CategoriesStyles and Movements
Contemporary Middle Eastern and North African Art
Art made since about 1980 across a region stretching from Morocco to Iran, and by the many artists from it living abroad.
No works indexed yet · 10 related artists
No open-access works for Contemporary Middle Eastern and North African Art are in the index yet. They will appear here as more collections are indexed.
About
The region spans Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew, Kurdish and Amazigh cultures, among others, and its art is as varied. Some threads run deep: from the 1950s artists in Baghdad, Khartoum and elsewhere built abstract compositions from Arabic letters, and calligraphy, ornament and miniature painting remain sources that artists quote, dismantle or rework.
Photography and moving images have been especially strong. Shirin Neshat's photographs and films explore gender and power in Iran after 1979. The film director Abbas Kiarostami also made quiet photographs of roads and trees. Akram Zaatari helped found the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut in 1997 to collect vernacular photographs. Lalla Essaydi photographs Moroccan women covered in henna-inked script, and Kutluğ Ataman records long video portraits of people telling their own lives. Ori Gersht photographs and films flowers as they explode. The Istanbul Biennial, begun in 1987, and the Sharjah Biennial have given artists platforms close to home.
Related artists
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