Copy: The National, November 2012
>> The common criticism of Orientalism is that it’s an embarrassing, demeaning colonialist view of “the east”, with all its exotic, romanticised connotations. Edward Said, whose books are widely regarded as the authority on such matters, called it “a western style for dominating, restructuring and having authority over the Orient”. I’d have loved to see him talk with Shafik Gabr.
Gabr is fascinating man – multimillionaire businessmen are prone to the odd dalliance in art, but his interest in the Orientalist painters of the 19th century goes far deeper than aggressive acquisitions. He began to see that the subjects and locations of his photography hobby had a lot in common with the painters who would come to Egypt from the West.
So Gabr started going to museums to see the work of Gustav Bauernfeind, Jean-Léon Gérôme and Eugène Delacroix, all of whom had travelled to the Middle East and North Africa to paint. In 1993, Gabr was ready to make his first purchase, Ludwig Deutsch’s Egyptian Priest Entering a Temple (1892), at auction in Paris for US$3,940. Almost 20 years and 135 paintings later a passing interest has become something of an obsession, and a book, Masterpieces Of Orientalist Art, is out this week.
How the painters they behaved when they arrived, Gabr believes, sets a striking example for the modern age. Frederick Lewis set up a studio in Cairo and dressed in Egyptian garb. He walked the streets, sat in the cafes, tried to learn Arabic. Gabr now calls the Orientalists early globalists – and they’re the inspiration for a new exchange programme which launches this week.
Called East-West: The Art Of Dialogue, the idea is to get together young Middle Eastern and Western leaders in arts, science, sports, media and business. Gabr believes the positive repercussions of the Orientalists’ journeys are a template for how the Middle East, Europe and United States might engage with one another today. So the conversations between east and west are positive, rather than about security, politics and terrorism.
It might sound naive, but Gabr doesn’t care. He wants to try and make a difference. I left our meeting in London incredibly impressed – and looking at Orientalist painting in a completely new light.
To read the full interview with Shafik Gabr in The National, click here.
