Egypt’s modern art was formed in the background of independence wars, leftist ideology, and nationalist sentiments during the 1920s to 1960s. Modern Egyptian artists were looking for native, national, and Egyptian art so that they could depict the wholeness of Egypt through it. Contrary to the idea that modern art is a western and European phenomenon, artists from non-western countries such as Egypt have achieved important experiences in local, national, and non-western artistic modernism. However, in modern art historiography, these experiences are often ignored and given less attention. In this article, we will address these questions: How was Egyptian artistic modernism formed? How did Egyptian nationalism affect the national and Egyptian artistic movements? What experiences did the artists achieve in Egypt? To answer these questions, the historical research method is used to draw an inferential process of the evolution of modern Egyptian art by collecting the documents and studying the available sources. The purpose of this research is to investigate the formation of modern art in Egypt as a non-western country and the shedding light on political, social, and cultural nationalism in that country. The current research was done qualitatively and descriptively and analytically using the historical research method.
The results of the research showed that three sub-currents should be distinguished in Egyptian nationalism and artists influenced by these three currents reflecting different experiences of modern Egyptian art. Including 1. Cultural nationalism: archaic and historicist (like the works of Mahmoud Mokhtar), 2. Social nationalism: localist and landscape (like the works of Ragheb Ayad), 3. Political nationalism: expressive and socialist (like the works of Abd al-Hadi Al-Jar). Examining the artists’ works indicated their efforts in shaping local and national artistic modernism. These experiences of Egyptian artists inspired many artists in the Arab world during the years 1920 to 1960.