Syrian Migration #23
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “Syrian Migration #23” now? Collection: Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.
Minneapolis, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the work
Arab-American artist Helen Zughaib produced this gouache of an Islamic funeral ritual as part of a narrative series called the “Syrian Migration, ” a cycle of 23 works on paper or board that addresses the experiences of violence, death, and displacement during the Syrian Civil War (2011-present). The series was inspired by the narrative paintings of Jacob Lawrence’s
Read on
“Migration” series of 1940-41, which chronicled the movement of some one million African Americans from the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West between 1916 and 1930. Zughaib’s series begins with the nascent uprisings of the Arab Spring (2010-12) and their violent suppression, and closes with the atrocities of the Syrian Civil War and the subsequent displacement of millions of Syrians and others. Many of the works, including this example, draw visual and conceptual analogies between the subjects of Lawrence’s paintings and the struggles of the Syrian people. Here, three female mourners in black burqas carry a simple wooden coffin adorned with flowers as part of a traditional funeral procession, a powerful signifier of life and tragic death during war.
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Details
- Accession number
- 2020.68
In the catalog
Sources
- Minneapolis Institute of Art
- Image: Minneapolis Institute of Art — © Minneapolis Institute of Art
