logo-oibr
  • OIB
    • About
    • News & Analysis
    • Director's Yearly Address
      • Vorwort des Direktors 2024
      • Director’s Address 2024
      • Vorwort des Direktors 2023
      • Director’s Address 2023
      • Director's Address 2022
      • Vorwort zum Jahresbericht 2022
    • Advisory board
    • Josef-van-Ess-Memorial-Lecture
    • Annual Reports
    • Newsletter
    • In the Media
    • Gallery
  • Events
  • Library
    • About
      • Library Team
      • History
    • OIB Catalogues
      • GoTriple
      • OPAC
      • IPAC
    • Repositories & databases
    • Online registration
    • Collection
    • OIB Library Regulations
  • Research
    • Current projects
      • The Japanese Red Army in Lebanon: Solidarity, Militancy, and Transregional Connectivity (Claudia Derichs)
      • Catastrophe, Memory & Critique
      • The ABC of Abū Bakr al-Shanawānī (d. 1610). Arabic letter semiotics on the threshold of modern times (Berenike Metzler)
      • Discourses on Statehood in Iraq (Christian Thuselt)
      • Decolonization, Cold War and the Rise of Authoritarianism in the Middle East (Carol Hakim)
      • A Literary History of Arab Futures: Enlightenment, Ruins, and Dystopia (Zeina Halabi)
      • Kant and the Non-European: Critique, Justice and Freedom
      • Global Weimar – Global Nahda (Princeton University and Orient-Institut Beirut Cooperation)
      • Critical Theory from the Global South: New Perspectives from Beirut (Sami Khatib)
      • Women and religion in post-conflict societies (Stephanie Dornschneider-Elkink)
      • From Arabic to Latin: Moving sciences of music around the Mediterranean (Rosy Azar Beyhom)
      • Abrahamic Interdependence - Relationship of the Islamic to the Jewish in Marital Law (Ahmed M. F. Abd-Elsalam)
      • Lebanon’s Art World at Home and Abroad: Trajectories of artists and artworks in/from Lebanon since 1943 (LAWHA) (Nadia von Maltzahn)
      • The New Testament quotations in Ibrahim al-Biqāʿīs (st. 1480) commentary on the Koran (Thomas Würtz)
      • BALANCE AS JUSTICE: DECONSTRUCTION OF PREMODERN ETHICS ON THE BASIS OF ḲINĀLĪZĀDE ꜤALĪ ÇELEBĪ’S AKHLĀḲ-I ꜤALĀ’Ī (FATIH ERMIŞ)
      • From Copying to Burning the Qur’an: Creating Models & Transposing Sacrality (Alya Karame)
      • Living in Limbo (Sarah El Bulbeisi)
      • Escape to Europe: Comparative Refugee Imaginaries (Markus Schmitz)
    • Previous projects
      • Cultural Policies in Lebanon: Cultural Institutions between State and Society (Nadia von Maltzahn)
      • Fictio Statis (Pierre France)
      • The Lebanese Intifada of October 17: Perspectives from Within (Birgit Schäbler)
      • Relations in the Ideoscape: Middle Eastern Students in the Eastern Bloc (1950's to 1991) (Birgit Schäbler)
      • Europe and the Middle East (Birgit Schäbler)
      • Picturing the (Un)Dead: Reflections and Deconstructions of Lebanese and Iranian "Martyrs" in Contemporary Photo-Related Art-Practices (Agnes Remeder)
      • Hierarchical Rationality of Religious Beliefs System in Islamic and Christian Theology (Qodratullah Qorbani)
      • The inimitability of the Qur’ān (i‘jāz al-qur’ān) in transconfessional contexts of the early ῾Abbāsid period (Hans-Peter Pökel)
      • Cultural Mobilities and Political Spaces (Christopher Bahl)
      • Al-Qadi al-Fadil (Stefan Leder)
      • Bedouin Syria (Johann Büssow)
      • Borrowing and lending (Jonathan Kriener, Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
      • Clergy and conflict management (Thomas Scheffler)
      • Higher Education and Citizenship in Egypt (Daniele Cantini)
      • History Writing at Lebanese Universities (Jonathan Kriener)
      • Knowledge in postgraduate studies (Daniele Cantini)
      • Mamâlik – Spatial Dynamics of Islamic Polities (Kurt Franz)
      • Media culture transformation (Hanan Badr)
      • Museums in Dialogue with the Future (Felicia Meynersen)
      • Political slogans (Nader Srage)
      • Political thought (Stefan Leder)
      • Rural societies in an age of urbanisation (Astrid Meier)
      • S.C.R.I.P.T. - Source Companion for the Research on Islamic Political Thought (Stefan Leder)
      • Talking about art – aesthetic reflection in Egypt and Lebanon (Monique Bellan)
      • Tracing an author’s library (Torsten Wollina)
      • A Literal World: Perceiving the World as a Linguistic Construction before the Emergence of the Metaphor in Arabo-Islamic Thought (Abdallah Soufan)
      • Open Arabic Periodical Editions (OpenArabicPE) (Till Grallert)
      • “Women on the streets!: a genealogy of food riots in the Middle East between the 18th and 20th centuries“ (Till Grallert)
    • OIB Seminar Series
      • Theory & Method Seminar (Zeina Halabi) By invitation only
      • The OIB Colloquium (Fatih Ermis)
      • The Lebanese-Syrian Studies Colloquium (Carol Hakim)
      • The Egyptian Studies Lecture Series (Carol Hakim)
      • The Hans-Robert Roemer Fellow Lecture Series (Jens Hanssen)
      • The OIB-LAfOS Annual Lecture On Lebanese-Ottoman Studies (Jens Hanssen)
      • The Annual Joseph-Van-Ess Lecture (Jens Hanssen)
  • People
    • OIB Team
      • Directorate
      • Administration
      • Library
      • IT
      • Publications
      • Research Associates
      • Cairo Office
      • Fellows-in-Residence
      • Technical Staff
    • Academic Visitors
      • Hans Robert Roemer Fellow
