Modern Art in Egypt

Fatenn Mostafa is founder of ArtTalksEgypt, a leading interdisciplinary, Cairo-based art space dedicated to the management of selected Egyptian artists' estates - in addition to providing exhibition, publication, education and archiving services. Founded in 2009, the gallery has rigidly selected a roster of emerging artists to work exclusively with and has established itself as an authority on high quality secondary market works by twentieth century masters.

Following a spectacular surge in interest for Egyptian masters, Modern Art in Egypt fills the void in Egyptian art history, chronicling the lives and legacies of six pioneering artists working under the British occupation. Using Western-style academic art as a starting point, these artists championed cultural progress, re-appropriating Egyptian visual culture from European orientalists to found a neo-Pharaonic School of Realism. Modern Art in Egypt charts the years from Muhammad Ali's educational reforms to the mass influx of foreigners during the nineteenth-century. With a focus on the al-Nahda thought movement, this book provides an overview of the key policy-makers, reformists and feminists who founded the first School of Fine Arts in Egypt, as well as cultural salons, museums and arts collectives. By combining political and aesthetic histories, Fatenn Mostafa breaks the prevailing understanding that has preferred to see non-Western art as derivatives of Western art movements. Modern Art in Egypt re-establishes Egypt's presence within the global Modernist canon.

Re-establishes Egypt's place in the global Modernist canon - its reformers, feminists, art collectives and cultural salons - with over a hundred colour illustrations

highly illustrated with 110 colour illustrations showcasing the output of Egyptian modern art

INTRODUCTION PART ONE REACHING FOR MODERNITY: A MULTICULTURAL RENAISSANCE CHAPTER 1: al-Nahda: The Building Blocks of a By-Product1.1. Producing Knowledge 1.2. Cosmopolitanism and Mass Media CHAPTER 2: EGYPT AS EXHIBITION2.1. European Orientalism: The Art of the Other and the Foreign Complex2.2. Orientalizing a New Industry: Villa Medici, Cercle Artistique and Exposition du Caire CHAPTER 3: ART AND ISLAM PART TWO FUNUN JAMILA: PATRONS, A STATE AND A NEW SOCIAL PLAYER CHAPTER 4: The Patrons 4.1. The Egyptian School of Fine Arts in Cairo4.2. Société des amis de l'art, Salon du Caire and Atelier of Alexandria4.3. La Chimère and the Art Advocacy Group4.4. Cultural Salons and the Woman Question CHAPTER 5: The State5.1. Building an Infrastructure5.2. The Museum of Modern Art 5.3. Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil and his eponymous museum5.4. Conclusion CHAPTER 6: The Artist-The Emergence of a new social player 6.1. Egypt for Egyptians 6.2. Innovators vs. Conformists PART THREE AL-RUWWAD: THE FIRST-GENERATION INNOVATORS 7. Georges Sabbagh (1887-1951): The (E)migrant Son 8. Mohamed Naghi (1888-1956): Naghi d'Alexandrie 9. Mahmoud Mokhtar (1891-1934): The Hyphen between Ancient and Modern10. Ragheb Ayad (1892-1982): The Godfather of the Egyptian Gaze11. Mahmoud Saïd (1897-1964): In Search of a Happy Island12. Marguerite Nakhla (1908-1977): Life as it should be CONCLUSION Decoding 1930s Egypt: The Seeds of the Naksa TIMELINE ENDNOTESBIBLIOGRAPHYINDEX