Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s-1980s

Description

Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s-1980s traces the emergence and development of abstraction in the Arab World through paintings and sculpture dating from the 1950s through the 1980s. Drawn from the collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation based in Sharjah, UAE, this book features nearly 80 works by a diverse group of artists. Taking Shape explores how 20th-century abstraction developed and played out in the Arab World. Shedding light on a number of abstract movements initiated by artists' collectives as well as individual practitioners in the region and the Arab diaspora, this book examines how these artists moved away from figuration and naturalistic depictions of reality toward investigations into the expressive capacities of line, color, and texture. Placing the featured artists and their works within larger, cultural, and global contexts, Taking Shape contributes to the bourgeoning scholarship on and interest in art from the region.

Suheyla Takesh is curator at the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah, UAE. Lynn Gumpert is director of the Grey Art Gallery at New York University.

"Presenting original scholarship by highly regarded contributors, this beautifully illustrated and meticulously researched catalogue features dozens of abstract paintings produced between 1955 and 1987. Masterfully edited and formatted, the book underscores the significance of West Asian and North African abstraction by framing it within the discourse of nationalism, identity politics, pan-Arabism, decolonization, and spirituality and Sufism."-- "Choice" "...an extraordinary opportunity to see an impressive collection of works, mostly paintings, drawings, and prints, by some of the region's most prominent artists. "-- "CAA Reviews"