One of the works of French painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme.
Doha: Qatar Museums has announced the upcoming thought-provoking exhibition on the art and legacy of the French painter and sculptor Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904), marking the 200th anniversary of the artist’s birth.
On view from November 2, 2024 to February 22, 2025, Seeing Is Believing: the art and influence of Gérôme unfolds across three separate yet interconnected sections, each one presenting, questioning or reevaluating Gérôme’s artistic output through different perspectives, artistic mediums and points in time. The exhibition is organised by the future Lusail Museum in collaboration with Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, which will host the presentation.
The exhibition features nearly 400 works, drawing extensively from the future Lusail Museum’s unparalleled collection of Orientalist art, including European depictions of the MENASA region spanning the 16th through 19th centuries.
It also includes significant loans from Qatar Museums’ General Collections and prestigious institutions worldwide such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Islamic Arts Museum, Malaysia. New works commissioned from artists including Babi Badalov (b. 1959, Azerbaijan) and Nadia Kaabi-Linke (b. 1978, Tunisia) will reinterpret Gérôme for the 21st century.
Dr. Julia Gonnella, Director of the future Lusail Museum, commented, “Seeing is Believing: The Art and Influence of Gérôme fulfils a key mission of our institution: to look at Orientalist paintings with a fresh eye, rooted in the perspective of the MENASA region and to critically analyse their position within the framework of the Orientalist debate and colonial power structure.
“The presentation of historical works alongside modern and contemporary artists from Mathaf’s collection fosters a deeper understanding of the socio-political implications of Gérôme’s art. This comprehensive approach not only highlights his technical mastery but also prompts critical reflections on artistic representation and cultural exchange. As we work on our building project, this presentation serves as proof of concept for the Museum’s overarching mission.”
One of the most famous and commercially successful European artists of the 19th century, Gérôme was heralded in his own time as a history painter and a visual storyteller, bringing the worlds of ancient Greece and Rome to life. Yet it was as a chronicler of the modern cultures and peoples of North Africa and the Middle East that he made his greatest impact. Travelling repeatedly to Egypt and Turkiye and making many other stops in the region between 1855 and 1880, Gérôme created some of Orientalism’s most enduring images and themes.
His depictions, at once fancifully imaginative and faithfully naturalistic, played a major role in defining the MENA world for Europe, America, and Britain. Since 1978, his work has been the subject of critical scrutiny by art historians including Linda Nochlin, who famously read his paintings as part of a larger and more disturbing colonial plan. Seeing Is Believing: the art and influence of Gérôme presents new and more wide-ranging interpretations of the artist, without ignoring the contributions of these scholars, or of Edward Said’s groundbreaking book, Orientalism.
The exhibition is curated by Emily Weeks, Guest Curator, Lusail Museum; Giles Hudson, Curator of Photographs, Lusail Museum; and Sara Raza, Guest Curator, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. It is organised as a legacy of Qatar–France 2020 Year of Culture, a year-long programme of collaborations between institutions across both countries.
