Exploring British Orientalism at the Pera Museum

      In 1978, Edward Said published his groundbreaking book Orientalism, which critiqued Western representations of the Middle East as being a series of fictions and stereotypes used to justify an unequal power relationship between “The West” and “The Orient.” Thirty years later, it seems there never ceases to be interest and debate on the subject, particularly in Turkey, historically the source of so much Orientalist inspiration. Hence the opening of a new exhibit at the Pera Museum, “The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting,” which the curators describe as the most comprehensive exhibit to date focusing on British Orientalist depictions of the Middle East.
    The Pera Museum is the third institution to host this ambitious exhibit, which was organized primarily by the Tate Britain. It was previously shown at the Yale Center for British Art, followed by the Tate, and from Istanbul it will travel to the Sharjah Art Museum in the United Arab Emirates—an interesting reversal of the original East-to-West trajectory of most of the works in the exhibit.
    “The Lure of the East” spans the period from the late 18th century through the 1920s, during which time British travelers had increasing contact with the Middle East, primarily due to developments in transportation. It was also, not coincidentally, the period of Britain’s increasing commercial and colonial involvement in this part of the world. The exhibit aims to document not only British Orientalist painting but also some of the individuals who produced Orientalist works, of both art and letters.
    Perhaps the most intriguing part of the exhibit is the first section (start on the top floor and work your way down), which displays portraits of some of the major figures who interpreted “The Orient” for a British audience. What’s significant here is that all were painted wearing various forms of “Oriental” attire. Sir Richard Burton, whose highly eroticized translation of “The Arabian Nights” was influential in establishing exotic images of the Middle East in the Western consciousness, is dressed in Arab clothing. Wearing Turkish dress is Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, whose Turkish Embassy Letters established her as one of the first female writers on the Middle East. The poet Byron, who died helping the Greeks in their war for independence from the Ottomans, is in an Albanian outfit. And then there is the tormented poster boy of British Orientalism, T.E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”), shown wearing a kaffiyeh (Arab headdress) and carrying a scimitar.
    These individuals purposely adopted such attire in their portraits to show their familiarity with Middle Eastern culture and, often, their sympathies towards the people of the region. But although they may have been well-meaning, there is also an undeniable amount of fantasy in these portrayals, which, seen today, appear riddled with contradictions. In the portrait of Lady Mary Montagu (painted around 1725), this young Englishwoman who was so sympathetic towards the Ottomans is shown with her young black page. Peeking out from the shadows behind her, the boy holds a parasol and gazes up at her, but she seems barely aware of his presence. Though such a relationship was normal in that era, from the vantage point of 2008 it comes across as highly problematic.
    Moving on from the portraits, the exhibit presents works in several genres and themes, including religious and domestic subjects and landscapes. There are beautiful paintings of mosques, bazaars, courtyards, and latticed windows rendered in intricate detail. The section devoted to the harem, a favorite subject for Orientalist artists, contains fairly typical portraits and scenes of languidly reclining Middle Eastern women. But although these portrayals of the harem are no doubt based largely on stereotypes and fantasy, they exhibit a far greater sensitivity and less exotic treatment of the subject than in paintings by French Orientalists.
The landscape section includes some magnificent paintings of ancient sites, such as the Sea of Galilee, Petra, the Pyramids at Giza, and the Temple of Karnak in Egypt. Many are the work of David Roberts, a British artist who traveled in the Middle East for less than a year (in 1838−39). He then spent the next 20 years adapting the sketches he had done on location into paintings, which earned him great success as the leading British painter of Middle Eastern landscapes in his day. Not only was such artistic production conveniently before the advent of photography, but it was premised on the Orientalist notion that the Middle East was timeless and unchanging, particularly its ancient sites. Thus, an artist could get away with making paintings based on sketches from two decades earlier without the accuracy of his representations being questioned.
This approach comes through not only in the exhibit’s landscape paintings but also in some of the works depicting Middle Eastern people and scenes from daily life. A portrait of an Egyptian waterpipe-bearer, painted by John Frederick Lewis in 1859, looks remarkably realistic and gives the impression of having been produced while Lewis was living in Cairo. But the accompanying description tells us that in fact, it was painted “in Surrey, England, eight years after the artist returned home.” Again, the idea of a timeless Middle East allowed a British artist who had spent time in the region and become familiar with its people to claim authenticity and intimate knowledge of his subjects, even years after leaving.
    Though these artists’ version of “authenticity” might seem disingenuous, it reminds us that all representation is subjective, for the artist always brings his or her own interpretation and feelings into a work. Keeping this in mind, one can view the works in this exhibit not as accurate vs. inaccurate or real vs. unreal portrayals of the Middle East during the late Ottoman Empire, but as products of a particular time, place, and consciousness. If these works of art strike a familiar chord or speak to us personally, then we are all the more fortunate.
The exhibit will run till January 11, 2009. For those wanting to delve even deeper into the subject, a free symposium entitled “Ottoman Istanbul and British Orientalism” will be held on Nov. 27−28. (Advance registration is necessary.)

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    The Pera has organized a film series, “The Lure of the East in British Cinema,” to complement the exhibit. It began in October, appropriately, with David Lean’s epic “Lawrence of Arabia,” followed by “The English Patient.”
The lineup for November turns the camera inward on British society, starting with “My Beautiful Laundrette.” Written by Hanif Kureishi, this 1985 film broke taboos with its depiction of a gay relationship between a white Briton (Daniel Day-Lewis, in one of his first major film roles) and a Pakistani-British man. (Nov. 6 & 8)
Next is “East is East,” an entertaining comedy from 1999 about a Pakistani father, a British mother, and their seven rebellious kids, who clash with their strict father as they try to negotiate the challenges of growing up bicultural in 1970s Britain. (Nov. 13 & 15)
The series ends with “Yasmin,” a 2004 film about a young Pakistani-British woman who goes from being well integrated in British society to feeling like an outsider in the wake of 9/11.  (Nov. 20 & Dec. 4)