Denver Art Museum debuts Near East to Far West: Fictions of French and American Colonialism in March 2023

Denver—November 15, 2022—The Denver Art Museum (DAM) today announced the debut of Near East to Far West: Fictions of French and American Colonialism. This exhibition opens March 5, 2023 and is on view through May 28, 2023, in the Anschutz Gallery on level 2 of the museum’s Hamilton Building. Near East to Far West will be included in general admission, which is free for everyone 18 and under as well as for museum members.

Organized and curated by the DAM’s Director of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art, Jennifer R. (JR) Henneman, Ph.D., the exhibition features more than 80 artworks, including paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and decorative arts, and explores the many ways that the style and substance of French Orientalism directly influenced American artists and their representations of the American West in art and popular culture during this period.

French Orientalism refers to artworks produced by French artists during the 1800s inspired by North Africa and the greater Islamic world. Their creation paralleled French colonial expansion into Algeria beginning in the 1830s and, as the United States expanded westward, presented a template for how American artists depicted landscapes and people of the American West. As a result, the styles, motifs, and meanings of both French Orientalism and western American art reflect fears, desires, and curiosities about “unknown” lands during the process of colonization. In Near East to Far West, visitors will be encouraged to compare the visual and historical aspects of French Orientalism and artworks of the American West and reflect on the impact of these representations into the present.

Presented for the first time in Denver, this exhibition proposes that western American artworks of this period can be viewed through the lens of French Orientalism, showcasing a blend of fact and fantasy that combines exceptional technique with creative license.

"In the 19th and early 20th centuries, regions of the American West were as foreign and unfamiliar to many Americans as places like Morocco and Algeria were to Parisians. Through the exquisite paintings in Near East to Far West, this show begins to tease apart the facts and fictions presented in the art of the time," said Christoph Heinrich, the Frederick and Jan Mayer Director of the DAM. "Our collaborations with community groups and scholarly consultants focused on gathering insights into how best to provide the context around stereotypes and tropes present in the works. Near East to Far West offers visitors the opportunity to experience the beauty of the artworks while also learning more about the historical context in which they were created."

Near East to Far West opens by introducing historical context and the styles and motifs of French Orientalism through paintings by Eugène Fromentin, Nasreddine (Alphonse-Étienne) Dinet, Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, and Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps, as well as a selection of work by American Orientalists including Fredric Arthur Bridgman and Elizabeth Nourse.

"Visitors will be transported by the beauty of the artworks on display. Additionally, we hope they will consider what lies beyond the frame and engage with the bigger contextual picture," said JR Henneman. "Near East to Far West aims to acknowledge complex colonial histories, celebrate artistic achievement, and question ongoing stereotypes. The exhibition offers a gateway into a historical period of colonial expansion, but also prompts us to consider what we as viewers now bring to these artworks. How have their meanings changed over time, if at all? What expectations or biases might we have inherited, and how might considering this important art historical story change or modify what we think we know about the world… or what we think an artwork can tell us about it?"

As the gallery interpretation makes clear, some artworks present biased representations of people and places of North Africa and the American West through an “Orientalizing” lens that enhances their perceived exoticism. Rather than factual representations, these artworks are composite fictions that reflect curiosity, racial and political biases, thirst for physical and aesthetic challenges, and hopes to succeed in competitive art markets. Paintings by Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, Alfred Jacob Miller, George de Forest Brush, select members of the Taos Society of Artists, and many others, accompanied, but rarely acknowledged, the devastating consequences of colonial expansion on Indigenous peoples, landscapes, and wildlife in North Africa and the American West.