Sarah Hassan Writes

New York City-based Writer & Critic

[sarahhassanwrites]

My profile on Iraqi-American artist, Michael Rakowitz for Canvas Magazine, out now!

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My article on the state of Middle Eastern Art at auction in the summer issue of Harper’s Bazaar Arabia: Art

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Review of ‘Gods & Heroes’ for Fine Art Connoisseur

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My profile on Iranian-American artist, Hadieh Shafie, for Harper’s Bazaar Arabia: Art

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My review of 'here and elsewhere' at the New Museum is live on Reorient magazine's website!

http://www.reorientmag.com/2014/08/here-and-elsewhere-new-museum/

[theatlantic]

Until you’re about the age of twenty, you read everything, and you like it simply because you are reading it. Then between twenty and thirty you pick what you want, and you read the best, you read all the great works. After that you sit and wait for them to be written. But you know, the least known, the least famous writers, they are the better ones.

Rest in peace, Gabriel García Márquez. (via theatlantic)

[cosmopolitanmagazine]

This Woman Risks Her Life to Tell Other People's Stories

“I’m always trying to make ties between different places and different people,” Fazeelat Aslam says of why she became a journalist and filmmaker. In her seven-year career, Aslam has produced documentaries for PBS Frontline, Channel 4 UK, Al Jazeera, and earned an Oscar in 2012 for the best documentary short, Saving Face about acid attack victims.

Via ELLE. Read more on Cosmopolitan.com!

[sarahhassanwrites]

Fazeelat Aslam was recently profiled for her contributions to international reporting as one of the newest producers for VICE. I am incredibly honored to call this brave, beautiful and ground-breaking woman my friend.

[sarahhassanwrites]

Back in 2010, I wrote a little piece on belly dance - what fun! - for This Recording. Click on the lovely lady for that article!

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'Rockwell tended to verge on the quaint and romantic when it came to domestic scenes, no doubt present even when tackling a more troublesome childhood topic such as 'the facts of life.' Yet the artist's sense of play is evident, seen in the unfinished sketch above the son's head where he experimented with yet another motif – two bumblebees mid-flight, a tongue-in-cheek reference to 'the birds & the bees' – and in the kittens that seem to have overrun the living room while the mother cat snoozes beneath the father's seat, perhaps the origin of the uncomfortable yet necessary conversation taking place between father and son '

 -  'Study for 'The Facts of Life' by Norman Rockwell for Bonhams American Art sale

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'Lingerie, whether sweet in eyelet and lace, smoldering in latex and satin, or downright confusing with its array of straps, buttons, hooks and ribbons, has always been a terrain not only for male, but female, fantasy. Women, since the days of petticoats, pantaloons, corsets and the waist cincher, have always cared deeply about their figures and “what lies beneath.” Lingerie was a status symbol for early Egyptians; wearing a tunic indicated upper class status, while slaves went naked or subsisted on simple loin clothes. During the Middle Ages, the nobility had the luxury of underclothes to keep them from getting dirty and to help stay warm, while the corset—which has lived as the most erotic and scandalous pieces of clothing in the history of fashion —was the penultimate example of “pain is beauty” for a woman from the Elizabethan era straight into Victoria, the exaggerated, feminine shape outlined in bone and trussed up with laces.' - on La Perla, for Treats!

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'The production, presenting a ‘new type of savagery,’ caused a literal aesthetic outrage among the haute Parisian audience. Backstage, as the birth of modern dance unfolded, Nijinsky screamed the tempo counts in Russian to dancers who couldn’t hear over the booing, while Stravinsky held him by his coattails lest the crazed choreographer topple into the orchestra. Diaghilev attempted to placate the uproar by turning the house lights on and off. Yet despite its unsuccessful reception, Le sacre du printemps was performed six times, and Diaghilev declared the opening night scandal to be ‘exactly what he wanted.’ It was clear that the ballet was no longer safe.' - "Diaghilev Gets His Due" for Coilhouse

[sarahhassanwrites]

I make things in my spare time as well.

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"I ventured out to the Skirball that week and relished in my second chance to do right by the man who, after a century, still remains a legendary icon in the psyche of popular American culture, despite his foreign birth and Jewish heritage. Houdini’s wide, glowing eyes emblazoned on a large entranceway banner taunted me with both care and trepidation. Ah, so you’ve returned, he seemed to playfully mock. Just could’t get enough? I entered the darkened galleries and gazed, with fresh eyes, at relics from a time when magic was something to be seen in salon parlors and dime circuses before Houdini and his feats of wonder demanded a stage large enough to enchant the world. "

- 'Houdini: The Wonders Never Cease" for CoilHouse

[sarahhassanwrites]

The world of Klimt, with sprawling, curlicued trees, fanciful galaxies, and overgrown gardens, is indeed a woman’s world—nymphs, she-demons, pregnant women, aging crones, sea serpents, heiresses, daughters, seductresses and muses all make up the dreamy cast of characters. Women come in all shapes on the canvas: full thighs highlighted in blues; ripe bellies outlined in crimson; sagging breasts unable to feed; and trails of long hair like splashes of ink in water. Sometimes dark, or ablaze with a sunset palate, the frank sexuality Klimt explored in his work inspired the artists who came after him, such as Egon Schiele, and continues to demand veneration from the world of scholarship to high fashion. - 'The Shape of a Woman' for Treats!