Art et liberté
Art et liberté was a group of artists and writers who came together in Cairo around 1939 . Stylistically, they are assigned to Surrealism , but the group made headlines more with political actions than with their works.
On December 22, 1938, 29 artists, writers, journalists and lawyers published the manifest Long live degenerate art . In doing so, they took the side of modern artists in Europe who were defamed in the exhibition “Degenerate Art” . The signatories include El-Telmessany , Anwar Kamel and George Henein , who founded the group "Art et liberté" on January 9, 1939 together with Ramses Yunan and Fouad Kamel .
The internationally oriented group quickly gained new members. In Africa at that time they were an exception, which could arise due to special political and economic conditions in Egypt . “Art et liberté” had a lot in common with surrealists worldwide, in particular the anti-capitalist attitude, the radical fantasies of political and cultural upheaval, the examination of Freud's theories of the unconscious and the resistance to the academic art of the time.
The founding agreement stated that “Art et liberté” had come together to defend the freedom of art and culture. They offered lectures, organized exhibitions, published journals and magazines, disseminated current information and tried to contribute to the education of socially disadvantaged Egyptian youth. They turned against the institutionalized exploitation of women and industrial workers worldwide, demonstrated against fascism and were in close contact with similar movements in America and Europe.
After the end of the Second World War , the movement lost its radiance, and it was disbanded in 1948 - after the Parisian Surrealists had broken away due to political disputes over Israel.
literature
- Liliane Karnouk: Modern Egyptian Art . The American University, Cairo / New York 2005
- Martine Antle: Surrealism and the Orient. In: Yale French Studies. No. 109, Surrealism and Its Others. Yale University Press, New Heaven 2006
- Avinoam Shalem: Exceeding Realism: Utopian Modern Art on the Nile and Abdel Hadi Al- Gazzar's Surrealistic Drawings. In: South Atlantic Quarterly. 109/3, 2010
- Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath (eds.): Art et Liberté. Upheaval, war and surrealism in Egypt (1938–1948). Exhibition catalog of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf. Éditions Skira, Paris 2016, ISBN 978-2-37074-048-9 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Manifest Long live degenerate art . ( Memento from September 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive )