The Rise of Arab Art

Since the 1990s, contemporary art in the Arab world has experienced exponential growth and numerous changes. With the appearance of artists from the region in international exhibitions, the dynamics within the art scenes changed significantly. Museums & art foundations began to collect, biennials were launched, contemporary art galleries, fairs, residencies and schools emerged in many countries, and the governments of the Gulf states launched megaprojects. This reader serves as a guide for anyone interested in the foundations, structures and growth of these art scenes. It also functions as an anthology of what is now considered established in the Arab world, with contributions covering all aspects of the subject—both from across the region and from a Western perspective.



Cover

Half Title Page

Title Page

Contents

Preface

Tarek Abou El Fetouh and Lawrence Abu Hamdan in conversation

Echoes of Algiers: Art, Memory, and Belonging

Building on Shifting Sands

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi: Early Days

From OAS to OASIS

Becoming an Artist in Saudi Arabia

BIDOUN

Transmodernism: A Renewed Outlook on Modernism in the Arab World

A Nomad's Map

Notes on Tunis

An Assemblage of Artists and Events, 1985–2025

Enfolded Worlds: Exhibiting Art from the Arab World 2000–2016

Arab Art at Auctions

From Palestine to Abu Dhabi

The Art Dubai Story

The Phoenix / Beirut Forever

Art in Morocco From 1950 Until Today: A Historical Reader

The Age of Mirror-Museums in the Persian Gulf

A Brief History of Canvas Magazine

Paris-Riyadh

On Representing Syrian Art: A Partial History of Exhibition and Imagination

2004–2024: From the Louvre to AlUla: Emerging Arab Contemporary Art

On Pleasure: How to Be Non-Professional

Creating and Exhibiting Modern Iraqi Art, in Baghdad or Elsewhere: Between Individual Initiatives and State Support

Hans Ulrich Obrist in conversation with Andrée Sfeir-Semler

Beirut, Twenty Years

Sharjah Art Foundation and Sharjah Biennial

Beirut Art Biome 1990–2025

Scratching on things I could disavow: A photograhic record _ Appendix I 2003 – present

Riwaq Biennale: Art, Heritage, and Speculative Institutions in Palestine

Riwaq Biennale: A Living Institution of Art, Heritage, and Resistance

On Being Held: Artworks as a History of Institutions

On the Cusp Looking Back: Beirut in the 1990s

Syrian Art: Bearing Witness, Building Hope

Patronage in the Arab World

Sfeir-Semler Gallery: Beirut

The Uncertainty of Times: Reflecting on a Field in the Making

I've always known that I'm an artist

Darat al Funun – The Khalid Shoman Foundation: A Home for the Arts and Artists from the Arab World

The Sultan Gallery: A Brief Overview of the First Permanent Art Gallery in Kuwait

Three Accidental Encounters

Qatar's Commitment to Art and Culture

I Will Always Like How it Began

On the Legacy of Townhouse Gallery, Cairo

The Arab Image Foundation: A Dialogue on the Possibilities and Limits of an Institution

A Chronology of Art Infrastructure in the Arab World

Arab Artists Index

Image Credits

Acknowledgments

Imprint