Perspectives on Modern and Contemporary Arab Artists

(Hardback)

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Exploring the Arab art scene.

After more than three decades devoted to intercultural mediation, Brahim Alaoui, former director of the museum of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, looks back on his encounters with Arab artists in their home countries or in exile. He brings knowledge and a sensitive look at the work of a generation of modern artists, who were often trained in post-war Europe and then went back to their country to reflect on their identity and develop a post-colonial modernity.

Alaoui then presents a selection of contemporary artists who have emancipated themselves from the classical ways of representation at the turn of the 21st century, exploring new mediums and bringing an original contribution to the global dynamics of international artistic networks. Through fifty portraits, we come across the history of art and the debates of different ideas in the Arab world, since the beginning of the twentieth century until today. The book displays numerous portraits of artists in their homes or their studios.

An important interview with the art critic Pascale Le Thorel allows us to contextualize Alaoui's encounters with the various artists.

A publication that also contributes to the reflection on "modernity", rethought in its plurality, in the light of new values brought by cultural globalization.

Author Bio

Brahim Alaoui is an art historian and exhibition curator. Initially a researcher at the Muse d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, he was then director of museum of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris where he organized numerous exhibitions between 1987 and 2007. He now devotes himself to cultural consulting, book publishing and curating exhibitions.