Professor Iftikhar Dadi of the Department of History of Art & Visual Studies at Cornell University will deliver the next York-Noor lecture exploring the arts of Islam and Muslim societies.
Dadi will give his first lecture, “Historicizing Miniature Painting in Contemporary South Asian Art”, on Sunday, Feb. 8, from 3 to 5pm, at the Noor Cultural Centre, 123 Wynford Dr. (Don Valley Parkway & Eglinton Avenue East).
For the second lecture on Monday, Feb. 9, Dadi will discuss his paper, “Calligraphic Modernism and Decolonization: South Asia, Middle East, North Africa”, in the Vanier Senior Common Room, 010 Vanier College, Keele campus.
Right: Iftikhar Dadi
Dadi’s research interests include modern South Asian and Islamic art and visual cultures, comparative modernities and post-colonial theory. He teaches modern and contemporary art, history of photography, comparative modernities as well as orientalism and representation. Currently, he is completing a book on modernism in Muslim South Asian art.
He co-curated the exhibit "Unpacking Europe", a major international exhibition by 19 leading contemporary artists, at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam and co-edited the accompanying reader Unpacking Europe: Towards a Critical Reading. He has also edited a special issue of the Prince Claus Fund Journal – “The Future is Handmade: The Survival and Innovation of Crafts”, devoted to future prospects of crafts around the world.
As an artist, Dadi’s work has been shown widely in international venues, including the São Paulo Biennial, Brazil; the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Brisbane, Australia; the Liverpool Biennial, UK; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan; and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France.
The free talks are part of the Annual York-Noor Lecture Series presented by York’s Division of Humanities, the Faculty of Arts and the Noor Cultural Centre.