Cigar Store Figure: Turk c. 1938

Editor: This is Irving L. Biehn’s “Cigar Store Figure: Turk,” a watercolor drawing from around 1938. I’m really struck by the color palette. The vivid reds and blues against the plain background create such a distinctive image. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I observe a composition acutely conscious of its verticality. Note how the figure’s form—his turban, the line of his pipe, the drape of his robes—each contributes to an assertion of height. The subtle asymmetry also complicates any facile reading of orientalist exoticism, does it not? Editor: Yes, the slight tilt of the head and the way the pipe angles create an imbalance. Can you elaborate on "orientalist exoticism" in the image? Curator: I am thinking of the colour contrasts and ornate detail of dress, which strike a particular, formalist, relationship. It seems to consciously employ codes of ‘oriental’ representation within its own pictorial logic. The relationship between the depiction of texture and flatness are brought into tension through the use of the watercolor medium, too. Notice how areas like the turban appear meticulously rendered in great depth, while the robes read as largely flattened shapes of vibrant pigment. Editor: So, the visual structure is deliberately playing with the idea of the exotic rather than simply presenting it? Curator: Precisely. We are not invited to view a straightforward representation, but an essay in visual construction itself, creating a distance from which any romanticization of the 'Turk' is viewed critically. It focuses our attention on the act of representation, more than any transparent rendering of reality. Editor: That’s a helpful way to frame it. It changes my perception entirely, now seeing it as an investigation of representation, not just a portrait. Curator: Indeed, attending to the structure itself can unveil more complex meanings than an immediate reading allows.