Bahrain National Museum

After not having visited the place since i was a kid, I decided to go back to the Bahrain museum this summer hoping to get a few useful references for my dissertation or independent project. i ended up going around the whole museum, looking at the different displays.

The museum is the largest and one of the oldest museums in the country. It has a collection of Bahrain's ancient archeological artifacts, and covers 6000 years of Bahrain's history. It has three halls displaying archaeology and the ancient civilization of the country, and two other halls show the culture and lifestyle of Bahrain's recent pre-industrial past. This part i enjoyed the most. It had displays representing many different and important part of the old culture of Bahrain. Its perfect for tourists (not that there are many) to understand the countries past and its heritage and culture. It'd also be good reference for coming generations, who would have probably not known about these aspects of their heritage (not that i think many of them would come to the museum).

There is also a collection of old Quranic manuscripts, notes on astronomy and historical documents at the Documents and Manuscripts Hall. Finally, a section for current artists to display their works, but i didn't like the exhibition so much at the time that i went.

Bait Al Quran

Bait Al Quran translated means House of Quran. It is a museum in Bahrain opened in 1990 that houses ancient manuscripts of the Quran. Apparently, no other country has a temple just built to contain this scripture. The museum also contains a mosque, a library of reference books, an auditorium, and a school. It also contains a display of translations of the Qur'an into several languages. The museum section has ten exhibition halls that display many rare books, manuscripts and other religious motifs to the visitors. Quranic manuscripts from different parts of the Islamic world have been perfectly preserved. You can see manuscripts from countries like Iran, India, China, Spain, North Africa, and many Arabic countries as well. Calligraphy, an important part of Islamic culture, is represented through the works of the master calligraphers. The place shows a great example of the progression of calligraphic traditions from the first century of the Islamic era to the present day. The museum also displays great Islamic artifacts, jewelry and gold-ornamented glass.

As a kid I have visited this place a few times, on class trips and such. This summer I decided to go back and take a look at the museum, hoping to get some information and inspiration for my independent project. I was very impressed with the collection held at the museum. The books were displayed in chronological order, and you could clearly see the developments in calligraphy and the changes in Arabic writing over time. It was also interesting to see the differences between the designs of the books that came from different countries. It seemed each country had its own style and impression into decorating the Quran, but eventually they all shared many similarities. Also there was a modern art installation/display close to the entrance, which i thought was a nice addition. Another part of the place I loved was a huge dome at the center of the museum. It was made from coloured glass and had a really nice affect in daytime.
I was somewhat disappointed with the museum management of the place. Although it is not such an old museum, many elements could of been much more modernized, such as the labeling of things for example.

The world's largest surrealist object

I can easily say that The Teatre-Museu Dali is one of the most interesting and inspiring museums I have ever been to. It is located in Dali's hometown Figures and contains the broadest range of works spanning his artistic career, from his earliest artistic experiences and his surrealist creations down to the works of the last years of his life. The Museum itself could be seen as a great work of Dali, everything in it was conceived and designed by the artist himself in order to offer visitors a real experience of getting inside his unique world. When entering the museum there are so many weird things about it, and nothing makes sense. You'd still appreciate the beauty of it all, but it just seems so bizarre. Later on you'd find out everything in the place is significant, and it all makes perfect sense. I was moving from one room to another being more and more convinced of how much of a genius Dali is.
After visiting his museum, I am now completely amazed by Salvador Dali. His works of art reflect an enormous diversity of techniques, materials and media: paintings, drawings, sculptures, engravings, installations, jewellery, holograms, photography and more. He has explored so many artistic styles at his time, from cubism, to renaissance and religious paintings. And finally has his own bizarre style that is so distinctive that I don't think there can be anything like it.


This is just one of the works in the museum. The story behind it is that Dali wanted to prove in front of an audience what a genius he is, and that he painted spontaneously and from insight (talk about modesty). What he did was he placed a live squid on canvas flat down on the ground. As the squid spilled its ink on the canvas, Dali moved it around with his feet and produced a painting of Beethoven.


This was the ceiling painted by Dali in one of the rooms in the museum. The main part of it is supposed to be his wife Gala and himself going up to heaven, representing that both of them will remain immortal through his paintings and works of art.