Art and identity in Spain, 1833-1956: the Orient within

Abstract

"The first English-language study to explore the longevity of Orientalist art in Spain over a period of 120 years. Highlighting how artists in Spain shaped perceptions and projections of Al-Andalus (Iberia under Islam 711-1492) and northern Morocco, it combines art history and cultural studies to foreground the diverse issues that underpin Orientalist expression. Consequently, the book overturns over-familiar understandings of Western Orientalism with its focus on 'difference' and exclusion of Islamic culture from European identity. Introducing many unfamiliar artists and exhibitions, such as Villaamil, Bécquer, Rusiñol, and Morcillo, the book provides a vital perspective on how art in Spain has served shifting political agendas, redefining the 'Orient' an unfixed and shifting cultural signifier"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Transcultural nostalgia -- Collapsing time : old and new conquests -- The poetics of victory : Northern and Southern perspectives -- From ethnographic to camp masculinity -- de-Orientalising the Alhambra -- The pseudo-ethnographic gaze -- Art as colonial propaganda : a 'human and placid Maghreb' -- 'Morocco is not exotic' : exhibitions under Franco -- Epilogue : switching perspectives.