This volume, featuring works from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century, is a knowledgeable examination of European painters’ fascination for the orient.
“This is the fortunate, significant hour: the paint and I are one. I am a painter.” This is how Paul Klee euphorically summed up his impressions of the famous journey to Tunisia he took in 1914 with August Macke and Louis Moilliet. It was a turning point for his art: decades later, he was still producing work inspired by the incomparable impressions of northern Africa.
Starting with Klee’s fascination, this volume provides a sweeping view of the relationship between the occident and the orient and their rich histories of culture and art. One of the first essays is on Islamic art. The book examines the enthusiasm of artists from the early modern times for all things oriental, as well as the traditional journeys undertaken by artists, from Eugène Delacroix to Henri Matisse. In the process, the question of how Klee’s ideas fit into this reception of the orient will be looked at. The fact that the relatively new medium of photography also made a considerable contribution to the image of the orient during this time period is documented in a critical approach to the phenomenon.