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Licensed Unlicensed Requires Authentication Published by De Gruyter February 7, 2017

Painting as Critique: Oil Painting as a Site for Social and Political Negotiation in Syria

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Abstract

Oil painting in the European manner was closely linked to questions of modernity in the Arab world and was often intimately connected with discussions pertaining to national independence and social progress. By reference to the work of the early Syrian painter Tawfiq Tarek, this article discusses oil painting in Syria as a site to negotiating questions of modernity and social and political change. As was the case with his peers from other Arab countries, Tarek, despite having received his training in Paris, was not interested in the avant-garde art movements that sought to disrupt artistic traditions, but preferred to remain within established, academic genres. For him, genres such as history painting and even Orientalism served to convey subversive political messages and declare his commitment to progressive and nationalist ideas, thus linking him and his work to notions of “committed” art.

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Note

This paper was made possible through the support of the Swiss National Fund which funded three years of research for my PhD project.


Published Online: 2017-2-7
Published in Print: 2016-12-1

©2016 by De Gruyter

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