      • Affiliated Researchers
      • Fellows-at-large
      • Journalists-in-Residence
    • LAWHA Team
    • Alumni
  • Publications
    • BI · Bibliotheca Islamica
      • About BI
      • Recent Issues
      • Full List
    • BTS · Beiruter Texte und Studien
      • About BTS
      • Recent Issues
      • Full List
    • OIS · Orient Institut Studies
      • About OIS
      • Recent Issues
      • Full List
    • OIB Blog
    • Extra Series
      • About
      • Recent Issues
      • Full List
    • Latest Publications
  • Academic Support
    • Calls & Grants
      • Call for Early-Career Fellows of the Vienna Center for Advanced Studies (ViCAS)
      • The ERC project KNOW: Polymathy and Interdisciplinarity in Premodern Islamic Epistemic Cultures (1200–1800) invites proposals for its first international workshop
      • Call for papers – Aid Networks and Mechanisms in a Migratory Context: Europe and the Middle East (1945-1970) – Deadline: 30 June 2025
      • Call for applications for a fully funded PhD fellowship at Ghent University
      • الذكرى المئوية للثورة السورية الكبرى (١٩٢٥-٢٠٢٥) في Maison méditerranéenne des sciences de l’homme (MMSH), Aix-en-Provence
      • Call for Papers: The Making of the Lebanese Working Class, Historical Materialism, London Conference, November 2025
      • A workshop on editing Arabic texts in manuscripts organised by Farouk Jabre Center for Arabic & Islamic Science & Philosophy
      • Call for applications for the international Senior Fellowship Programme of the College for Social Sciences and Humanities, an Institute for Advanced Study based in Essen (Germany) that is part of the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr)
      • Junior social scientists working on MENA region – deadline: 4 May 2025
      • Associate Senior Lecturer in History (Middle Eastern) – Lund University
      • CALL FOR PAPERS for the Symposium ARAB-GERMAN RELATIONS IN THE MIRROR OF HISTORY
      • استكتاب للمشاركة في ندوة العلاقات العربية-الألمانية في مرآة التاريخ
      • Call for papers: Diasporas, Exiles, Migrants, and Refugees from Europe in the Middle East and North Africa in the 19th and 20th Centuries. A workshop held on July 8-10, 2025, at the Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin, Germany
      • IEG Fellowship - The Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz call for applications for one fellowship starting in September 2025. Application Deadline: April 14, 2025
      • Faculty vacancy announcement – The City University of New York Faculty Open Rank - Open Rank, Palestinian Studies Cluster Hire/ Art & Humanities
      • Call for Proposals for a conference on the Lebanese Civil War on the 50th anniversary of its outbreak
      • B2B - Call for Papers - Orient-Institut Istanbul
      • Call for submissions: Palestine Studies, German Studies: Special issue of The German Quarterly
      • Call for Applications: Why Location Matters: Research in the Arab World | دعوة إلى تقديم الطلبات: أهمّية مواقع الأبحاث في العالم العربي
      • Stellvertretender Direktor(in)
      • Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter(in) (German version)
      • Research Associate positions
      • Bibliotheksleiter(in)
      • MESA/ACSS/OIB Call for applications
      • Call for applications: MECAM Fellowship Programme 2025-2026
      • Call for applications: Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunity for Researchers (f/m/d) From Palestine and Lebanon
      • Call for applications: Khaled al-Asaad Solidarity Funds for researchers in danger
      • Call for Papers International and Interdisciplinary Conference: "Philosophy and Poetry in Islamic Contexts"
      • Call for applications: PhD position at the ERC-KNOW
      • Call for applications: Postdoc position at the ERC-KNOW
      • Call for the Winter School "Reading and Analysing Ottoman Manuscript Sources,” March 17-21, 2025, Rethymno, Institute for Mediterranean Studies/FORTH, deadline December 15, 2024
      • MECAM Traveling Academy for 2024-2025
      • Link zum Call for Sessions (in englischer und deutscher Sprache)
      • ACSS-FMSH Short-Term Postdoctoral Mobility Fellowship Program in the Social Sciences and Humanities, deadline: Dec 09, 2024
      • Call for applications: Scholarship for Lebanon and Turkey-based researchers for the project "Removal Infrastructures for Syrians in Lebanon and Turkey," deadline: 19/06/2024
      • Call for applications: 12 Doctoral Positions at the graduate program "Post-Eurocentric Europe: Narratives of a World Province in Transformation” at the Department of Literature, Art and Media studies of the University of Konstanz, deadline: 30/06/2024
      • Resident scholar program for Lebanon-based and Lebanese scholars at the Finnish Institute in the Middle East
      • Marie Curie Fellowships
      • ACSS Early Career Fellowships
      • Gerald D. Feldman travel grants
    • Vacancies
      • Residential Postdoctoral Fellowships
      • Residential Doctoral Fellowships
      • OIB Research Relief Fellowships 2022/2023
    • Academic Visitors
      • Affiliated Researchers
      • Fellows-at-large
      • Journalists-in-Residence
      • Hans Robert Roemer Fellow
    • Praktika/Interships
      • OIB-Praktika 2025 (German version)
      • OIB Internships 2025 (English version)
    • Guest rooms
Back to Events

