Paintings by Nazli Madkour

10 April-10 May 2012. This exhibition, entitled Homage to Women, displays a selection of paintings by Nazli Madkour.

Madkour’s works are inspired by The Thousand and One Nights, written by Sheherazade, the last wife of the Sultan Schahriar, as well as by Arabian Nights & Days by Naguib Mahfouz, awarded in 1988 with the Nobel Prize for Literarure.

At the time of the Islamic Golden Age Sultan Schahriar, who reigned in Bagdad and had a fear of being killed by women, had each of his wives beheaded on the morning after their wedding. In order to interrupt this cruel practice and to cure the sultan’s madness, his last wife Sheherazade, started writing a never-ending story full of suspense so that the sultan, longing to hear its conclusion, would postpone the execution. After a thousand nights he finally decided to revoke his decree. Madkour’s mixed-media works are at the same time naive and sophisticated and are inspired by Arabian traditions, culture and folklore.