Helen Zughaib- "Changing Perceptions"

by Chelsea Brown

 

Does the painting on the left look familiar?

If you’ve studied any amount of Western art history, it should. It’s reminiscent of a Picasso, but something isn’t quite right. What is different about this image? Arab American artist Helen Zughaib wants her viewers to think about this question. Zughaib is a Lebanese American who lived the first part of her life in the Middle East and Europe. She later came to the United States to study art. Zughaib completed many works before September 11, 2001, but it will be her work post 9/11 that will gain her the most notoriety. 

The painting above is a part of a series called “Secrets under the Abaya” where she illustrated Middle Eastern women, all wearing Abayas. The style of painting, however, is what makes her paintings interesting. Picasso is a well known Modernist painter and is associated with the Western school of art, even though he himself was Spanish. Zughaib has appropriated very western ideas of art to portray Eastern subjects. 

She chose women in Abayas for this series because of the reputation that Middle Eastern women, and especially Muslims, have in the United States. We as “Christian” Americans feel the need to save Muslim women because we don’t understand the religion or the meaning behind the veil. Americans see the cultural norm of wearing an Abaya or Hijab as demeaning to women, when in context, it’s the complete opposite.  The Bush administration was well known for saying that Muslim women need to be “saved”. Author Lilia Abu-Lughod believes that the Bush administration used the “oppression” of Muslim women as one of the strong justifications for going to war in Afghanistan. Zughaib’s depiction of women wearing Abayas is the visualization of the complexities of wearing a veil in Muslim culture- it is a concept that non-Muslims, and especially Americans, do not understand completely. 

Zughaib’s post 9/11 work is just as remarkable. In response to the terrorist attacks, Zughaib made a series of 2-d works that depicted Muslim scenes using stereotypically American colors and patterns. The geometric patterns she used can be interpreted as quilt pieces (a symbol of traditional Americana) or as Muslim tile pieces. The meaning is ambiguous. By blending cultural artistic practices and making them indistinct, she is bridging the gaps of Middle Eastern and American cultures. She herself is also portraying the meaning of her identity via painting. As a Lebanese American, she is caught between two cultures and is left to determine how to interpret both.  This was especially a problem after 9/11, when many Americans were blaming the whole of the Arab and Muslim population for the terrorist attacks. The hyphenated identity, at least in this context, can leave immigrants, or descendants of immigrants, feeling alienated from the rest of the community. 

Zughaib’s paintings are an interesting bridge between two cultures and they redefine what being an “American” means. Her skillful use of western painting methods with the depiction of Middle Eastern subjects leave much for the viewer to consider. 

To see more of Helen Zughaib’s work, please check out her website. 

Bibliography
Abu-Lughod, Lilia. "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving." American Anthropologists (2002): 783. Web. <http://www.scribd.com/doc/22843884/Lila-Abu-Lughod-Do-Muslim-Women-Really-Need-Saving>.

Helen Zughaib. 2009. Web. 07 Dec. 2010. <http://www.hzughaib.com/>.