The Art Salon in the Arab Region: Politics of Taste Making (BTS 132)

Book Launch and Presentation

Nadia von Maltzahn and Monique Bellan (OIB)

Sursock Museum, Salon Arabe, Level 1 | Sursock Museum Store

January, 12 to January 13, 2019

12 /01
to
13 /01

 

In cooperation with the Sursock Museum

 

Nadia von Maltzahn and Monique Bellan (OIB)

 

 

 

Join us for the book launch of BTS 132: The Art Salon in the Arab Region: Politics of Taste Making (Beirut: Orient-Institut Beirut 2018), edited by Nadia von Maltzahn and Monique Bellan.

 

To mark the book launch, the editors will present the book at 4pm. This publication builds up on a conference organized in cooperation with the Sursock Museum in October 2017, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.

 

The volume discusses the emergence and role of the art salon in the Arab region in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing on Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq. Institutional forms of exhibiting and teaching art emerged in the Middle East and North Africa in late colonial and early post-colonial contexts. The book examines how the salon had an impact on the formation of taste and on debates on art, and discusses the transfers and cultural interactions between the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. Following the institutional model of the Paris salons, art salons emerged in Algiers, Tunis and Cairo starting in the late 1880s. In Beirut, the salon tradition reached its peak only after independence in the mid-twentieth century. Baghdad never had a formal salon, but alternative spaces and exhibition formats developed in Iraq from the late 1940s onwards. As in Paris, the salons in the region often defined the criteria of artistic production and public taste. The impact of the salon also lay in its ability to convey particular values, attitudes and aspirations. At the same time, the values and attitudes promoted by the salon were often subject to debate, which led to the creation of counter-salons or alternative exhibition practices. The art salon helps us to understand changes in the art systems of these countries, including the development of art schools, exhibition spaces and artist societies, and gives insight into the power dynamics at play. It also highlights networks and circulations between the Arab region and Europe.

 

Authors: Amin Alsaden, Monique Bellan, Catherine Cornet, Nancy Demerdash-Fatemi, Jessica Gerschultz, Nadia von Maltzahn, Alain Messaoudi, Camilla Murgia, Maria-Mirka Palioura, Nadia Radwan 

 

Nadia von Maltzahn is the Deputy Director of the Orient-Institut Beirut (OIB).

Monique Bellan is Research Associate at the OIB.

Both are interested in artistic practices and the circulation of knowledge.

 

 

Image caption: Visitors at the 7th Salon d’Automne, Sursock Museum, 1967–1968. Courtesy of the Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock Museum.

    • footer logo
    • footer log2
    • DATA PROTECTION DISCLAIMER
    • SITEMAP
    • IMPRESSUM
    • Rue Hussein Beyhoum 44
      Zokak el-Blat
    • +9611359423
    • sek@orient-institut.org

Follow us:

© 2025, OIB All Right Reserved / OIB Alle Rechte vorbehalten.