"A Distant Muse"
2001-12-22 until 2001-03-03
Appleton Museum of Art
Ocala, FL, USA United States of America

Orientalist Art engages both the emotions and the intellect as much as, if not more than, any other aspect of the 19th-century art. From the early decades of that century well into the 20th, it was created with a variety of motives and collected passionately in the Western world. While aspects of Orientalist art representation could be considered part of traditional artistic genres- history painting, scenes of everyday life, landscape-its unique sensibility allows its diverse parts to be considered as a single, if very complicated, phenomenon. In the 21st century, issues around Orientalism are now debated urgently, and Middle-Eastern collectors-descendants of its original subjects-compete with European and American collectors for choice works.

The Dahesh Museum of Art, the only museum in the United States dedicated to European academic art of the 19th and 20th centuries, has from its inception recognized the importance of Orientalism in the cultural history of the West and now has an extensive collection of Orientalist art in all media, including salon history painting, images of everyday life, colorful landscapes, reference texts, and popular illustrations. A Distant Muse, is the third Orientalist exhibition organized by the Dahesh Museum of Art and its second publication devoted to it.

IMAGE:
Ernst Karl Eugen Koerner
The Temple of Karnak, The Great Hypostyle Hall
1890, 31 X 18 inches, Oil on canvas
Dahesh Museum of Art

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of Florida

Other Important Exhibitions in United States