An arty glimpse of Sharjah

Sharjah City, located right to the East of Dubai with no perceptible transition between the emirates, positions itself as the culture capital of the UAE. I went there last weekend to see for myself if the place can live up to that promise.

A colleague had warned me that the traffic in Sharjah is almost as mad as in Dubai's most busy times, and that parking spaces are in very short supply. So I decided to take the bus to get there.

And I was grateful once more for having an accurate guide book, which sent me to Deira bus station while, in reality, I had to depart from the Bur Dubai bus station. So after sweating my way from one shore of the Dubai Creek to the other, I took a bus back to the side I started from and was happily on the bus to Sharjah just one hour after I had left the hotel.


Größere Kartenansicht

Arriving in Sharjah around midday, I quickly changed my earlier plan of walking to the city's Al Hisn Fort and to go on a culture walk through the reconstructed older part of Sharjah from there, passing a number of museums. Instead, I decided to take a taxi to Sharjah Art Museum, which is the biggest art museum there (and probably across the UAE), and host of the Biennal, a two-month multi-exhibitions festival including program.

It's easy to spend a few hours there - even if you don't read every little board telling you about the artists and his or her grand ideas.

One current exhibition is "Lure of the East", curated by Tate London, which shows British Orientalist Paintings from dozens of museums worldwide (go here for a random review I found).

Between about 1830 and 1925, a number of British artists travelled the East - among them Lord Byron, David Roberts, John Frederick Lewis, or David Wilkie. And there was even a female painter travelling the East at that time - Henriette Brown, who insisted on accompanying her husband on a diplomatic trip.

They all benefited from the region's growing connection with Western Europe, through railway, steamboats and the Suez channel.

I think many of the stereotypes and cliches along the lines of the style of"Lawrence of Arabia" originate in that era - as the contemporary painters seem to have focused on depictions of the (desert) scenery, bedouins dressed in traditional clothing and portrayals of other high-standing people in local dresses, colorful street scenes, old prunk buildings from the inside or outside, bazaars and markets, and scenes with camels; at least judging from that exhibition.

And of course the harems captured the male painters' imagination, for obvious reasons, one being they were absolutely denied access which must have made it even more alluring. Also, it seems that even Western people at the time liked to have themselves painted in Oriental clothes, in order to demonstrate their cosmopolitanism and cultural refinement.

While it was interesting to see how artists at the time viewed "The Orient", I found most paintings not very captivating; in fact, many seemed quite plain to me. There seemed to be little behind most of them. Or maybe it was only me looking at them superficially, as most failed to capture my interest beyond what they reflected regarding the painters and their views.

The other exhibits at the museum were a stark contrast to that, as many were quite playful and made use of space, sounds, and light in a partly quite engaging way.

Sharjah, by the way, as many sources emphasize, is one of the most conservative of the seven emirates of the UAE. So you better stick to the strict dress code, and absolutely stay away from alcohol. And you also may want to show your affection for your partner only within the privacy of your own room.

Unless you want to get into trouble, as others before you have found out themselves: There are every now and then stories about couples, doing, well, you know what, only to be put to prison and then banned from the UAE for life.

And we wouldn't want that, would we.