Affiliate Session CAA Conference, New York, NY February 2015
Saturday 02/14/2015, 12:30pm – 2:00pm
What is Contemporary Islamic art?
A term that has been invoked previously on few occasions, “Contemporary Islamic Art” has over the last decade become a popular subject of museum exhibitions, publications, and collections, university courses and teaching positions, and fellowships and prizes in the visual arts. Despite this emergent interest in “Contemporary Islamic Art,” the category remains contested: Does it designate a region? A shared set of religious, cultural, socio-political, or aesthetic concerns? Or, as is most commonly treated, an epoch—an extension of the field of Islamic art into artistic production of today.
This CAA affiliate session invites scholars and professionals across disciplines in the visual arts to address the various articulations, approaches, claims, and stakes of the category “Contemporary Islamic Art. The session launches an extended conversation to take place at an international conference in Singapore in October 2015 that aims to decentralize the familiar East-West binary and complicate accepted notions and definitions within the modern and contemporary periods.
Organized by Sarah Rogers and Nada Shabout
Participants: