
FirstLook: Learning from the Pattern-Masters
- Arts
- Photography
Photo by Richard Doughty
Video by Richard Doughty and Johnny Hanson
Walls, windows, doors and satellite dishes tessellate at twilight into a patchwork pattern in the madinah, or walled old city, of Fez, Morocco, as a pedestrian passes into view along one of the city’s typically narrow stone streets. Nestled in a valley crowned by gentle hills, Fez is one of the Islamic world’s great historic centers of the art of geometrically based patterns executed in tile, plaster, stone, wood and metal. Like all such patterns, those that adorn the mosques, madrassahs (schools) and sabeels (fountains) of Fez have their origins in simple, universal geometry that— through practice and elaboration—artists and craft workers developed into celestially intricate masterpieces. These adorn Fez in such numbers that the entire madinah is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In May AramcoWorld editor Richard Doughty joined a workshop to learn firsthand from the city’s great works, starting with a straightedge, a compass, a pencil and paper. (And an eraser.)
You may also be interested in...
In The Marshes Of Iraq
History
Arts
Amidst "the stillness of a world that never knew an engine... he found at last a life he longed to know and share.FirstLook: Duet
Arts
“Duet” comes from the Latin root word duo which means two. The Duet series focuses on double portraits, a tradition in West Africa.FirstLook: A ‘blistering triumph’ for the ‘back-street boys’
Arts
Amid the roar of racers zooming toward the finish line in London during the 1980 Grand Prix, longtime auto-racing photographer and renowned artist Michael Turner trained his lens on a Saudia-Williams FW 07.