the existence of God, is no different from this. According to the theory, lifeless atoms formed amino acids by chance, amino acids formed proteins by chance, and finally proteins formed living creatures again by chance. However, the probability of a living creature being formed by coincidence is less than the probability of the Eiffel Tower being formed in the same manner, because even the simplest living cell is more sophisticated than any man-made structure in the world.

 

How is it possible to think that the balance in the world came about by coincidence when the extraordinary harmony of nature is observable even with the naked eye? It is the most unreasonable claim to say that the universe, each point of which suggests the existence of its Creator, has come into being on its own.

 

Therefore, there should be a designer of the balance visible everywhere from our body to the farthest corners of the inconceivably vast universe. So, who is this Creator that ordained everything so subtly and created all?

 

He cannot be any material being present within the universe, because His must be a will that existed before the universe and created the universe therewith. The Almighty Creator is One in Whom everything finds existence, yet Whose existence is without any beginning or end.

 

Religion teaches us the identity of our Creator Whose existence we discover with our reason. Through what He has revealed to us as religion, we know that He is God, the Compassionate and the Merciful, Who created the heavens and the earth from nothing.

 

Although most people have the capability to grasp this fact, they spend their lives unaware of it.

When they look at a landscape painting, they wonder who its painter is. Later, they praise the artist at length for his beautiful work of art. Despite the fact that they face numerous originals of the natural world he painted the moment they turn around, they still disregard the existence of God, Who is the only owner of all these beauties.

In truth, no lengthy research is needed to understand the existence of God. Even if one of us had to live in a room from the time he was born, countless pieces of evidence in this room alone would be enough for him to grasp the existence of God.

 

The human body so overflows with evidence that it could not be contained in many multi-volumed encyclopaedias. Giving only a few minutes of conscientious thought to it all is enough to understand the existence of God. The present order is protected by God and maintained by Him.

 

The human body is not the only food for thought. Life abides in every square millimetre of the earth, be it observable by men or not. The world overflows with many living beings, from unicellular organisms to plants, from insects to sea animals, and from birds to human beings. If you take a handful of soil and look at it, even therein you can discover manifold living creatures with diverse characteristics. The same is true also for the air you breathe. Even on your skin, there are many living creatures whose names are unknown to you. In the intestines of all living beings are millions of bacteria or unicellular organisms that help digestion. The animal population in the world is many times greater than the human population. When we also consider the plant world, we see that there is not a single spot on the earth where there is no life. All of these creatures that are spread over an area of millions of square kilometres have different body systems, different lives and different contributions to the ecological balance. It is preposterous to claim that all these have come into existence by chance with no aim or purpose. No living being has come to exist through its own accord or effort. No coincidental happening can ever result in such complicated systems.

 

All of this evidence leads us to the conclusion that the universe works with a certain "consciousness". What, then, is the source of this consciousness? Surely it is neither the living nor the non-living beings in it. Nor can they be the ones that maintain the harmony and preserve the order.

The existence and glory of God reveals itself in countless proofs in the universe. In fact, there is not even a single man on the earth who will not accept this evident reality from the heart. Yet they still deny it "in iniquity and arrogance, though their souls are convinced thereof" as stated in the Qur'an. (The Qur'an, 27:14)

 

This booklet is written to point out the reality from which some people turn away because their interests are at odds with it, and also to disclose the frauds and senseless deductions on which some systems of thought are based. This is why many diverse subjects are tackled in the booklet.

 

Those who read this booklet will once more see the indisputable evidence of God's existence and witness that God's existence encompasses all things: the "reason" knows this. Just as He has created this all-pervading order, He is the One Who also maintains it incessantly.

[Allyourbase]

Hobbesian_Brute;973794 wrote:

Absolutely, somalis have high verbal skills but atrocious visuospatial skills. our brains are so skewed towards oral side of things, that somalis can't appreciate visual art.

Even at that, you would expect such oral skills to translate well into literature, theatre and song writing but even at that it seems we just do not do it well. It really is puzzling.

 

Back to great art:

 

Some surface anatomy studies from students at Ilya Repin St.Petersburg State Academy:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hobbesian_Brute]

Allyourbase;973864 wrote:

Even at that, you would expect such oral skills to translate well into literature, theatre and song writing but even at that it seems we just do not do it well. It really is puzzling.

I think they had arelatively decent theatre during the Kacaan era -- content wise, maybe not the presentation or the choreography. Somali music always had good, meaningful lyrics but the instrumentation let them down. Literature was in its nascent stage and oral stories were starting to be written before the civil war. Remember this is a nomadic herder culture, so don't expect cultural sophistication.

[Haatu]

Allyourbase;973864 wrote:

Even at that, you would expect such oral skills to translate well into literature, theatre and song writing but even at that it seems we just do not do it well. It really is puzzling.

What are you on about? Literature is our only strong point when it comes to the arts. Have you ever seen Somali poetry? As for the song writing, do you even understand the lyrics? Most of them are basically poems being sung that's how good they are when you compare them to the lyrics in mainstream pop music. The only pity is that a large portion of our literature isn't written down e.g. I'm only aware of a handful of books where our folktales are recorded.

[Allyourbase]

What worries me is the fact that those who hold such history are dying off and surprisingly there isn't an initiative to record this vast and valuable historical resource.

 

With regards to literature, well I am well aware of our prowess in verse, but there is not much of a Somali library is there? Books in folk tales and fiction should be quite popular I would've thought.

 

Haatu, how would you explain the lack of development in pictorial narrative in Somalia? I mean, the cave paintings are an example of our innate ability and they would rival those seen in places like France etc

[Haatu]

Allyourbase;973875 wrote:

What worries me is the fact that those who hold such history are dying off and surprisingly there isn't an initiative to record this vast and valuable historical resource.

 

With regards to literature, well I am well aware of our prowess in verse, but there is not much of a Somali library is there? Books in folk tales and fiction should be quite popular I would've thought.

 

Haatu, how would you explain the lack of development in pictorial narrative in Somalia? I mean, the cave paintings are an example of our innate ability and they would rival those seen in places like France etc

It's very worrying indeed. Much of our history and literature is held by these elders and no one is bothering to record it. For instance the Somali-Wardey wars are only briefly mentioned in one book by a European Explorer whereas there are still elders alive today who still know when and where the wars took place but they are quickly dying off.

 

Those type of books would be popular if we were rubbish story tellers lol For now we only need them to be preserved not necessarily read as storytelling is still popular.

 

As for the lack of development in pictorial narrative, well our lifestyle made it unfeasible. The nomad simple had no time to draw and paint and if he were to it would just become unnecessary clutter that he would have to drag across the Somali plains. That's why oral narrative is more popular as it only requires memorisation. We might find something if we excavate the historic urban centres like Berbera, Xamar, Xaafuun etc.

[Naxar Nugaaleed]

Wonderer Above the Sea of Fog is one of my favorites