Art and Identity in Spain, 1833-1956

"The first English-language study to explore the longevity of Orientalist art in Spain over a period of 120 years. Highlighting how artists in Spain shaped perceptions and projections of Al-Andalus (Iberia under Islam 711-1492) and northern Morocco, it combines art history and cultural studies to foreground the diverse issues that underpin Orientalist expression. Consequently, the book overturns over-familiar understandings of Western Orientalism with its focus on 'difference' and exclusion of Islamic culture from European identity. Introducing many unfamiliar artists and exhibitions, such as Villaamil, Bâecquer, Rusiänol, and Morcillo, the book provides a vital perspective on how art in Spain has served shifting political agendas, redefining the 'Orient' an unfixed and shifting cultural signifier"-- Provided by publisher.

Claudia Hopkins is Professor of Art History at the University of Edinburgh, UK. She served as the Director of the Zurbarán Centre for Spanish and Latin American Art at Durham University between 2020 and 2023, and is Editor of Art in Translation. Recent publications include Romantic Spain. David Roberts and Genero Pérez Villaamil (2021), which won the Jonathan Brown Award of the Society of Global Iberian Art (SIGA) for exceptional achievement in an exhibition catalogue, and the co-edited two-volume Hot Art, Cold War-European Writing on American Art 1945-1990 (2020).