Picturing Islam - Art And Ethics In A Muslim Lifeworld

Picturing Islam: Art and Ethics in a Muslim Lifeworld explores issues of religion, nationalism, ethnicity, and globalization through the life and work of the prominent contemporary Indonesian artist Abdul Djalil Pirous.
· Presents a unique addition to the anthropology of art and religion
· Demonstrates the impact of Islam, ethnicity, nationalism, and globalization on the work and life of an internationally recognized postcolonial artist
· Weaves together visual and narrative materials to tell an engrossing story of a cosmopolitan Muslim artist
· Looks at contemporary Islamic art and the way it has been produced in the world’s largest Muslim nation, Indonesia

Kenneth M. George is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an associate of its Center for Southeast Asian Studies. His ethnographic work on contemporary Indonesian art has been supported by many fellowships including awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. George's first book, Showing Signs of Violence, was awarded the 1998 Harry J. Benda Prize in Southeast Asian Studies by the Association for Asian Studies. He also served as the Editor of the Journal of Asian Studies from 2005 through 2008.

“Scholarship on Islam in Indonesia has long lacked a good study of contemporary Islamic art. Beautifully written and theoretically nuanced, Kenneth George’s Picturing Islam is just such book, setting a new standard for the study of Islam and the arts in Indonesia.”
—Robert W. Hefner, Boston University
“This book is the future of ethnographic writing about art and a must-read for contemporary art historians and anthropologists alike. No portrait of an artist better reveals the creative processes of an artist so deeply in tune with his spirit and how a spiritual quest becomes an artistic journey.”
—Nora A. Taylor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

List of Illustrations.
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
Note on Qur’anic Verse.
Guide to Indonesian Spelling and Pronunciation.
Introduction: Picturing Islam.
1. Becoming a Muslim Citizen and Artist.
2. Revelations and Compulsions.
3. Diptych – Making Art Islamic and Making Islamic Art Indonesian.
Part 1: Making Art Islamic.
Part 2: Making Islamic Art Indonesian.
4. Spiritual Notes in the Social World.
5. Anguish, Betrayal, Uncertainty, and Faith.
Conclusion: A Retrospective.
Afterword: Choosing a Frame.
References.
Index.