Barry, Michael 1948–

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Barry, Michael 1948–

(Michael A. Barry)

PERSONAL: Born 1948, in New York, NY. Education: Princeton University, graduated, 1970; Cambridge University, diploma; McGill University, M.A.; École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University, 110 Jones Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Scholar, historian, educator. International Federation for Human Rights, Afghan affairs observer, 1979–85; Médecins du Monde, coordinating officer, Afghanistan, 1985–89; United Nations, consultant and humanitarian team leader, 1989–91; special envoy to Dr. Bernard Kouchner, Kabul, Afghanistan, 1992–95; French government, advisor for education assistance programs, Kabul; Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, lecturer in Persian, 2004–; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, chairman of the Department of Islamic Art.

AWARDS, HONORS: Six literary prizes from France and Iran; including Art History Medal, Académie Française, 1997, for French version of Design and Color in Islamic Architecture: Eight Centuries of the Tile-Maker's Art; Prix Fémina, 2002, for Massoud; and Book of the Year, Iranian government, 2002, for Le Pavillon des sept princesses.

WRITINGS:

(With others) Design and Color in Islamic Architecture: Eight Centuries of the Tile-Maker's Art, Vendome Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Le Pavillon des sept princesses (translation of Seven Icons, by Nizâmî Hafat Paykar), 2000.

Le Royaume de l'insolence: l'Afghanistan, 1504–2001, 3rd edition, Flammarion (Paris, France), 2002.

Massoud (biography), Audibert (Paris, France), 2002.

Figurative Art in Medieval Islam and the Riddle of Bihzad of Herat (1465–1535), Flammarion (Paris, France), 2004.

History of Modern Afghanistan, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS: Near Eastern studies scholar Michael Barry was born in the United States but was also raised in Afghanistan and France. He graduated from Princeton University and studied in England, Canada, and France and spent the years from 1979 to 2001 working for humanitarian efforts in war-torn Afghanistan. According to his biography on the Princeton University Web site, "he has testified on Soviet human rights violations in Afghanistan before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in December 1982, was received in private audience by Ronald Reagan in the White House to discuss the Soviet-Afghan war in January 1983, and was invited by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry to help organize the International Hearings on Afghanistan held in Oslo in March 1983."

Barry, who was named chairman of the of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Islamic Art, has written several books about Near Eastern art. These volumes include Design and Color in Islamic Architecture: Eight Centuries of the Tile-Maker's Art and Figurative Art in Medieval Islam and the Riddle of Bihzad of Herat (1465–1535). In the latter, which includes more than 300 reproductions, Barry provides a history of Islamic figurative art from the eighth to the twelfth centuries and studies Persian miniatures, concentrating on the work of Bihzad, whom he considers a guild master. Library Journal contributor Martin Chasin wrote that "Barry is interested in the allegorical meanings of medieval Islamic painting and deciphers the visual symbols that pervade these works."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, September 15, 2005, Martin Chasin, review of Figurative Art in Medieval Islam and the Riddle of Bihzad of Herat (1465–1535), p. 61.

Publishers Weekly, August 19, 1996, review of Design and Color in Islamic Architecture: Eight Centuries of the Tile-Maker's Art, p. 45.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2005, review of Figurative Art in Medieval Islam, p. 221.