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Anneka Lenssen is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of California, Berkeley.
Sarah Rogers is an independent scholar.
Nada Shabout is Professor of Art History at the University of North Texas.
List of contents
Foreword / Glenn D. Lowry 13
Acknowledgments / Jay A. Levenson and Sara Lookofsky 15
Introduction: About This Book / Anneka Lenssen, Sarah Rogers, Nada Shabout 18
Essay: The Making and Unmaking of the Arab World / Ussama Makdisi 28
Primary Documents
Defining Painting 36
On the Benefits of Art 37
Arab Romantics 45
In Focus. Arab Romanticism / Stephen Sheehi 55
Letter from Algiers to Paris 57
Sculpture and the Public in Egypt 58
In Defense of Egyptian Popular Art 68
In Focus. Cairo's School of Fine Arts and the Pedagogical Imperative / Dana Ramadan 72
Letter from Marrakesh to Algiers 73
On the Formation of a Modern Spirit 74
In Focus. Cultivation Discourses in the Arab East / Kristen Scheid 76
Viewing the Exhibition 77
Querying Art and Religion 80
The Neo-Orientalists/Cairo 86
Egyptian Art and Freedom Debates 87
Shaping the Fate of the Nation 106
Iraq's Wartime Transformation 109
On Agony and Beauty 110
Contemporary Art Group/Cairo 113
Plates I (1-25) 117
Surrealist Sensitivities 133
Petition for the 1 Percent Law/Tunis 138
An Early Declaration of Huroufiyah 139
In Focus. Huroufiyah: The Arabic Letter as Visual Form 142
Imagining an Immortal Arab Art 144
Toward a Material Modernism 145
Baghdad Group for Modern Art 150
The Cultural Politics of Exhibitions 155
In Focus. The Nakba and Arab Culture / Nasser Rabbat 161
Algerian Group of the Lettrist International/Algiers 163
A Call to Human Heritage 164
Considering Arab Art and Artists 167
Reviewing the Iraqi Revolution 181
Proclaiming Arab Unity 186
In Focus. Biennials and Arab Representation / Anneka Lenssen 191
Cairo: Limits on Freedom 192
Materials for a New Algerian Art 196
Plastic Arts Movement/Damascus 198
In Focus. Art and Political Patronage during the Cold War / Sarah Rogers 204
Making Spaces in Beirut 206
Personal Reflection. Three Years of Teaching Art in Khartoum, 1962-65 / Amir Nour 211
Plates II (26-49) 213
Art After the Algerian Revolution 229
Exploratory Abstraction 240
The Challenge of Art 243
Contemplative Art/Baghdad 252
Presenting New Tunisian Painting 256
Morocco's Casablanca School Dialogues 263
Debating North African Art at Home and Away 279
Aouchem Group/Algiers and Blida 292
Circulism and Kinetics in Kuwait 294
In Focus. Experiments in Modern Arabic Typography / Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarés 301
Accounting for the June 1967 War 303
Personal Reflection. From Dreams to Achievements: A Jordanian Artist in the Era of 1968 / Mona Saudi 322
Exhibition at Djema Al Fna/Marrakesh 323
Transforming the Arts of the Revolution 324
In Focus. Revolutionary Film: The Palestine Film Unit / Mohanad Yaqubi 333
Arab Art in Federation 335
Exhibition Articulations in Iraq 343
Personal Reflection. Notes on Contact Art Gallery, 1972-85 / Waddah Faris 351
A Transregional Critical Terrain 352
Art and the Letter 357
The Diasporic Divide 362
New Realism/Baghdad 367
Response to the October 1973 War 369
Personal Reflection. Graphic Design and the Visual Arts in Iraq / Dia al-Azzawi 370
In Focus. Graphic Art in the Arab World / May Muzaffar 372
Arab Biennial Initiatives and Critiques 374
Life as a Palestinian Artist 387
Khartoum Dialogues 393
Second Arab Biennial in Rabat 408
On the Desert Style in Saudi Arabia 412
Thinking Through Culture During the Lebanese Civil Wars 415
Environmental Art at Asilah 419
In Focus. Yemen's Free Atelier: History and Context in the Arabian Peninsula / Anahi Alviso-Marino 424
The Closure of Gallery 79/Ramallah 426
Debating Commitment in a New Egypt 427
Contemporary Modes in the United Arab Emirates 443
Personal Reflection. Along New Paths: The New Visions Art Collective in Occupied Palestine / Vera Tamari 446
Index 449
Trustees of The Museum of Modern Art 464
About the author
Anneka Lenssen is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of California, Berkeley.
Sarah Rogers is an independent scholar.
Nada Shabout is Professor of Art History at the University of North Texas.
