Best Collection of Oriental art books

What was the meaning of the term Orient?

What do you think of the term Orient? This term was used by the West in relation to the east and it comprised anything that belonged to the Eastern World. 

Evolution of Orientalism

The term Orient came from the term Orientalism. It was a critical term used to describe how the west sought to construct images and create discourses, around the east to dominate it. The term Orientalism was established in the book of Edward Said.  He said that ‘’existence of any culture leads to another culture, or alter ‘’ego. Further, the Europeans were interested in the classical period of the East. Edward Said has presented a review of French and English traditions of the Muslim Near East, during the 19th century and further up to World War I and the vision of the Orient exceeded Greeks and these assumptions are imagined constructs of Europeans through images.

What was Oriental Art?

Oriental Paintings and other material cultural forms operated on two registers, first, they depict a racialised and sexualised culture from a distant land.  In Oriental secular History Paintings Western Artists portrayed violent scenes and scenes from everyday life.  The phenomenon of World fairs and crystal pavilions supported the idea of colonialism and expansion.  The influence of these mythologies and paintings had marred our understanding. Travel was made easier by trains, so paintings focused on cities.

Faraway Places

Orientalist Paintings created a visual record of places of interest.  Such images were aimed at a growing market of Europeans and North Americans who visited North America and the Middle East, or were interested in regions from afar. Some Oriental Prints were about Moors and Turks.  In Biblical scenes in Netherlandish Painting Romans were given exotic costumes that reflected the clothing of the Near East.

Oriental Art Books

Here are a few recommended books about Oriental Art:

1. Lure of the East:  British Orientalist Painting by Nicholas Tromans:  In Britain today, there is a widespread interest in the Islamic world with desire which has been made urgent by recent events to understand the history and legacy of past relations between Western and Islamic nations. This book will be the first one to concentrate specifically on the ways in which British artists have engaged in the Islamic world from Spain in Morocco to Afghanistan in the west.  It will also show the ways in which the art, design and topography of Islamic lands have impacted upon British art and culture.  The author has particularly explored the ways in which western myths about the Islamic world to experience, when artists travelled to the Middle East. With drawings, engravings by Richard Dadd, William Holman Hunt, Edward Lear, Frederick Lord Leighton and David Roberts have exemplified the issues between Islamic world and the Western World by usingOriental Prints.
2. 120 Orientalist Paintings CDROM and Book by Carol Belanger Grafton:These portraits and landscapes recapture the haunting beauty of the Middle East and North Africa. A rage for Eastern exoticism has been shown in this book through Oriental wall art depicting harems, marketplaces, mosques of Egypt, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco and other regions. The featured Oriental artists included Eugene Delacroix, Jean Leone Gerome, Jean Auguste- Domique Ingres and other masters.
3. The Orientalists, the Painter Travellers by Lynne Thorton: At the end of the nineteenth century, numerous painters were lured by the charms of the Orient.  Travelling to distant lands was easier and artists brought back images of the Sun and colour. The noted specialist Lynn Thorton has studied 150 painters from Delacroix to Ziem.  This excellent reference work features many lesser-known masters and is a reference work for collectors.
4. Benjamin Constant: Marvels and Mirages of Orientalism by Natalie Bondil:This book has studied Jean Joseph Benjamin -Constant and one of the great Orientalist painters of the republic in France. Benjamin Constant created architectural compositions based on his travels to Spain and Morocco. His history paintings are based on his stories from the Bible and Byzantine History and they were the culmination of his ventures into Orientalism.
5. The Orientalist: Western Artists in Arabia, Sahara, The Persia and India:  From the Great Pyramids to the Taj Mahal, India and the Middle East and India have for centuries lured Westerners to travel and have inspired Literature, music and fashion. The American artists and European artists travelled and painted throughout the Holy Land and India.  They created cinematic images which suggested a great influence on modern visual culture.  Travel, art, geography, cultural perception, and social and military history are woven throughout the text.

As we can see Oriental art is a glimpse into the old era and when you can log on to Bookswagon.ae you can trip down memory lane and read more of such books on Orientalist art because it is an online bookstore of Dubai. It is a privilege to read all books, when visiting an online store for books, but it will be an enriching experience for sure. If you are an Oriental art enthusiast, then buy books online, if you are in the UAE, you will be in for a treat.