Painting the Odalisque: Reclaiming the Hierarchies of Aesthetics by Trans-Modern Critique

Abstract

This article critiqued western aesthetics, which manipulated the representations of the oriental social reality in Modern Painting. Western aesthetics created an illusionistic link between the oriental society and occidental audience when modern artists from western cultures painted the orient and exaggerated the images of its people, landscape and visual cultures. The phenomenon of painting the odalisque was one of the stereotypical imagery made on the oriental cultures. This requires a trans-modern critique as well as trans-aesthetic rethinking to translate the real oriental realities to the western audience. Furthermore, such critique illustrates a clearer picture of the oriental trans-modernity and its cultural connections. The cliché of the odalisque is the subject of this critical article while rethinking the structures of western aesthetics through post-colonial as well as multicultural critique is its purpose. This article contributes to the critical literature that investigates the oriental cultures from global and trans-aesthetic perspectives.

Keywords: Trans-Modernity, Contemporary Aesthetics, Orient, the Art of Painting.

DOI: 10.7176/JTHS/43-06

Publication date:September 30^th 2019