Elizabeth Miller's 2016 Study Reinterprets Egyptian Modern Art's Nationalist Narrative

Elizabeth Miller's 2016 article challenges the conventional view that Egyptian modern art emerged abruptly in 1908 with the Cairo School of Fine Arts solely to serve nationalist purposes. By analyzing art writing from the first half of the twentieth century in both Arabic and French-language Egyptian press, Miller argues that a public discourse on fine arts developed gradually over decades. This discourse became a site where cosmopolitan and national identities were negotiated. Artists and critics positioned themselves ambivalently amid competing claims of Egyptian, Arab, and European identity during the British occupation and independence struggle. The article, published on ARTMargins Online, is available via MIT Press under subscription access.