Modern art in the Arab world
By: edited by Anneka Lenssen, Sarah Rogers, Nada Shabout
Series: Primary documents publication series (Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.) -- 8; Primary documents publication series (Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)) -- 8.
Publisher: The Museum of Modern Art
Published: 2018
Language: eng
Number of pages: 462
ISBN-13: 9781633450387
Copyright date: 2018
Subjects: Arab Art
Description: "'Modern Art in the Arab World, Primary Documents' offers an unprecedented resource for the study of modernism: a compendium of critical art writings by twentieth-century Arab intellectuals and artists. The selection of texts--many of which appear for the first time in English--includes manifestos, essays, transcripts of roundtable discussions, diary entries, letters, and the guest-book comments including those featured here. Traversing empires and nation-states, diasporas and speculative cultural and political federations, the book's documents bring light to the formation of a global modernism, through debates on originality, public space, spiritualism and art, postcolonial exhibition politics, and Arab nationalism, among many other topics. The collection is framed chronologically, and includes contextualizing commentaries to assist readers in navigating its broad geographic and historical scope. Interspersed throughout the volume are sixteen contemporary essays: writings by scholars on key terms and events as well as personal reflections by modern artists who were themselves active in the histories under consideration. A newly commissioned essay by historian and Arab-studies scholar Ussama Makdisi provides a historical overview of the region's intertwined political and cultural developments during the twentieth century"
Notes: "This book is devoted to documenting the tremendous discursive energies of modern artists and critics who lived and worked in the Arabic-speaking regions of the Middle East and North Africa"--Introduction.

"'Modern Art in the Arab World' the eighth volume in the Museum of Modern Art's Primay Docuemnts series"--Front cover flap.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Foreword / Glenn D. Lowry; title: Acknowledgments / Jay A. Levenson and Sarah Lookofsky; title: Introduction : about this book / Anneka Lenssen, Sarah Rogers, Nada Shabout; title: Essay : the making and unmaking of the Arab world / Ussama Makdisi. Defining painting : Taswir, peinture, painting (c.1882) / Butrus al-Bustani. On the benefits of art : The fine arts (1887) / Ahmed Fahmi; title: Images and statues, their benefits and legality (1904) / Muhammad Abduh. Arab romantics : Something about art (1912) / May Ziadeh; title: Letter to May Ziadeh (1920) / Armin Rihani; title: Letter to May Ziadeh (1920) / Kahlil Gibran; title: Draft essay (1920s) / Kahlil Gibran; title: Renewal (1927) / Amin Rihani. In focus: Arab romanticism / Stephen Sheehi. Letter from Algiers to Paris : Letter to the director of the "Exhibition of Indigenous Art from the French Colonies" (1923) / Omar Racim. Sculpture and the public in Egypt : The Sphinx and Mokhtar's statue (1928) / Ibrahim Abd al-Qadir al-Mazini; title: The response of sculptor Mokhtar to Mr. al-Mazini (1928) / Mahmoud Mokhtar. In defense of Egyptian popular art : The popular arts in Egypt (1928) / Mohamed Naghi. In focus: Cairo's School of Fine Arts and the pedagogical imperative / Dina Ramadan. Letter from Marrakesh to Algiers : Letter to Jean Alazard, Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Algiers (1929) / Azouaou Mammeri. On the formation of a modern spirit : Modernism or tradition? (1929) / Irène Kéramé. In focus: cultivation discourses in the Arab East / Kirsten Scheid. Viewing the exhibition : Guest book entries for Zulfa al-Sa'di (1933); title: Guest book entries for Moustafa Farroukh (1933). Querying art and religion : Art and religion (1936) / Moustafa Farroukh; title: The greatest art (1938) / Mikhail Naimy. The neo-Orientalists/Cairo : Manifesto of the neo-Orientalists (1937) / Kamel Telmisany. Egyptian art and freedom debates : The objective of the contemporary artist (1938) / Ramsès Younan; title: Long live degenerate art! (1938); title: The art and liberty group (1939) / Anwar Kamel; title: Studies in art: art and freedom 91939) / Aziz Ahmad Fahmi; title: On degenerate art: a final word (1939) / Nasri Atallah Susa; title: On degenerate art (1939) / Kamel Telmisany; title: Art and dictatorship (1940) / Mohamed Naghi. Shaping the fate of the nation : The painter (1943) / César Gemayel. Iraq's wartime transformation : Diary entry (1944) / Jewad Selim. On agony and beauty : Thoughts on art (1944) / Hatem el Mekki; title: Thoughts on art (1945) / Aly Ben Salem; title: Thoughts on art (1945) / Omar Racim; title: Thoughts on art: man and his agony (1945) / Mahmoud Messadi. Contemporary art group/Cairo : Contemporary Art Group, first declaration (1946) / Husayn Yusuf Amin, Abdel Hadi el-Gazzar, Mahmoud Khalil, Ibrahim Massouda, Mogli (Salem el-Habshi), Hamed Nada, Maher Raef, Samir Rafi, Kamal Youssef; title: Contemporary Art Group, second declaration (1948). Plates I (1-25). Surrealist sensitivities : From an old diary (1947) / Khaldun Sati al-Husry; title: Notes from "Surreal" (1947) / Urkhan Muyassar. Petition for the 1 percent law/Tunis : Letter to the Resident General in Tunis (1948) / Pierre Boucherle and Yahia Turki. An early declaration of Huroufiyah : Arabic calligraphy: an inspiring element in abstract art (1949-50) / Madiha Umar. In focus: Huroufiyah: the Arabic letter as visual form / Nada Shabout. Imagining an immortal Arab art : Speech delivered at Damascus's Maydan High School (1951) / Adham Isma'il. Toward a material modernism : How the Arab understood visual art (1951) / Saloua Raouda Choucair. Baghdad group for modern art : Manifesto (1951) / Baghdad Group for Modern Art; title: The renewal of art (1951) / Jewad Selim. The cultural politics of exhibitions : Letter to the Department of Interior and Fine Arts (1952) / Yahia Bahmed; title: On the presentation of a collective exhibition (1953) / Jean Sénac; title: Exhibition of a Palestinian artist (1953) / Harun Hashim Rashid; title: About the third exhibition at the British Cultural Council (1953) / Shakir Hassan Al Said. In focus: the Nakba and Arab culture / Nasser Rabbat. Algerian Group of the Lettrist International/Algiers : Manifesto (1953) / Cheikh Ben Dhine, Mohamed Dahou, Ismail Ait Djafer. A call to human heritage : The meaning of painting (1953) / Adonis.; title: Considering Arab art and artists : Artists' questionnaire: "art and Arab life" (1956); title: The question of form: between national realism and the psychological moment (1956) / Zakariya al-Hijjawi. Reviewing the Iraqi revolution : At "The exhibition of the revolution" (1958) / Jaleel Kamal al-Din. Proclaiming Arab unity : The freedom of art (1958) / Hamed Said; title: Text for the United Arab Republic Pavilion, Venice biennale (1960) / Salah Kamel. In focus: biennials and Arab representation / Anneka Lenssen. Cairo: limits on freedom : Recollections of imprisonment (1959-63) / Inji Efflatoun. Materials for a new Algerian art : Painting (1960) / M'hamed Issiakhem. Plastic arts movement/Damascus : Manifesto of the plastic arts movement in Syria (1962) / Abdul Aziz Alloun, Mahmoud Daadouch, Fateh al-Moudarres; title: Letter to Salman Qataya (1962) / Abdul Aziz Alloun; title: You're entitled to your opinion (1962) / Adnan Ibn Dhurayl. In focus: