Art Historical Babies Past and Present
Through my late evening internet wanderings, I happened upon this majestic piece of baby art: Adele Enersen’s remake of Marc Chagall’s famous “Promenade” (1917-18). Adele Enersen photographs her...
View ArticleTape It Till You Make It: Orientalism and the Race Issue in Fashion
Still of Crystal Renn from the Backstage Footage of the Dolce & Gabbana Story for Vogue Nippon (2011) Vogue Nippon (Japanese Vogue) Editor-at-Large Anna Dello Russo delivers a new perspective on...
View ArticleWhat Is So Asian About Asian Art Today?
Takashi Murakami, "A Picture of The Blessed Lion Who Stares At Death" (2009), Acrylic on canvas mounted on board (image courtesy the artist) MÉRIDA, MEXICO — Over the past two years planet art has...
View ArticleThe Many Comic Faces of Tibet
"Weird Wonder Tales: The Man Who Found Shangri-la,” by Stan Lee with art by Jack Kirby (all images courtesy Rubin Museum of Art) Something about Tibet has always seemed very mysterious to the West....
View ArticleAmerican Pop Culture Meets… Everyone Else
Banksy's Napalm makes an appearance in the new and popular tumblelog, Pop Culture and the Third World. LOS ANGELES — I’m not a fan of the word “Third World” (third world to what?) but I am a fan of pop...
View ArticleThe Mystery of the Orient Express Resurfaces at a Paris Museum
Illustration of the Orient Express (courtesy Institut du Monde Arabe) PARIS — In forming an exhibition on the Orient Express, the railroad line most steeped in myth, it was wise to bring in the body of...
View ArticleUsing Beauty to Examine Ugly Political Truths
Installation view of “Transgressions II,” a 2009 video/shadow play from the Asia Society Museum Collection, currently on view in “Nalini Malani: Transgressions.” (image courtesy of Eileen Costa/Asia...
View ArticleThe Confused Thinking Behind the Kimono Protests at the Boston Museum of Fine...
One Japanese man counterprotested the Kimono Wednesday protests to say he is not offended and even encouraged others to join him at future counterprotests. (via japaneseamericaninboston.blogspot.com)...
View ArticleThe Getty’s Online Palmyra Exhibition Falls into Orientalist Traps
Louis Vignes, “Temple of Bel, view of the cella” (1864) Albumen print. 8.8 x 11.4 in. (All images, unless otherwise noted, are courtesy of the Getty Research Institute.) In news and commentary on the...
View ArticleDecoding Techno-Orientalism in Science Fiction
Scene from Lawrence Lek’s film Sinofuturism (1839–2046 AD) (2016) (courtesy the artist) The cannon of science fiction is replete with futuristic visions sprinkled with appropriated elements of Asian...
View ArticleHow Victorian Intellectuals Idealized Japan and Its Culture
Cover of Quaint, Exquisite by Grace E. Lavery Author and professor Grace Lavery could not have picked a catchier and more alluring title than Quaint, Exquisite for her recently released book about...
View ArticleA Worthwhile But Flawed Reconsideration of Orientalist Art
Alfred Dehodencq (1822–1882), “The Hajj” oil on canvas (courtesy Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia) LONDON — The British Museum’s Inspired by the East: How the Islamic World Influenced Western Art begins...
View ArticleHow Academics, Egyptologists, and Even Melania Trump Benefit From Colonialist...
First Lady Melania Trump visits an ivory burn site with Nelly Palmeris, Nairobi National Park Game Warden on Friday, Oct. 5, 2018, at the Nairobi National Park in Nairobi, Kenya (official White House...
View ArticleHow the Contemporary Art World Repackages Orientalism
There has recently been a resurgence of insisting on regarding imperial history and colonization as forces for good and positive exchange in response to calls for decolonization. An accompanying...
View ArticleRiff on One Thousand and One Nights Longs for a Bygone Era of Filmmaking
Alternating between charmingly and cringingly unfashionable, George Miller’s Three Thousand Years of Longing defies some orientalist tropes while falling prey to others.
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