From Liechtenstein to the Arab world, here’s art at its diplomatic best

At the Princely Treasures exhibition at the National Museum Of Singapore, there is someone who stares back at you from catalogues, tote bags, posters and postcards.

It’s Maria De Tassis, or rather, Anthony Van Dyck’s royal-looking portrait of her. It is a popular work that fronts the art collection of the royal family of Liechtenstein whenever it goes around the world. Together with Peter Paul Rubens’ portrait of his daughter, Clara, and the two female figures in the huge Vengeance Is Sworn painting by Francesco Hayez, they are good-naturedly nicknamed the Princely Treasures’ “poster girls” by Johann Kraftner, the director who oversees the collection on behalf of the country’s prince.

“People love paintings of portraits of charming girls,” he quipped.

Over at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM), the Terms & Conditions survey exhibition, featuring Arab art, also has its own women aiming to charm viewers. Adel Abidin’s three-channel video Three Love Songs, for example, features a lounge singer, a jazz singer and a pop star, each taking turns to sing, erm, propaganda songs by the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

You might not think there’s any connection, but here’s actually a study in contrast as both shows flex their muscles not only in the name of art but also cultural diplomacy and “branding”.

IMAGE IS EVERYTHING

The tiny Alpine country of Liechtenstein might be geographically diminutive, but with soft power now just as influential as economic and military might, it is a proverbial bodybuilder in this respect. Its royal family’s private collection, comprising thousands of art objects, stretches back some 500 years.

And they take it very, very seriously.

There might “only” be 90 works on display in Singapore but they’re pretty top-notch. Apart from its “poster girls”, you’ve got a Raphael, more Rubenses, and a wonderful bunch of paintings from the Brueghel clan of artists. One walks through sections that reveal High Renaissance, Baroque Neo-classical and Biedermeier styles.

“It’s the best diplomat of Liechtenstein,” said Kraftner. “We’ve got banks and a highly important high-tech industry, too, while some countries are efficient in sports, like football or skiing. But not every country has an outstanding high-class art collection.”

Promoting the best works is paramount, he added — it distinguishes between being merely patronising (“It’s a kind of colonialism to lend ‘weak’ things.”) and proper, respectful diplomacy.

“We want to show people the best of European art (and) we want (the collection) to connect to Liechtenstein. It’s the highest responsibility we have, for the country, the princely family … It’s an enormous asset, for sure, but also enormous heritage. It brings a lot of image,” said Kraftner.

Private art collections have always been a prestigious calling card for their owners — but in the compact world of Liechtenstein-the-country and its royalty, the distinctions are blurred.

Indeed, the image promoted in the show is two-fold: Much like Singapore, Liechtenstein is a tiny country that envisions itself as a hub of good, classic art (from its European neighbours) and has impeccable taste. But at the same time, it also promotes the image of a specific privileged family that is both magnanimous and narcissistic (as most collections ultimately are). The latter becomes quite evident in the show’s layout that begins with a section recreating the palace feel, followed by engravings and paintings of the Liechtenstein palaces, before you actually get to the meaty part of the show.

BEYOND ARAB

In contrast to the mindful, lavish branding of Liechtenstein in Princely Treasures, SAM’s Terms & Conditions is actually an exercise in wriggling away from the idea of “Arabness”.

A collaboration between SAM and the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah, its intent begins in its very title — there’s nothing “Arab” about it at all.

“To comment on the Middle East and package it as such can be dangerous,” warned Mandy Merzaban, the guest curator from the foundation. “It allows you to have a preconceived notion of what it’s about, it brings in stereotypes and cliches before you even see it.”

But while the viewers won’t be overwhelmed by a flood of keffiyeh scarves and Arab Spring images, that doesn’t mean the show doesn’t address the issues of a region that has had a pretty rough go of it for years now. It’s a delicate balancing act, considering how we’re inundated with images and opinion in mass media. However, instead of forcing us to read the refreshingly compact 16-piece show in one single way, it’s a collection of, as Merzaban called it, “subjective perspectives of the Arab world”.

Many of these play on the double-take. There’s the black humour-tinged videos of Sharif Waked — a cliched video of a suicide bomber who’s instead reading from A Thousand And One Nights, which revolves around the idea of prolonging life; and another, a spoof of a fashion show with clothes that fall apart, supposedly useful for Palestinians who get strip-searched at Israeli checkpoints. Kader Attia’s video of the Dome Of The Rock shrine is revealed to actually be a brass bolt and silver nuts. And, of course, you’ve got Abidin’s pop music-meets-Saddam Hussein work.

Some works aren’t even preoccupied with the whole Arab issue: One work deals with spam mails, while Hassan Sharif’s Cow Belly is a purely conceptual piece of sculpture — an iron beam on which hang sheets of aluminium — more concerned with the idea of sensations than, say, the Arab-Israeli War or Egypt’s ongoing social upheaval.

A reflexive critique of Arab representation is seen in Jananne Al-Ani’s Shadow Sites II which features nondescript aerial photographs of Jordanian landscape as we’re surrounded by the sound of planes. It not only echoes the view from drones but also of the common images of the area seen on CNN during the first Gulf War.

“In a way it’s how the Middle East is depicted — a barren landscape,” said Merzaban. The images zoom in “close but not close enough”.

Terms & Conditions is neither celebratory nor defensive. It doesn’t debunk or embrace the so-called Arab image of strife and conflict — it is, simply, what it is. It might be an “ambassador” of the Arab world, but it isn’t too uptight about it.

Unlike the opulent, centralised Liechtenstein project of Princely Treasures, there is no “Arab art” centre here, so to speak.

Said Merzaban: “It’s a little more complicated than that.”

Princely Treasures From The House Of Liechtenstein runs until Sept 29, 10am to 6pm, National Museum Of Singapore. Tickets at S$10 from Sistic. Terms & Conditions runs until Sept 8, 10am to 7pm, Singapore Art Museum. Free admission for citizens and PRs, S$10 for others.