'The West and East view each other through the lens of cliché'

Tate is one of England's premier art gallery groups with four branches around the country, plus its two flagship museums, Tate Britain and Tate Modern, in London.

While Tate Modern specialises in foreign works, Tate Britain focuses on UK artists from the Renaissance to the present day. One of its current exhibitions, The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting, explores works by European painters between 1780 and 1930 during trips to the Middle East.

After a spell in Istanbul, Turkey, the exhibition will come to Sharjah Art Museum from February to April next year. While the gallery is also in talks for another UAE exhibition, details are yet to be finalised. Dr Stephen Deuchar talked to Emirates Business about the collection and how some of the pieces in the exhibition were uncovered in the region.

What is the inspiration behind the exhibition?

The Lure of the East is about painters mainly from the 19th century beginning, who travelled to the Middle East, recording what they saw and taking it back to Europe. Paintings by British artists are more documentary-like in their recording but there is no question they carry certain ideologies in the assumptions about the Middle East.

What is it about the Middle East that appealed to British artists during this time and do they still apply today?

The West and East view each other through the lens of cliché in terms of exoticism and those influences still apply today. Real images can be exaggerated but the beauty of this is that we can ask people to think about how life is presented on canvas and we can see similarities between then and now.

How did you find the works?

Often there are works known on the art market that we try to trace but they can be difficult so we write to Christie's or Bonham's to have them put us in touch with the owner. Sometimes they can be hard to find, but the pieces we have borrowed from Qatar were found through one of our contacts.

How long has the process taken?

We commissioned the exhibition five years ago and have had staff working on it ever since. We all sat down and batted around ideas and talked about the collaboration and the pieces we wanted then there was intensive work for two to three years. It opened at the Yale Centre in the United States in February, now it's at the Tate and will go to Istanbul before the Sharjah Art Museum.

Why has Sharjah been chosen as the UAE's exhibition venue?

Sharjah has been quietly developing its cultural programme for longer than Dubai and Abu Dhabi and when the exhibition arrives there next year it will coincide with the Sharjah biennial. Through discussions with people in the emirate and the fact the Ruler of Sharjah has leant works for the exhibition, it was fitting to go there.

Which is your favourite piece?

I like An Arab Image from 1881 by Arthur Melville, which we have used on our exhibition posters as I respond to it from an aesthetic point of view. It's a clever painting but difficult to describe the beauty of it. It clearly shows Islamic and Arab architecture and I find it a moving image.

The UAE is rapidly developing its arts scene with Christie's auctions as well as the Louvre and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. Has this influenced Tate to come here?

It hasn't had an impact on our decision. But the idea of a show – about Western views of the East going to the East – was very interesting for us and we like to pursue opportunities as they come up.

Are the logistics difficult in terms of shipping and insurance premiums?

Given the high value of the works, a lot of our issues have been about travel and insurance, but that is not all. There is often an assumption where people think the Tate just takes works out of the basement and puts them on the wall, but every exhibition is painstakingly put together. The Lure of the East has many logistical challenges, including persuading private collectors and institutions to lend us their work out of the goodness of their heart especially because they are out of their hands for a long time.

Who is your favourite artist?

I have too many both living and dead in my orbit to mention, but there are certainly a large number of painters from the 16th to 21st centuries that I like.

Art is constantly changing, but can pieces such as Tracy Emin's My Bed and Martin Creed's exhibit - where volunteers ran from one end of the gallery to the other – be classed as art?

—The job of an artist in any era is to challenge the public to see the world in a different way. Some do it by transforming the aesthetic but an artist can also do it through shock, surprise or drama. Creed is miles away from a 19th century painter but it still grips the audience and is still art.



PROFILE: Dr Stephen Deuchar, Director, Tate Britain

Dr Stephen Deuchar, 51, is the founding director of Tate Britain, which opened in 2000. He was educated at Dulwich College and at the University of Southampton and in London before studying at Yale in the United States.

He is a specialist in 18th century British art and has had various books published including Sporting Art in 18th Century England: a social and political history.

He has also published catalogues and articles on the collections of the National Maritime Museum, where he was Director of the Neptune Court Project leading the Dh140 million redevelopment of the main complex.

Appointed to Tate Britain in 1998, he is responsible for all aspects of its operations, future programme, and long-term development.