Editorial: Spain and Orientalism

This introductory essay introduces the first English-language journal issue dedicated to Spanish Orientalism in art and visual culture in the 19th and 20th centuries. The seven peer-reviewed articles, drawn from a panel at the Association of Art Historians conference in 2016, examine Spain's complex relationship with her Islamic past and with Morocco through art, architecture, photography and material culture. They address a range of topics including patterns of collecting, the reproduction of Islamic art and architecture for private and public spaces, the role of Spain’s Islamic heritage in the construction of a national identity as exemplified in Spanish exhibition pavilions, the intersections between art and colonialism, and the role of Spanish art and visual culture in the wider debates about Orientalism.