Repository of original source documents
for Modern Art in the Arab World: Primary Documents
Edited by Anneka Lenssen, Sarah Rogers, and Nada Shabout
AMCA is pleased to make available a number of primary documents of modern art writing, in Arabic and French, that have recently been published in translation in the anthology, Modern Art in the Arab World: Primary Documents, published by the Museum of Modern Art, 2018 (https://www.dukeupress.edu/modern-art-in-the-arab-world).
The anthology Modern Art in the Arab World: Primary Documents is meant to offer a compendium of critical art writings by twentieth-century Arab intellectuals and artists as a resource for the study of modernism. The selection of texts includes manifestos, essays, transcripts of roundtable discussions, diary entries, letters and the guest-book comments. Traversing empires and nation-states, diasporas and speculative cultural and political federations, the book’s documents bring light to the formation of a global modernism, through debates on originality, public space, spiritualism and art, postcolonial exhibition politics, and Arab nationalism, among many other topics. The collection is framed chronologically, and includes contextualizing commentaries to assist readers in navigating its broad geographic and historical scope. Interspersed throughout the volume are sixteen contemporary essays: writings by scholars on key terms and events as well as personal reflections by modern artists who were themselves active in the histories under consideration. A newly commissioned essay by historian and Arab-studies scholar Ussama Makdisi provides a historical overview of the region’s intertwined political and cultural developments during the twentieth century.
So as to make it possible for researchers to locate and consult the original texts in full and in their original Arabic or French, the Editors have compiled below an annotated version of the Table of Contents containing links to all those selected texts available in digital archives. In addition, for those selected texts in the public domain, .pdf versions have been provided.
Table of Contents
DEFINING PAINTING
Taswir, Peinture, Painting (c. 1882) Butrus al-Bustani
ON THE BENEFITS OF ART
The Fine Arts (1887) Ahmed Fahmi Images and Statues, Their Benefits and Legality (1904) Muhammad Abduh
ARAB ROMANTICS
Something about Art (1912) May Ziadeh Letter to May Ziadeh (1920) Amin Rihani Letter to May Ziadeh (1920) Kahlil Gibran Draft essay (1920s) Kahlil Gibran Renewal (1927) Amin Rihani
LETTER FROM ALGIERS TO PARIS
Letter to the Director of the Exhibition of Indigenous Art from the French Colonies (1923) Omar Racim
SCULPTURE AND THE PUBLIC IN EGYPT
The Sphinx and Mokhtar’s Statue (1928) Ibrahim Abd al-Qadir al-Mazini The Response of Sculptor Mokhtar to Mr. al-Mazini (1928) Mahmoud Mokhtar
IN DEFENSE OF EGYPTIAN POPULAR ART
The Popular Arts in Egypt (1928) Mohamed Naghi
LETTER FROM MARRAKESH TO ALGIERS
Letter to Jean Alazard, Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Algiers (1929) Azouaou Mammeri
ON THE FORMATION OF A MODERN SPIRIT
Modernism or Tradition? (1929) Irène Kéramé
VIEWING THE EXHIBITION
Guest book entries for Zulfa al-Sa‘di (1933) Guest book entries for Moustafa Farroukh (1933)
QUERYING ART AND RELIGION
Art and Religion (1936) Moustafa Farroukh The Greatest Art (1938) Mikhail Naimy
THE NEO-ORIENTALISTS/Cairo
Manifesto of the Neo-Orientalists (1937) Kamel Telmisany
EGYPTIAN ART AND FREEDOM DEBATES
The Objective of the Contemporary Artist (1938) Ramsès Younan Long Live Degenerate Art! (1938) The Art and Liberty Group (1939) Anwar Kamel (text begins page 1520) Studies in Art: Art and Freedom (1939) Aziz Ahmad Fahmi On Degenerate Art: A Last Word (1939) Nasri Atallah Susa On Degenerate Art (1939) Kamel Telmisany Art and Dictatorship (1940) Mohamed Naghi (text begins page 163)
SHAPING THE FATE OF THE NATION
The Painter (1943) César Gemayel
IRAQ’S WARTIME TRANSFORMATION
Diary entry (1944) Jewad Selim
ON AGONY AND BEAUTY
Thoughts on Art (1944) Hatem el Mekki Thoughts on Art (1945) Aly Ben Salem Thoughts on Art (1945) Omar Racim Thoughts on Art: Man and His Agony (1945) Mahmoud Messadi
CONTEMPORARY ART GROUP/Cairo
Contemporary Art Group, First Declaration (1946) (text begins page 79) Contemporary Art Group, Second Declaration (1948) (text begins page 82)
SURREALIST SENSITIVITIES
From an Old Diary (1947) Khaldun Sati al-Husry Notes from Surreal (1947) Urkhan Muyassar
PETITION FOR THE 1 PERCENT LAW/Tunis
Letter to the Resident General in Tunis (1948) Pierre Boucherle and Yahia Turki
AN EARLY DECLARATION OF HUROUFIYAH
Arabic Calligraphy: An Inspiring Element in Abstract Art (1949–50) Madiha Umar
IMAGINING AN IMMORTAL ARAB ART
Speech delivered at Damascus’s Maydan High School (1951) Adham Ismail
TOWARD A MATERIAL MODERNISM
How the Arab Understood Visual Art (1951) Saloua Raouda Choucair
BAGHDAD GROUP FOR MODERN ART
Manifesto (1951) Baghdad Group for Modern Art The Renewal of Art (1951) Jewad Selim
THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF EXHIBITIONS
Letter to the Department of the Interior and Fine Arts (1952) Yahia Bahmed On the Presentation of a Collective Exhibition (1953) Jean Sénac Exhibition of a Palestinian Artist (1953) Harun Hashim Rashid (text begins page 72) About the Third Exhibition at the British Cultural Council (1953) Shakir Hassan Al Said
ALGERIAN GROUP OF THE LETTRIST INTERNATIONAL/Algiers
Manifesto (1953) Mohamed Dahou, Cheikh Ben Dhine, Ismail Ait Djafer
A CALL TO HUMAN HERITAGE
The Meaning of Painting (1953) Adonis
CONSIDERING ARAB ART AND ARTISTS
Artists’ Questionnaire: “Art and Arab Life” (1956) The Question of Form: Between National Realism and the Psychological Moment (1956) Zakariya al-Hijjawi
REVIEWING THE IRAQ REVOLUTION
At The Exhibition of the Revolution (1958) Jaleel Kamal al-Din
PROCLAIMING ARAB UNITY
The Freedom of Art (1958) Hamed Said Text for the United Arab Republic Pavilion, Venice Biennale (1960) Salah Kamel
CAIRO: LIMITS ON FREEDOM
Recollections of Imprisonment (1959–63) Inji Efflatoun
MATERIALS FOR A NEW ALGERIAN ART
Painting (1960) M’hamed Issiakhem
PLASTIC ARTS MOVEMENT/Damascus
Manifesto of the Plastic Arts Movement in Syria (1962) Fateh al-Moudarres, Abdul Aziz Alloun, Mahmoud Daadouch Letter to Salman Qataya (1962) Abdul Aziz Alloun You’re Entitled to Your Opinion (1962) Adnan Ibn Dhurayl
MAKING SPACES IN BEIRUT
Opening of Gallery One: A First Art Institution of its Kind (1963) Remarks on the Autumn Exhibition: I Am Uncultured! (1964) Jalal Khoury Toward a New Space: The Perspective of the Abstract (1964) Stélio Scamanga
ART AFTER THE ALGERIAN REVOLUTION
Painting and the People (1963) Presentation of Gallery 54 (1964) Jean Sénac Elements for a New Art (1964) Mohamed Khadda Elements for a New Art (1964) Choukri Mesli Elements for a New Art (1964) Abdallah Benanteur Art and the Algerian Revolution (1964) Henri Kréa
EXPLORATORY ABSTRACTION
Meaninglessness Within and Without (1964) Fouad Kamel
THE CHALLENGE OF ART
A Trailing Zero: Damascus Letter (1965) Muhammad al-Maghout Letter to Farouq al-Buqayli (1966) Mahmoud Hammad
CONTEMPLATIVE ART/Baghdad
Manifesto (1966) Shakir Hassan Al Said (abridged version of text begins page 49)
PRESENTING NEW TUNISIAN PAINTING
A True Language of Forms: Interview with Nja Mahdaoui (1966) Moncef S. Badday A Language in His Land’s Dimensions: Interview with Naceur Ben Cheikh (1966) Moncef S. Badday Against Neocolonialism in Painting: Interview with Najib Belkhodja (1966) Ferid Boughedir
MOROCCO’S CASABLANCA SCHOOL DIALOGUES
On the Concept of Painting and the Plastic Language (1966) Mohammed Chebaa The Situation of the Moroccan Painter (1967) Toni Maraini (text begins page 15) Responses to Souffle’s Artists’ Questionnaire (1967) Farid Belkahia, Mohammed Chebaa, Mohammed Hamidi, Jilali Gharbaoui, Mohammed Melehi (texts begin page 22. This is the full set of questions and responses)
DEBATING NORTH AFRICAN ART AT HOME AND AWAY
Six North African Painters Speak Out: Painting in North Africa, an Alarming Situation (1967) Abdallah Benanteur, Ahmed Cherkaoui, André Elbaz, Abdel Kader Guermaz, Edgard Nacchache, Mahmoud Sehili Internationalism Passes through Nationalism (1967) Zubeir Turki Art Must Reach the Universal and Must Not Become a National Crafts Industry: Interview with André Elbaz (1967) Zakya Daoud (text begins page 34)
AOUCHEM GROUP/Algiers, Blida
Manifesto (1967) Choukri Mesli, Mustafa Adane, Said Saidani, Denis Martinez, Baya (Fatma Haddad-Mahiedine), Mohamed Ben Baghdad, Arezi Zerarti, Mahfoud Dahmani, Hamid Abdoun: Original French typescript reproduced in Critical Interventions
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19301944.2009.10781371 (note: subscription required to view French original)
CIRCULISM AND KINETICS IN KUWAIT
Kinetic Art: A Movement that Represents the New Man (1966) Interview with the Artist Khalifa Qattan (1967) Sulayman al-Shatti
ACCOUNTING FOR THE JUNE 1967 WAR
(….) (1968) Hasan Soliman
Manifesto: Towards a New Vision (1969) Hashem Samarji, Muhammad Mahr al-Din, Rafa al-Nasiri, Dia al-Azzawi, Saleh al-Jumaie, Ismail Fattah You, the Arab Artist Who Rejects the West, What Is Your East?: Interview with Stélio Scamanga, Adel Saghir, and Mounir Najm (1969) Samir Sayegh Al-Tali‘a Symposium Roundtable (1969)
EXHIBITION AT DJEMA AL FNA/Marrakesh
Statement (1969) Mohammed Ataallah, Farid Belkahia, Mohammed Chebaa, Mustapha Hafid, Mohammed Hamidi, Mohammed Melehi (French text begins page 45; Arabic on page 54)
TRANSFORMING THE ARTS OF THE REVOLUTION
On Art and Combat (1970) Tahar Ben Jelloun (text begins page 46) Art in the Time of the Palestinian Revolution (1971) Kamal Boullata Drawing in Three Dimensions (1971) Vladimir Tamari
ARAB ART IN FEDERATION
Statement of the Founding Committee of the Union of Arab Plastic Artists (1971) Arab Art . . . and Its Position in Relation to the World’s Art (1971) Mahmoud Hammad The Arab Artist’s Rights and his Obligations (1971) Fateh al-Moudarres
EXHIBITION ARTICULATIONS IN IRAQ
Presence in the Object and the Object’s Presence in Transformation, the Becoming of Consciousness (1971) Yahya al-Sheikh (text begins page 59) Circulism: Why Circulism? What Is Circulism? (1971) Qutaiba al-Sheikh Nouri (text begins page 63) Quantum Realism—An Art of Processes (1971) Mahmoud Sabri
A TRANSREGIONAL CRITICAL TERRAIN
A Note on the Calligraphic Sign (1973) Abdelkebir Khatibi Light: The Ultimate Material for Art (1973) Etel Adnan
ART AND THE LETTER
The Philosophical, Technical, and Expressive Aspects of the One Dimension (1973) Shakir Hassan Al Said The Civilizational Quality of the One Dimension (1973) Qutaiba al-Sheikh Nouri About the Letter . . . A Response (1973) Jamil Hamoudi
THE DIASPORIC DIVIDE
An Arab Artist between Damascus and Berlin (1973) Na‘im Isma‘il
NEW REALISM/Baghdad
Manifesto of New Realism (1973) Shams al-Din Faris, Abdal-Razzaq Ali Jawdat, Muhammad Arif, Ibrahim al-Kamali (text begins page 41)
RESPONSE TO THE OCTOBER 1973 WAR
Letter to the Editor of Monday Morning (1973) Aref El Rayess
ARAB BIENNIAL INITIATIVES AND CRITIQUES
Art Inspired by the People, the Struggle, and Liberation in the Trilogy of Heritage, the Present, and Contemporaneity (1973) Discussion Forum from the First Arab Biennial (1974) Manifesto of the Moroccan Association of Plastic Arts (1974) Exploding Artistic and Cultural Handicaps (1974) Dia al-Azzawi
LIFE AS A PALESTINIAN ARTIST
The Palestinian People’s Consciousness and Aesthetic Expression (1975) Mustafa al-Hallaj
KHARTOUM DIALOGUES
The Crystalist Manifesto (1976) Kamala Ibrahim Shaq, Hashim Ibrahim, Muhammad Hamid Shaddad, Hassan Abdallah, Naiyla Al Tayib Commentary (1976) Abdallah Bola Commentary (1976) Mohamed Abusabib Exhibition Statement (1980) Muhammad Hamid Shaddad
SECOND ARAB BIENNIAL IN RABAT
Manifesto of the Association of Moroccan Visual Artists (1976) Interview with Fouad Bellamine (1978)
ON THE DESERT STYLE IN SAUDI ARABIA
A Word for the Sake of Art (1976) Mohammed Al-Saleem Exhibition Statement (1976) Mohammed Al-Saleem
THINKING THROUGH CULTURE DURING THE LEBANESE CIVIL WARS
Proposal for a Cultural Policy (1977) Janine Rubeiz
ENVIRONMENTAL ART AT ASILAH
Statements from participant from the first International Cultural Moussem (1978)
THE CLOSURE OF GALLERY 79/Ramallah
Statement (1980)
DEBATING COMMITMENT IN A NEW EGYPT
From The Artist’s Freedom (1980) Hasan Soliman The Axis Continues (1982) The Axis Group: Farghali Abdel Hafiz, Abd al-Rahman al-Nashar, Ahmed Nawar, Mustafa El Razzaz Statement against “Artistic Racism” (1984) Abbas Shohdi, Kamal al-Juweili, Subhi al-Sharuni, Mahmoud Baqshish, Saad El-Mansouri, Mokhtar El Attar, Inji Efflatoun, Salah Abdel Krim, Ezzedine Naguib Spotlight on a Spotlight (1984) Mostafa El Razzaz
CONTEMPORARY MODES IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
To Contemplate Is to Lay a Foundation (1985) al-Tashkeel Cultural Committee: Abdul Jalil Jawad, Hassan Sharif, Abdulraheem Salim, Abdul Latif Al Smoudi On Wooden Columns (1986) Ahmed Rashid