Thursday, February 20
12:00-1:30PM
SHH 236 / Hybrid via Teams.
Iheb Guermazi (Fellow at Columbia University's Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities) presents his research:
In 1897, Ivan Aguéli, a young Swedish painter and anarchist activist, converted to Islam. Five years later, he moved to Egypt to become the main spokesman of an Arab Sufi reformist movement based in Cairo. Aguéli- the first to ever coin the word “Islamophobia”- warned against the European demonization of Islam and believed that a new universal and mystical pact should replace Western modernity. This talk offers a close examination of one of Aguéli’s paintings, “Portrait of an Egyptian Woman,” and reads it in light of the artist’s political affiliation to a Sufi movement that aimed to bring a mystical solution to Western imperialism. By asking whether this is an Orientalist painting, this talk explores the interplay between personal biographies and Orientalism in art historical discourses.
For more information, contact: Brady Ryan at brady.ryan@uconn.edu