BRUSH OF INSIGHT/FACES OF GOD: BOOK TALK WITH PROFS. YAEL RICE AND MURAD KHAN MUMTAZ

The Art History Department at the CUNY Graduate Center invites you to attend a panel featuring the authors of two groundbreaking monographs on Mughal painting, both published in 2023: The Brush of Insight by Dr. Yael Rice and Faces of God by Dr. Murad Khan Mumtaz. The authors understand paintings to have been portals for dreams, visions, and sacred presence, and to have invited spiritual insight. With innovative interpretations grounded in close looking, Rice and Mumtaz deepen our understanding of Mughal visuality.

Each explores the provocative question: what do Mughal paintings do? Additionally, the authors significantly advance the study of artists, patronage, and artistic processes. The panel offers a chance to learn about Indo-Muslim ontologies, the power of gazing, especially on beauty, and the expressive sophistication of Mughal pictures. We invite colleagues outside Mughal art history to engage with what these scholars have to teach us about images. Specialists are welcome too! Graduate-student organized, discussion oriented.