art and political patronage during the Cold War / Sarah Rogers. Making spaces in Beirut : Opening of Gallery One: a first exhibit art institution of its kind (1963); title: Remarks on the autumn exhibition: I am uncultured! (1964) / Jalal Khoury; title: Toward a new space: the perspective of the abstract (1964) / Stélia Scamanga. Personal reflection: three years of teaching art in Khartoum, 1962-65 / Amir Nour. Plates 2 (26-49). Art after the Algerian revolution : Painting and the people (1963); title: Presentation at Gallery 54 (1964) / Jean Sénac; title: Elements for a new art (1964) / Mohamed Khadda; title: Elements for a new art (1964) / Choukri Mesli; title: Elements for a new art (1964) / Abdallah Benanteur; title: Art and the Algerian revolution (1964) / Henri Kréa. Exploratory abstraction : Meaningless within and without (1964) / Fouad Kamel. The challenge of art : A trailing zero: Damascus letter (1965) / Muhammad al-Maghout; title: Letter to Farouq al-Buqayli (1966) / Mahmoud Hammad. Contemplative art/Baghdad : Manifesto (1966) / Shakir Hassan Al Said. Presenting new Tunisian painting : A true language of forms: interview with Nja Mahdaoui (1966) / Moncef S. Badday; title: A language in his land's dimensions: interview with Naceur Ben Cheikh (1966) / Moncef S. Badday; title: Against neocolonialsm in painting: interview with Najib Belkhodja (1966) / Ferid Boughedir. Morocco's Casablanca school dialogues : On the concept of painting and the plastic language (1966) / Mohammed Chebaa; title: The situation of the Moroccan painter (1967) / Toni Maraini; title: Responses to the "Souffles" artists' questionnaire (1967) / Farid Belkahia, Mohammed Chebaa, Mohammed Hamidi, Jilali Gharbaoui, Mohammed Melehi. Debating North African art at home and away : Six North African painters speak out: painting in North Africa, an alarming situation (1967) / Abdallah Benanteur, Ahmed Cherkaoui, André Elbaz, Abdel Kader Guermaz, Edgard Naccache, Mahmoud Sehili; title: International passes through nationalism (1967) / Zubeir Turki; title: Art must reach the universal and must not become a national crafts industry: interview with AndréElbaz (1967) / Zakya Daoud. Aouchem Group/Algiers and Blida : Manifesto (1967) / Hamid Abdoun, Mustafa Adane, Baya (Fatma Haddad-Mahieddine), Mohamed Ben Baghdad, Mahfoud Dahmani, Denis Martinez, Choukri Mesli, Said Saidani, Arezki Zerati. Circulism and kinetics in Kuwait : Kinetic art: a movement that represents the new man (1966); title: Interview with the artist Khalifa Qattan (1967) / Sulayman al-Shatti. In focus: experiments in modern Arabic typography / Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès. Accounting for the June 1967 war : (....) (1968) / Hassan Soliman; title: Manifesto: towards a new vision (1969) / Dia al-Azzawi, Ismail Fattah, Saleh al-Jumaie, Muhammad Muhraddin, Rafa al-Nasiri, Hashem Samarji; title: You, the Arab artist who rejects the West, what is your East?: interview with Adel Saghir, Stélio Scamanga, Mounir Najm (1969) / Samir Sayegh; title: Al-Tali'a symposium roundtable (1969). Personal reflection: from dreams to achievements: a Jordanian artist in the era of 1968 / Mona Saudi. Exhibition at Djema al FNA/Marrakesh : Statement (1969) / Mohammed Ataallah, Farid Belkahia, Mohammed Chebaa, Mustapha Hafid, Mohammed Hamidi, Mohammed Melehi. Transforming the arts of the revolution: On art and combat (1970) / Tahar Ben Jelloun; title: Art in the time of the Palestinian revolution (1971) / Kamal Boullata; title: Drawing in three dimensions (1971) / Vladimir Tamari. In focus: revolutionary film: the Palestine film unit / Mohanad Yaqubi. Arab art in federation : Statement of the Founding Committee of the Union of Arab Plastic Artists (1971); title: Arab