{"id":55415,"date":"2024-04-24T14:22:47","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T10:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/?p=55415"},"modified":"2024-04-24T14:22:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T10:22:49","slug":"deep-roots-mining-the-past-to-reveal-contemporary-arab-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/deep-roots-mining-the-past-to-reveal-contemporary-arab-art\/","title":{"rendered":"Deep roots: mining the past to reveal contemporary Arab art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The story of Arab modern and contemporary art is vibrant and diverse, a rich brew of cultural traditions and myriad experiences of modernity. But that\u2019s to be expected, says Salwa Mikdadi<\/a>, Professor of Practice of Art History at NYU Abu Dhabi; this region has been a crossroads of cultures and creativity for millennia, and its artists have drawn on a rich history as they respond in the moment to a changing world. It\u2019s time for more and better recognition of their work …<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Salwa Mikdadi<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The seeds of Arab modern art were sown in the 19th century with the rise of al-Nahda, the Arab Awakening. It was an intellectual and cultural movement that intersected with Western artistic techniques and styles. In Egypt, for example, Mahmoud Mukhtar studied in Paris before returning home to create in 1928 his iconic Nahdet Misr<\/em> (The Awakening of Egypt), a powerful allegory of national revival. In 1950s Iraq, the Baghdad Group for Modern Art led by Jewad Selim and Shakir Hassan Al Said sought to reconcile the rich heritage of Mesopotamian and Islamic art with the principles of modernism. In Lebanon during the decades that followed independence in 1943, artists like Saloua Raouda Choucair and Aref Rayess combined abstract forms with social commentary, reflecting the complexities of a nation in flux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experimentation in modern techniques and cultural heritage continued throughout the 20th century. Faik Hassan returned to Iraq after studying in France to navigate representing the new nation of Iraq. In Morocco during the 1960s, artists Farid Belkahia, Mohammed Melehi and Mohammed Chab\u00e2a were the key members of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Casablanca, a school that developed a systematic questioning of the colonial roots of pedagogy and abstraction and advocated for drawing on tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women also played a prominent role during this period. The opening in Cairo of the Higher Institute of Fine Arts for Women Teachers in 1939 provided the first opportunity for women to study arts there; Menhat Helmy, Gazbia Sirry and Inji Efflatoun would all become part of an active movement that asserted the role of women in Egyptian public life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Misunderstood traditions<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why then, has it taken so long for these artists to be properly understood and celebrated on a global level? Is it a lack of exposure, particularly before the turn of the century when galleries, fairs and exhibitions in arts centres were concentrated in the West? Or is it a lack of formal analysis, research and pedagogical promotion in the region \u2013 a state of affairs that had not been addressed until quite recently?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Mahmoud Mukhtar, Nahdet Misr<\/em> (The Awakening of Egypt), 1928<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The reasons for the relative lack of exposure for Arab art and Arab artists are manifold and complex. But one factor is certainly the lack of documentation and a dearth of public collections. Many works of Arab modern art remain inaccessible, hidden away in private collections or lost amidst conflict. There is no specialized archive in the Arab world, and therefore there is no equity amongst scholars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s the overarching mantle of a Western-oriented frame of reference. Modernism as we know it in the West doesn\u2019t necessarily align perfectly with Arab Modernism. For example, many Arab artists studied in Italy and France \u2013 but then after the 1950s they also studied in the USSR and other socialist countries where students could receive scholarships, a situation which gave them access to another range of influences away from western schools of art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also certain references used in the West that don\u2019t directly apply to the Arab world. Europe argues that abstract art emerged in Europe in the late 19th<\/sup> century, but then how should we categorize the geometric designs and elaborate decorative calligraphy that has characterised art in Arabia since the 7th<\/sup> century? Should we love with a European definition, or expand our thinking to create a more global understanding that also involves other disciplines and other traditions\u0001?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of \u2018Islamic\u2019 or \u2018Arab\u2019 art is often questioned as a Western cultural construct, but there are clear and shared traditions of architecture, decoration, calligraphy, and other ways of reflecting place and faith. If we don\u2019t resolve the complex questions about the relationship between Arab art and the Western canon, we will be missing the opportunity to engage with a body of work that challenges assumptions and offers fresh perspectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Documenting the past<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the 1980s I have curated exhibitions in the US, where I was based for many years, to shine a spotlight on Arab artists \u2013 and in particular on the many female artists whose work was (and still is) overlooked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After joining NYUAD in 2013, I had the opportunity to take this ambition further; we founded al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art<\/a> in 2021, a research centre and archive dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of the visual arts of the Arab world. Through a range of activities that include fellowships, research projects, conferences and colloquia, plus the construction of a unique digital archive, al Mawrid aims to be a major resource for scholars, independent researchers, and for educational and art institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The digital archive is a key element. Our work of digitizing documents from the 1850s to the mid-1990s has revealed a treasure trove of information. We have journals from the lead-up to the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and the diaries of artists working during the 1970s in Baghdad, both of which have given us a better sense of the environment in which artists worked. We\u2019re also publishing books of letters between artists, including an exchange of letters between the writer Abdul Rahman Munif and artist Marwan Kassab-Bachi. Material of this nature has helped us notice patterns such as the close relationship between the writers, poets, and artists who formed the intellectual groups of that period. They were very outspoken and shared common concerns and ambitions, a contrast to the siloed life that is perhaps is a little more common today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allowing access to the range of different sources \u2013 diaries, audio, artworks, books \u2013 helps because art is informed by the social fabric of society during those periods. We work with historians, anthropologists, and sociologists to piece together a more detailed and nuanced picture of the period. This access to primary documents is vitally important to rediscovering our past and is inspiring a new generation of scholars to go further and deeper in their research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid the growing appreciation for our past, it is our job to continue with research that highlights those specific traditions that have led to the contemporary moment. Artists continue to grapple with social, political, and cultural issues, using a diverse range of media and styles \u2013 all of which is rooted in a rich and fertile soil. Unveiling this tradition isn\u2019t just about historical recognition; it\u2019s enriching the global conversation on art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Marwan Kassab Bachi, Untitled, 1996<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The story of Arab modern and contemporary art is vibrant and diverse, a rich brew of cultural traditions and myriad experiences of modernity. But that\u2019s to be expected, says Salwa Mikdadi, Professor of Practice of Art History at NYU Abu [… more]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":55419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-art-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}