DOHA: Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art houses what could be described as an unlikely find for the Qatar-based institution.

“Le Barde Noir” — “The Black Bard” — is an oil-on-canvas painting by Jean-Leon Gerome, a French painter and sculptor who lived from 1824-1904. Created in 1888, it is as instantly captivating as it must have been when first created.

It features a character often said to be a Nubian musician, wrapped in pink fabric and sitting on a carpet as he stares out intensely. Behind him is an intricately tiled wall in blue hues, while his yellow shoes — similar to North African babouches — are placed neatly to one side.

The work, arguably one of Gerome’s most mesmerizing, bears many hallmarks of the Orientalist style pioneered by European artists in the 18th and 19th centuries that often featured imagined images of the eastern world.  

 

 

 

 

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The concept is explored, pondered and contested in “Seeing Is Believing: The Art and Influence of Gerome.” The exhibition, which runs at the museum until Feb. 22, sheds light on the artist’s legacy — how his art has both positively and adversely influenced depictions of the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia region and continues to do so today.

Gerome was one of the most commercially successful European artists of the 19th century. At the time, he was celebrated as a visual storyteller and historian who brought the faraway lands of Greece, Rome and the East to life through his work.

 

 

 

 

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Ultimately, it would be the artist’s representations of North Africa and the wider Arab world that would constitute his legacy. From 1855 to 1880 he travelled to Egypt, Turkey and other areas to create some of Orientalism’s most poignant and memorable representations.

The show includes almost 400 works of art, many drawn from the forthcoming Lusail Museum’s impressive collection of Orientalist art, including European depictions of the Arab world dating from the 16th to 19th centuries. It also includes major loans from Qatar Museums’ General Collections and institutions worldwide such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Islamic Arts Museum in Malaysia.

The exhibition has been organized as a legacy of the Qatar–France 2020 Year of Culture, a year-long program of collaborations between institutions across both countries. It is jointly produced by the Lusail Museum, which is set to open in 2029, and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, both in Doha.

It takes an in-depth look at Gerome’s practice and oeuvre through three sections. The first, “A Wider Lens, A New Gerome,” is curated by Emily Weeks and presents some of the artist’s most prominent paintings. “Between Gerome and Photography: Truth is Stranger than Fiction” is curated by Giles Hudson, curator of photographs at the Lusail Museum, and highlights his influence on photography of the Arab world. The final section, “I Swear I Saw That,” is curated by Sara Raza and explores Gerome’s impact on contemporary art.

The third section includes specially commissioned works by artists such as Babi Badalov from Azerbaijan and Nadia Kaabi-Linke from Tunisia, who reinterpret Gerome for the 21st century.

Guest curator Raza told Arab News that the opportunity was a chance “to reassess Gerome’s art within the context of the problems of the larger Orientalist genre and its continuation and manifestation in art and society.”

She said none of the artists in her section were interested in Gerome and added: “However, what they were interested in exploring was Orientalism’s continuation through their own visual languages and the ideas of free appropriation.”