Ethnographic study of cultural politics in the contemporary Egyptian art world, examining how art-making is a crucial aspect of the transformation from socialism to neoliberalism in postcolonial countries.
The Egyptian art world is the oldest and largest in the Arab Middle East. Its artists must reckon with the histories of ancient Egypt, European modernism, anti-colonial nationalism, and state socialism-all in the context of a growing neoliberal economy marked by American global dominance. At this crucial intersection of culture, politics, and economy, Egypt's art and artists provide unique insight into current struggles for cultural identity and sovereignty in the Middle East.
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"As the only study of its kind to date, and for its sensitive view of the conditions of artistic culture in modern Egypt,
Creative Reckonings is an invaluable contribution to studies of the modern Middle East, post-Arab socialist cultural history, and anthropologies of modern and contemporary art."
