"Arab Spring: Modern Middle Eastern Art Finds a New Audience in the West" by ARTnews and "Artists v Critics, round one" Connection Post 1

"Arab Spring: Modern Middle Eastern Art Finds a New Audience in the West" by ARTnews and "Artists v Critics, round one" Connections

      As the Arab Spring article states, Middle Eastern modernism is emerging. Since it was nonexistent to the West before, globalization has allowed for greater appreciation for artists from the area. This is especially due to the fact that digital media is a prominent part in our lives and “‘allows us a kind of superficial familiarity with range of information that wasn’t available previously’”-- which Richard Armstrong-- the director of the Guggenheim foundation-- stated. Media is the best way for exposing Middle Eastern art to the masses now and bringing it up to light to be compared with Western art. It works by echoing information among groups and has the potential of becoming viral. The Arab Spring article describes how there are little known documents and information regarding Middle Eastern art, so this echo effect will bring attention to the modern art there. Although it is unlikely that Middle Eastern modern art will reach the fame or popularity of Western art in our eyes, the growing level of exposure is better than nothing. There are still people in the Middle East that are making art, and they should not be neglected.
       Jessica Morgan-- the director of the Dia Art Foundation of NY-- said, “‘Many of these artists were from countries like Lebanon or Iraq that have experienced a great deal of upheaval, and often the work had not been shown simply because there weren’t conditions for showing it’”. This statement also applies to art in other places of the world that are not necessarily “present” or “art” in the eyes of the Western public. Like Morgan said, these people are in the midst of wars and protests, where their art could be destroyed or condemned; which is a common occurrence. As was said in the Art v. Critics article, “What Whistler understood about modernism was its political value, its capacity to shock and mock.” The art created in the Middle East will usually have shock value by having the “modern” label. In places of political instability or oppression, this shock value is not welcome and removed/ destroyed. Of the works that survive this, museums are now supposedly trying to collect them. Layla Diba, and independent curator states, “‘Exhibitions that are either regionally or thematically focused, or that are retrospectives of a single artist's’ work, is the direction we’re going now.’” Typically, modern artists are inspired by their lives and what is going around them, and this applies to the areas of unrest. However, as Venetia Porter, a keeper of Contemporary Islamic art at the British Museum, states: “‘People would look at the work of the Arab modernists and say, “This is really pastiche. They’re just copying Picasso or Braque.’” These two statements amount to the same conclusion: The definition of art and art-making needs to be assessed.
    While European artists were able to go through their modern period early on, like most movements begin in Europe, they were also able to write the rules of the game. They were the baseline. Other nations were to look to them for inspiration as an example, and develop their work from there. So, if the Arab modernists were using Cubist techniques, they twisted them to suit their culture and experiences, so it should be considered modern art. Had they not used European Cubism as a start off point, the Arab modern art would be very different-- and perhaps not be considered as modern art by the West. However, as said in the Artists v. Critics article about Ruskin’s denunciation of Whistler “‘It is the definitive rejection of modern art as fraud’”. The article describes how even Western modern art is called a fraud, yet even while Arab art is also denounced as fraud, it has a different meaning. As Shabout said, ‘“Academia and the canon of art history have not yet been decolonized. We have remnants of the colonial way of looking, particularly when it comes to modernism.’” So even if modern art around the world is declared fraud, art from parts of the world other than the West are prejudiced as less than Western art.
    Even I have this feeling when looking at art, yet I know and am learning from the idea that art other than that of the West still has the capacity of being “good”. Studying European art throughout my academic career and not really realizing that other art was out there, I have the colonized point of view. However, as I have begun to study Eastern art for example, I am starting to have a greater appreciation and am seeking out new art from those areas. This greater appreciation will most likely develop in the future for people around the world for Middle Eastern Art especially, as its modern art is currently emerging and the Middle East is a focus in the news for political unrest. All this events in history will looked back on, hopefully with the art (and literature) that has survived to illustrate it. 

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