“Imagined Bodies in Egyptian Modern Art”

This paper proposes to address the various ways by which the Egyptian modern artists investigated the nude as a genre in its aesthetic form and meaning at the beginning of the 20th century. The nude genre was indeed instrumental to engage with modernism and nudes conveyed the ideals of the nahda renaissance project. Feminine nudes as gendered allegories of the nation would also prove effective in the construct of national imagery. This paper will thus address the translation the nude as a genre as well as a historical narrative into bodies that acted as metaphors of nationalist claims. Besides, it will underline the value of the nude as a desired object that could be copied or acquired in order to reflect the social belonging to a universal culture. Finally, it attempts to address the question of the reception of nudes by its viewers, including the individuals that were the main subject of the artworks; Egyptian women.