Rubaiyat

The Museum of Modern Art in Wales is holding a competition to illustrate the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, a list of quatrains mostly with a religious theme. The competition will be a challenge; these are among the most illustrated of all literary works, mostly in the late 19th and early 20th century, times when complex figurative and historical paintings dominated art. Any new illustration then has a lot of competition from the weight of history. Secondly, the judges are world experts on illustrations made for these rubaiyat. Thirdly the rules are sufficiently open ended to bamboozle most people, and fourthly the closing date is the start of July, so that's about twelve weeks, which is not long for me and far too short for any modern pre-Raphaelite. I love a challenge. I must enter this!