Orientalism : between fact and fantasy /
"A fresh look at the ways nineteenth-century European and Ottoman artists portrayed and promoted the Middle East through interpretations and emulations of Islamic art and design. Colonial and imperial expansion, technical advancement, and artistic transformation in the nineteenth century cataly...
| Format: | Book |
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| Language: | English |
| Published: |
New York :
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
[2026]
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | "A fresh look at the ways nineteenth-century European and Ottoman artists portrayed and promoted the Middle East through interpretations and emulations of Islamic art and design. Colonial and imperial expansion, technical advancement, and artistic transformation in the nineteenth century catalyzed the global marketplace and sparked a wave of European picturemaking focused on North Africa and the Middle East. Known as Orientalism, the genre inspired by Islamic cultures relied equally on fact and fantasy to create iconic images both celebrated and interrogated today. This book tells a new, multifaceted story, taking into account how major figures ranging from the French painters Ingres, Delacroix, and Gérôme to the Ottoman statesman and artist Osman Hamdi Bey shaped an understanding of their world by incorporating Islamic motifs into their pictures. Addressing manifold questions about ethnic and racial difference, gender, power relations, and colonialist attitudes, the publication reinterprets beloved works of art such as Gérôme's Bashi-Bazouk and Ingres's La Grande Odalisque. The book reaches beyond easel painting to detail the impact of Orientalism on decorative arts, architecture, and collecting practices, which inspired a deep admiration for Islamic art and prompted a design revolution with an enduring legacy in Europe and the United States."-- "The word Orient is derived from the Latin Oriens, which means the direction of the rising sun--the east. Orientalism: Between Fact and Fantasy explores notions of "the East" in the 19th century, when globalism, shaped by colonialism and imperialism, fueled unprecedented encounters, connections, and exchanges in Europe and the Middle East. "Hard power" mingled with "soft power," as accelerated travel, rapid technological change, and shifting geopolitics hastened artistic exchange between distant regions and different cultures. Beginning with Napoleon's conquest of Egypt in 1798 and culminating in the paintings of Ottoman renaissance man Osman Hamdi Bey, this exhibition tells the story of how Islamic works of art made their way to European dealers, collectors, international expositions, and museums, introducing a new visual language to artists, architects, and designers. Deep admiration for the sophisticated techniques and visual language of Islamic art led Owen Jones and other influential figures to transform architecture and design in Europe and America. Artists such as Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Eugène Delacroix, and Jean-Léon Gérôme visited lands and people across the Mediterranean or imagined them from afar. They sometimes depicted what they saw and at other times conjured distant places through memory and imagination, often using Islamic objects to stage their paintings. Orientalism: Between Fact and Fantasy is the first exhibition at The Met to explore Orientalism as its central focus, presenting not only easel paintings but also drawings, photographs, illustrated books, architecture, arms and armor, textiles, garments, glassware, ceramics, and metalwork. Highlighting The Met collection, it features approximately 180 objects from 12 Met departments along with rarely seen loans from the U.S. and abroad. Displayed across four galleries that straddle the departments of European Paintings and Islamic Art, the presentation invites visitors to approach the exhibition from its primary entrance in Gallery 453 or explore its themes from multiple points of entry." -- |
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| Item Description: | "This catalogue is published in conjunction with Orientalism: Between Fact and Fantasy, on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, from June 12, 2026, through February 28, 2027."--Colophon. |
| Physical Description: | 256 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), map, portraits ; 27 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 248-249) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9781588398147 1588398145 |