The presentation, organized by Casa Árabe and Mandala Ediciones, will also be attended by Luce López-Baralt, a scholar and professor who specializes in comparative Arab and Spanish literature; Fernando Cabal, founder of Mandala Ediciones, and Eduardo López Busquets, the General Director of Casa Árabe. The event will begin at 7:00 p.m. in the Casa Árabe Auditorium (at Calle Alcalá, 62) with free entry until the event’s capacity is reached.

The presentation of this second volume of the work “The Beautiful Colors of the Heart” is a continuation of the event which Casa Árabe organized back in May 2009 on the first part of this work.

“The monumental work by Ana Crespo on color and Sufism, the second volume of which is being shown to the public today, constitutes an unprecedented contribution which opens up unsuspected horizons for both art scholars and those of aesthetics in general, and that of Islam in particular, as well as for those interested in Sufism and for artists themselves, states José Miguel Puerta-Vílchez in the prologue. As for Luce López-Baralt, she points out that both volumes I and II “constitute an authentic work of art. Or rather a poly-artistic work, because, to this great compendium of Sufi wisdom which the author has brought together, one must add the splendid selection of illustrations which visually accompany her scholarly reflections. It can plainly be seen that Ana Crespo views the very rich legacy of Islamic mysticism precisely from the perspective of the visual arts, which are her area of expertise.” 

A doctor of Fine Arts and a multidisciplinary artist herself, Ms. Crespo has taken part in more than one hundred art projects in different parts of the world (Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas) and in different fields of art: painting, photography, installations, sculpture, etc. Her research on aesthetics, which forms a dialogue between East and West, contemporary art and tradition, is collected in several works, the last two revolving around the symbolism of color in Sufism. Ana Crespo performs her teaching work as a professor of color and graphic techniques at the School of Plastic Arts and Design.

  

A distinguished Professor Insignis at the University of Puerto Rico (where she is also a Doctor Honoris causa) and the Assistant Director of the Puerto Rican Academy of the Spanish Language (corresponding to the Spanish Royal Academy), Ms. López-Baralt has been a guest professor at the Universities of Harvard, Yale and Rabat, as well as many others. She has written numerous studies on comparative Spanish and Arab literature, on Aljamiado texts (those written in Romance languages using the Arabic alphabet) and on mysticism, which have been translated into French, English, German, Dutch, Arabic, Urdu, Farsi and Chinese.