Alex Dika Seggerman - Modernism on the Nile: Art in Egypt Between the Islamic and the Contemporary

Modernism on the Nile would not have been possible without the guidance, support, generosity, kindness, and friendship of countless individuals on four continents. Much like the art and artists featured in these pages, my research and writing traversed much space, from Los Angeles to Amman, Stafford to Dubai, and the incredible people I met along the way made this book possible.

Academia is often an isolated experience of endless hours of solitary writing. I am grateful to the robust and warm community of colleagues with whom I shared both productive academic conversations and camaraderie over the years of research and writing: Mitra Abbaspour, Esther Chadwick, Kirtsy Dootson, Julie Elsky, Meredith Gamer, Sylvia Houghteling, Jennifer Josten, Anna Arabindan Kesson, Kevin Lotery, Kavior Moon, Joanne Nucho, Jenni Sorkin, Allie Stileau, Shirley Wong, Amelia Worsley, Ruthie Yow, and Tatsiana Zhurauliova. Special thanks to Suzy Newbury for years of friendship, peer pressure (Cerberus!), and laughs, and especially for convincing her kind parents, Priscilla and Bill, to rent us their garden apartment in Brooklyn Heights. With her specialty in Turkish modern art, Sarah-Neel Smith has been my best interlocutor over the years, and she generously read parts of this manuscript. To Holly Shaffer, from Kk Ayasofya to the Tate Modern, our conversations and travels have been deeply influential on my scholarship, and your friendship gladdens my soul. And, Anna Lee, thank you for your brilliant friendship that has kept me grounded in reality.

My universities provided the necessary training to do the research and writing included in this book. At Columbia, Zainab Bahrani, Christina Kiaer, and Rosalyn Deustche introduced me to the postcolonialism, totalitarianism, and feminism of modernism. Yales History of Art Department laid the groundwork for my career, and I am immensely grateful to Tim Barringer, Nicole Chardiet, Ned Cooke, Milette Gaifman, Jackie Jung, Rob Nelson, and Sally Promey. Many thanks to Alan Mikhail, whose enthusiasm for and expertise on Egypt continue to be an invaluable resource. David Joselits steady, poignant questioning since 2007 has formed the major interrogations around which this book is formulated. I drew much from the collections and centers at Yale, including the Yale Center for British Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, the Council on Middle East Studies, the Fund for Lesbian and Gay Studies, the Beinecke Rare Book Library, and especially the generous intellectual hospitality of Cindy Roman and Sue Walker at the Lewis Walpole Library.

Doha, Dubai, and Sharjah have become important art centers in the Middle East, including the Barjeel Art Foundation, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, and the Sharjah Art Foundation. I am thankful to the kind and generous group of supporters whom I met there: Laura Barlow, Valerie Didier Hess, Abdellah Karroum, Joanne Lisinski, Charlie Pococke, Holiday Powers, Hoor Al-Qasimi, Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, and Samia Touati.

From 2008 through today, I have encountered innumerable warm and generous people in Egypt who shared their time, their art, their archives, and their stories with me. This book is indebted to the people of the Egyptian art world. The American Research Center in Egypt provided me with a fellowship and helped build scholarly and research connections, thanks to Djodi Deutsch, Jane Smythe, and Madame Amira. My Egyptian mentor, Yasser Mongy, and his wife, Eman Ali, provided the essential art world connections that form the basis of this book. I am truly grateful for their kindness and the many, many cappuccinos at Simonds on 26th of July Street. I am grateful to Hussam Rashwan and Sherwet Shafei for their expansive generosity with their knowledge and art collections. Many thanks to Khaled Sourour, Ahmed Abdelfattah, and Mai Eldib for their generous assistance in securing the cover image for this book. Many thanks also to Lina Osama and Radwa Fouda for their years of friendship, and to Khaled Hafez for welcoming me into his studio with a cardamom coffee. My research in Cairo also intersected with Lara Ayad, Clare Davies, Libby Miller, Dina Ramadan, Nagla Rizk, and Jessica Winegar, and I am grateful to them for sharing resources over the years.