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.
, preview some pages, and check out the British Museum exhibition that inspired it.
Shirin Neshat
Mona Hatoum
José Parlá