Art et liberté : umbruch, krieg und surrealismus in Ägypten (1938-1948)

The catalogue of the exhibition gives a comprehensive presentation of Art et Liberté (jama’at al-fann wal hurriyyah). Founded on December 22, 1938, upon the publication of their manifesto “Long Live Degenerate Art”, the group provided a restless generation of artists, intellectuals and political activists with a heterogeneous platform for cultural and political reform. At the dawn of the Second World War and during Egypt’s colonial rule by the British Empire, Art et Liberté was globally engaged in resistance against fascism, nationalism and colonialism.
Art et Liberté played an active role within an international network of surrealist writers and artists. With their own definition of surrealism, they achieved a contemporary literary and pictorial language that was as globally engaged as it was rooted in local artistic and political concerns.