An exhibition highlighting a unique collection of Arabic cinema posters and another that explores the relationship between text and image in art and literature are on view in Sterling Memorial Library.
“Arabic Cinema Posters,” on display in the Memorabilia Room, displays a selection of some of the 1,200 movie posters recently acquired by the Near Eastern Collection and housed within the library’s Department of Manuscripts and Archives.
The first Arabic film was produced in Egypt in 1923, and the Arab world has since developed an active film industry. The exhibit features posters advertising films produced in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. The posters offer insight on both the cinematic and social history in the Arab world. The exhibition is on view until March 6.
“Word and Image,” which is in the new exhibition space in the library’s card catalogue area (enter through 130 High St.), has been curated by students in the Yale College seminar “Word and Image,” led by Catherine Labio of the French and Comparative Literature departments.
The exhibition examines the relationship between text and image in European, American and Japanese art and literature. Students in the seminar have drawn on the many resources of Yale’s libraries and art galleries, including the Haas Arts Library Special Collections, Manuscripts and Archives, and the Yale Babylonian Collection. They also designed works of their own to create an experimental theoretical space where artists and writers from ancient times to the contemporary era interrogate the distinction between drawing and writing, narrative and illustration, and reading and seeing. This show is open until March 8.
Both exhibitions are free and open to the public. “Arabic Cinema Posters” is open Monday-Thursday, 8:30 a.m.-5:45 p.m., and Friday, 8:30 a.m.-4:45 p.m. “Word and Image” is open Monday-Thursday, 8:30 a.m.-5:45 p.m.; Friday, 8:30 a.m.-4:45 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-4:45 p.m.; and Sunday, noon-5:45 p.m.
