Cultural mandates, artistic missions, and "The Welfare of Palestine," 1876-1948
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | eng |
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124108 |
| _version_ | 1811074216602107904 |
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| author | Ari, Nisa. |
| author2 | Nasser Rabbat and Caroline A. Jones. |
| author_facet | Nasser Rabbat and Caroline A. Jones. Ari, Nisa. |
| author_sort | Ari, Nisa. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:45:48Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | mit-1721.1/124108 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:45:48Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1241082020-03-10T03:28:02Z Cultural mandates, artistic missions, and "The Welfare of Palestine," 1876-1948 Ari, Nisa. Nasser Rabbat and Caroline A. Jones. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture Architecture. This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. Thesis: Ph. D.: History and Theory of Art, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture, 2019 Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 312-334). This dissertation investigates the changing landscape for artistic production in Palestine from the last decades of Ottoman rule until the establishment of the State of Israel (1876-1948). The development of new artistic practices and exhibition spaces occurred against a political backdrop in near constant transition--including the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the First World War, British military and colonial occupation (in the form of the British Mandate from 1920-48), as well as the growth of Arab nationalism and Zionism. Previous scholarship on Palestinian art defines it as a national artistic movement, born out of a state of political disenfranchisement after 1948. I argue instead that the conflicting ideological forces impacting Palestine in the early twentieth century produced the preoccupations and practices which define Palestinian art, and analyze how aspiring Palestinian artists, imperious foreign occupiers, moralizing evangelicals, international welfare agents, and Zionist immigrants contributed to its rise. The dissertation focuses on institutions supporting art's production and display, whose very presence reflected Palestine's complex political reality. These include, among others, the House of Industry created by Anglican missionaries for Jewish craftworkers in the late-1800s, the Supreme Muslim Council's First National Arab Fair for showcasing Arab arts and industry in 1933, and the Palestine Folk Museum initiated by British, Palestinian, and Jewish political representatives for collecting local costumes in the early 1930s. By identifying the role such entities played in the promotion of new artistic forms, as they encouraged the use of new material technologies from synthetic embroidery threads to photographic prints and dried flowers, I critically reevaluate the work of canonical early twentieth-century Palestinian artists including Nicola Saig, Sophie Halaby, Jamal Badran, and Zulfa al-Saʻdi. The dissertation finds that it was within a relatively short historical span that art production in Palestine changed from being used for religious and commercial ends in the late-1800s to being deployed for humanitarian and, eventually, political purposes by the 1930s. In doing so, it highlights Palestine as a compelling site for interrogating the previously unexamined origins of a "cultural sector" within the evolutions of nation-building, colonial pacification, and international humanitarianism following the First World War. by Nisa Ari. Ph. D.: History and Theory of Art Ph.D.:HistoryandTheoryofArt Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Architecture 2020-03-09T18:58:19Z 2020-03-09T18:58:19Z 2019 2019 Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124108 1141856974 eng MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 467 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| spellingShingle | Architecture. Ari, Nisa. Cultural mandates, artistic missions, and "The Welfare of Palestine," 1876-1948 |
| title | Cultural mandates, artistic missions, and "The Welfare of Palestine," 1876-1948 |
| title_full | Cultural mandates, artistic missions, and "The Welfare of Palestine," 1876-1948 |
| title_fullStr | Cultural mandates, artistic missions, and "The Welfare of Palestine," 1876-1948 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cultural mandates, artistic missions, and "The Welfare of Palestine," 1876-1948 |
| title_short | Cultural mandates, artistic missions, and "The Welfare of Palestine," 1876-1948 |
| title_sort | cultural mandates artistic missions and the welfare of palestine 1876 1948 |
| topic | Architecture. |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124108 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT arinisa culturalmandatesartisticmissionsandthewelfareofpalestine18761948 |