Art

Exhibitions and the

Oriental
Regan Gong
Honors 394 B
Professor Karam Dana
3/2/2015
 The Question

Are museums reinforcing negative

stereotypes of Muslims and Arabs
by showing unrealistic, Oriental
paintings in art exhibitions?
 Islamic Oriental
the genre of artwork that the genre of painting, pioneered by
originates from an area with the French, but developed by artists
Islamic tradition containing from Britain and several other
Islamic subject matter European countries, with
predominantly Middle Eastern and
North African subjects
 Strategy
• 5 major art museums
– Seattle Art Museum
– Metropolitan Art Museum in NYC
– The National Gallery in Washington DC
– De Young in San Francisco
– Los Angeles County Art Museum
• Exhibitions of Non Judeo-Christian, minority
religious artwork (Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism,
Other) from 2011 -2016
• Oriental art
 Seattle Art
Museum
Total Exhibits 102
• Minority Religions 14
(14%)
– Islam 2 (21 %)
• Oriental Islamic 0
– Hinduism 3 (21%)
– Buddhism 2 (14%)
– Other 6 (42%)
 Metropolitan Art
Museum
Total Exhibits 280
• Minority Religions 31
(11%)
– Islam 14 ( 45%)
• Oriental Islamic 0
– Hinduism 3 (1%)
– Buddhism 7 (23%)
– Other 7 (23%)
National Gallery
Total Exhibits 109
• Minority Religions 2
(>1%)
– Islam 1 (50%)
• Oriental Islamic 1
(100%)
– Hinduism
– Buddhism 1 (50%)
– Other
 De Young
Total Exhibits 64
• Minority Religions 9
(14%)
– Islam 2 ( 22%)
• Oriental Islamic 1
– Hinduism 1 (11%)
– Buddhism 1 (11%)
– Other 5 (56%)
Los Angeles County Art
Museum
Total Exhibits 102
• Minority Religions 9
(9%)
– Islam 4 (44%)
• Oriental Islamic 1
(25%)
– Hinduism 1 (11%)
– Buddhism
– Other 4 (44%)