V&A Art Prize

Rabbit's dip into Islamic art reminded me that London's V&A Museum recently announced a new £25,000 art prize for contemporary artists and designers inspired by Islamic traditions of craft and design: the biennial Jameel Prize (title link). If the name rings a bell, it's because Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel put up the dosh for the V&A’s Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art, which looked a bummer to me (CLICK). If Khosrow Hassanzadeh's Ya Ali Madad (2008) is anything to go by, the Jameel Prize has nothing to do with art and everything to do with propaganda. The title of the above tripe is a traditional invocation asking the Imam Ali for help. The "artist" certainly needs help of some kind.