Daily Dose Pick: Art of the Middle East

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Featuring an introduction by Zaha Hadid, Saeb Eigner’s powerful new book traces a century of fine art from a region where painting a Cubist–style portrait of a woman is a revolutionary act.

Art of the Middle East is a sumptuous encyclopedia of more than 220 artists, from the internationally renowned (Shirin Neshat and Mona Hatoum, starchitect Hadid), to Westerners taking their influences to heart (José Parlá), to lesser-known, persecuted voices. Being avant-garde may be dangerous when innovation, subversion, individuality, and satire are literally punishable by law — but as this remarkable tome illustrates, ideas will win out every time.

Buy Art of the Middle East

, preview some pages, and check out the British Museum exhibition that inspired it.

Shirin Neshat

Mona Hatoum

José Parlá