Art and Identity in Spain 1833-1956: The Orient Within

Richly illustrated, this book shows how artists in Spain shaped perceptions of Al-Andalus (Iberia under Islam 711-1492) and northern Morocco, from Spain's liberal revolution of the 1830s to the end of the Protectorate of Morocco. It is the first study in English to explore the longevity of Orientalist art in Spain over a period of 120 years,. Combining art history with a cultural studies approach, and using exemplary case studies, Hopkins foregrounds the diverse issues that underpin Orientalist expression: reflections on history and the nation, cultural nationalism, gender and sexuality, aesthetics and art commerce, colonialism and racial thinking. Consequently, the book challenges over-familiar understandings of Western Orientalism as a discourse that excludes Islamic culture from European identity.

Beyond Fortuny and Sorolla, many unfamiliar artists and exhibitions are introduced, amongst them Villaamil, whose nostalgic landscapes evoked the loss of Andalusi culture; Bécquer, who celebrated Spanish-Moroccan peace-making through the lens of Velázquez; the Symbolist Rusiñol, whose images of the Alhambra are infused with melancholy; Morcillo, whose extraordinary camp images opened a new space for male subjectivity; Tapiró and Bertuchi, who dedicated their lives to Morocco, and the Moroccan Sarghini, who participated in the state-funded Painters of Africa exhibitions in Franco's Madrid. These exhibitions served the colonial concept of a Hispano-Moroccan brotherhood under the dictatorship. Paradoxically, the liberal-inflected 'maurophilia' of 120 years earlier now nourished a fascist agenda and Moroccan emancipation. Charting the shifting impulses and meanings of Orientalist expression in Spain, the book makes an original contribution to our understanding of Spanish art and Orientalism.