Modernism On The Nile

"Analyzing the modernist art movement that arose in Cairo and Alexandria from the late nineteenth century through the 1960s, Alex Dika Seggerman reveals how the visual arts were part of a multifaceted transnational modernism. While the work of diverse, major Egyptian artists during this era may have appeared to be secular, she argues, it reflected the subtle but essential inflection of Islam, as a faith, history, and lived experience, in the overarching development of Middle Eastern modernity. Challenging typical views of modernism in art history as solely Euro-American, and expanding the conventional periodization of Islamic art history, Seggerman theorizes a 'constellational modernism' for the emerging field of global modernism. Rather than seeing modernism in a generalized, hyperconnected network, she finds that art and artists circulated in distinct constellations that encompassed finite local and transnational relations. Such constellations, which could engage visual systems both along and beyond the Nile, from Los Angeles to Delhi, were materialized in visual culture that ranged from oil paintings and sculpture to photography and prints. Based on extensive research in Egypt, Europe, and the United States, this richly illustrated book poses a compelling argument for the importance of Muslim networks to global modernism."--Dust jacket.

The Islamic world's artistic traditions experienced profound transformation in the 19th century as rapidly developing technologies and globalizing markets ushered in drastic changes in technique, style, and content. Despite the importance and ingenuity of these developments, the 19th century remains a gap in the history of Islamic art. To fill this opening in art historical scholarship, Making Modernity in the Islamic Mediterranean charts transformations in image-making, architecture, and craft production in the Islamic world from Fez to Istanbul. Contributors focus on the shifting methods of production, reproduction, circulation, and exchange artists faced as they worked in fields such as photography, weaving, design, metalwork, ceramics, and even transportation. Covering a range of media and a wide geographical spread, Making Modernity in the Islamic Mediterranean reveals how 19th-century artists in the Middle East and North Africa reckoned with new tools, materials, and tastes from local perspectives.

Diversifying the current art historical scholarship, this edited volume presents the untold story of modern art by exposing global voices and perspectives excluded from the privileged and uncontested narrative of “isms.” This volume tells a worldwide story of art with expanded historical narratives of modernism. The chapters reflect on a wide range of issues, topics, and themes that have been marginalized or outright excluded from the canon of modern art. The goal of this book is to be a starting point for understanding modern art as a broad and inclusive field of study. The topics examine diverse formal expressions, innovative conceptual approaches, and various media used by artists around the world and forcefully acknowledge the connections between art, historical circumstances, political environments, and social issues such as gender, race, and social justice. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, imperial and colonial history, modernism, and globalization.

This collection of essays treats the development of modern architecture in the Middle East, ranging from Jerusalem at the turn of the 20th century to Libya under Italian colonial rule, and on to present-day Iraq. The essays cohere around the encounter between the politics of nation-building and architectural modernism.

Der vorliegende Band beschäftigt sich mit dem Surrealismus in Literatur und Kunst in Algerien, Ägypten, Libanon, Syrien und der Türkei zwischen den 1930er und 1980er Jahren. In einer transkulturellen Perspektive erscheint die zu Beginn der 1920er Jahre von Frankreich ausgehende Bewegung gleichermaßen als globales wie als lokales Phänomen, das in den hier behandelten Regionen weniger auf kollektive als auf individualistische Weise, vornehmlich auf dem Gebiet von Poesie und Sprache, rezipiert wurde. Die Studien in diesem Band verfolgen das Ziel, ein klareres Bild von den Resonanzen des Surrealismus in diesen Regionen zu zeichnen und damit einen Beitrag zur Geschichte sowohl der Transmoderne als auch des Surrealismus zu leisten. Methodisch geht es darum, Verbindungen, Begegnungen und Austausch auf individuell-künstlerischer, politisch-institutioneller und soziohistorischer Ebene zu untersuchen. Ein neuer Blick auf den globalen Surrealismus muss diese Netzwerke und Verbindungen auf der Mikroebene berücksichtigen, wenn es um die Fragen geht, wann, wo und was Surrealismus war. Die Antwort könnte zeigen, dass der Surrealismus weitaus weiter verbreitet war als bisher angenommen.

This book is principally a study of the complex relationship of religion to modernity. Monica M. Ringer argues that modernity should be understood as the consequence, not the cause, of the new intellectual landscape of the 19th century. Using the lens of Islamic modernism she uncovers the underlying epistemology and methodology of historicism that penetrated the Middle East and South Asia in this period, both forcing and enabling a recalibration of the definition, nature, function and place of religion. She shows that Muslim Modernists, like their counterparts in other religious traditions, engaged in a sophisticated project of theological reform designed to marry their twin commitments to religion and to modernity. They were in conversation not only with European scholarship and Catholic modernism, but more importantly, with their own complex Islamic traditions.

A study of popular culture and the representation of modern life in Egypt.

The city of a thousand minarets is also the city of eclectic modern constructions, turn-of-the-century revivalism and romanticism, concrete expressionism, and modernist design. Yet while much has been published on Cairo's ancient, medieval, and early-modern architectural heritage, the city's modern architecture has to date not received the attention it deserves. Cairo since 1900: An Architectural Guide is the first comprehensive architectural guide to the constructions that have shaped and continue to shape the Egyptian capital since the early twentieth century. From the sleek apartment tower for Inji Zada in Ghamra designed by Antoine Selim Nahas in 1937, to the city's many examples of experimental church architecture, and visible landmarks such as the Mugamma and Arab League buildings, Cairo is home to a rich store of modernist building styles. Arranged by geographical area, the guide includes entries for more than 220 buildings and sites of note, each entry consisting of concise, explanatory text describing the building and its significance accompanied by photographs, drawings, and maps. This pocket-sized volume is an ideal companion for the city's visitors and residents as well as an invaluable resource for scholars and students of Cairo's architecture and urban history.

The essays in this Oxford Handbook rethink the modern history of one of the most important and influential countries in the Middle East--Egypt. For a country and region so often understood in terms of religion and violence, this work explores environmental, medical, legal, cultural, and political histories. It gives readers an excellent view of the current debates in Egyptian history.