Arabic Art

What a long way we've come since Cordoba. If you read the news about Iraq, you can't help seeing the photos of street protests. The protestors invariably carry these... pictures... of their favorite clerics, lovingly altered. You see this style everywhere, at least in Iraq, but it really comes out to shine at the protests. For instance:



I can't find a better picture, because none of these posters are actually on the internet qua art. Apparently, Arabic art is not good enough for the worldwide web, so we only get to see it incidentally, as part of a news photo. I can't say I blame them. This stuff is hideous, and if Iraq survives 30 more years, Iraqis will doubtless feel about their art the way we feel about Andy Warhol. Less cocaine, guys.

What I would like to know, however, is how these posters are made. Photoshop is the obvious answer to a Western mind, but am I being condescending if I wonder whether that's the case? I suppose there are other options. Perhaps they are airbrushed, or even hand-painted. Whatever the means, I can't imagine any Iraqi being so deluded that he thinks it would look really super to retouch the background of a portrait in puke green, making it look like nothing less than al-Sadr's high school class picture. But then again, maybe Iraq's graphic designers are just shell-shocked. I doubt I could make anything better under the circumstances. In war, taste is the first casualty.