art... and its position in relation to the world's art (1971) / Mahmoud Hammad; title: The Arab artist's rights and his obligations 91971) / Fateh al-Moudarres. Exhibition articulations in Iraq : Presence in the object and the object's presence in transformation, the becoming of consciousness (1971) / Yahya al=Sheikh; title: Circulism: why circulism? What is circulism? (1971) / Qutaiba al=Sheikh Nouri; title: Quantum realism: an art of processes (1971) / Mahmoud Sabri. Personal reflection: notes on Contact Art Gallery, 1972-75 / Waddah Faris. A transregional critical terrain : A note on the calligraphic sign (1973) / Abdelkebir Khatibi; title: Light: the ultimate material for art (1973) / Etel Adnan. Art and the letter : The philosophical, technical, and expressive aspects of the one dimension (1973) / Shakir Hassan Al Said; title: The civilizational quality of the one dimension (1973) / Qutaiba al-Sheikh Nouri; title: About the letter...a response (1973) / Jamil Hamoudi. The diasporic divide : An Arab artist between Damascus and Berlin (1973) / Na'im Isma'il. New realism/Baghdad : Manifesto of new realism (1973) / Abdal-Razzaq Ali Jawdat, Muhammad Arif, Shams al-Din Faris, Ibrahim al-Kamali. Response to the October 1973 war : Letter to the editor of "Monday Morning" (1973) / Aref El Rayess. Personal reflection: graphic design and the visual arts in Iraz / Dia al-Azzawi. In focus: graphic art in the Arab world / May Muzaffar. Arab biennial initiatives and critiques : Art inspired by the people, the struggle, and liberation in the trilogy of heritage, the present, and contemporaneity (1973); title: Discussion forum from the first Arab biennial (1974); title: Manifesto of the Moroccan Association of Plastic Arts (1974); title: Exploding artistic and cultural handicaps (1974) / Dia al-Azzawi. Life as a Palestinian artist : The Palestinian people's consciousness and aesthetic expression (1975) / Mustafa al-Hallaj. Khartoum dialogues : The Crystalist Manifesto (1976) / Hassan Abdallah, Hashim Ibrahim, Kamala Ibrahim Ishaq, Muhammad Hamid Shaddad, Naiyla Al Tayib; title: Commentary (1976) / Abdallah bola; title: Commentary (1976) / Mohamed Abusabib; title: Exhibition statement (1980) / Muhammad Hamid Shaddad. Second Arab biennial in Rabat : Manifesto of the Association of Moroccan Plastic Artists (1976); title: Interview with Fouad Bellamine (1978). On the desert style in Saudi Arabia : A word for the sake of art (1976) / Mohammed Al-Saleem; title: Exhibition statement (1976) / Mohammed Al-Saleem. Thinking through culture during the Lebanese civil wars : PRoposal for a cultural policy (1977) / Janine Rubeiz. Environmental art at Asilah : Statements from participants of the First International Cultural Moussem (1978). In focus: Yemen's free Atelier: history and context in the Arabian Peninsula / Anahi Alviso-Marino. The closure of Gallery 79/Ramallah : Statement (1980). Debating commitment in a new Egypt : From "The Artist's Freedom" (1980) / Hassan Soliman; title: The axis continues (1982) / The Axis Group: Farghali Abdel Hafiz, Abd al-Rahman al-Nashar, Ahmed Nawar, Mostafa El Razzaz; title: Statement against "artistic racism (1984) / Mukhtar el Attar, Mahmoud Baqshish, Inji Efflatoun, Kamal al-Juweili, Salah Abdel Kerim, Saad El-Mansouri, Ezzedine Nabuib, Subhi al-Sharuni, Abbas Shohdi; title: Spotlight on a spotlight (1984) / Mostafa El Razzaz. Contemporary modes in the United Arab Emirates : To contemplate is to lay a foundation (1985) / Al-Tashkeel Cultural Committee: Abdul Jalil Jawad, Abdulraheem Salim, Hassan Sharif, Abdul Latif Al Smoudi; title: On "Wooden Columns" (1986) / Ahmed Rashid. Personal reflection : along new paths : the new visions art collective in occupied Palestine / Vera Tamari.