Moroccan Modernism

Holiday Powers is an assistant professor of art history at VCUarts Qatar. Her work has appeared in Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, the Journal of North African Studies, and in numerous book chapters.

Morocco's distinctive historical composition and its location have led to the development of its art in ways that speak to African, Amazigh, Arab, and European frameworks of modernity. Holiday Powers investigates modernism in Morocco as a national and transnational project framed by cosmopolitan experiences and Third World and Arab nationalist debates. This deeply researched and persuasively argued study will undoubtedly establish itself as a definitive reference work on the subject. - Iftikhar Dadi, author of Modernism and the Art of Muslim South Asia A refreshing and remarkable addition to the discourse on modernism as a global movement rooted in local discourses. Holiday Powers situates Moroccan modernism as a process that unfolded against local art and politics in active dialogue with the rest of the world and contextualizes the celebrated artists of the Casablanca School within a framework of transnational connections and defiance at pivotal moments of postcolonial and pan-Arab solidarities. A must-read! - Nada M. Shabout, author of Modern Arab Art: Formation of Arab Aesthetics