The visitor to the nation of Georgia continually encounters images by Niko Pirosmanashvili (1862-1918), known as Pirosmani and considered a master of naïve painting. His portraits of Georgians enjoying daily life a century ago—peasants, fishermen, musicians, even millionaires—pop up everywhere as restaurant murals and tourist mementos. And even occasionally as the original artwork.
It is noteworthy, then, that Pirsomani’s sense of the ordinary extended to a man in oriental costume holding the tether of a Bactrian camel. Tartar Cameleer evokes the Silk Road, suggesting that the commonplace extended to caravans passing through Tiflis (now Tbilisi). In view of the painting’s 1914 date, the cameleer image may have been nostalgic, but it is a vivid, if rustic, indication of Georgia’s longstanding role as trade junction between Central Asia and Europe.
From the perspective of global investment strategy, Pirosmani’s portrait of the camel driver conveys the cosmopolitan nature of the Georgian economy. His worldview prevails into the present day as Georgia looks both East and West to affirm its progressive identity.
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Redirecting the Call for Action
by Douglas Clark Johnson
20 May 2010
During a recent dinner in Dubai, a longstanding colleague of mine from the private banking business asked, “What do you think of Islamic wealth management as an enterprise model?”
I was stumped. Not because I haven’t thought about it, but because it had been so long since I’d heard the question. These discussions were more common in the pre-credit crisis era, when the liquidity cycle was peaking. They have all but evaporated in the current environment. …continue reading
Tags: credit crisis, Dubai, financial leaders, Islamic banking, macro trends, wealth management
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