Reissue of a primordial work in the history of the art of the countries of North Africa and West Asia, a major reflection on the artistic currents of the Arab world in the 20th century which responds more than ever, thirty years after its first publication, to the need to decolonize the knowledge.
Silvia Naef was a full professor at the Arabic Studies Section of the University of Geneva from 2006 to 2025, where she obtained her Ph.D. in 1993 with a thesis on modern art in the Arab world (published in 1996). As a postdoctoral scholar, she worked on Shia in Iraq and Lebanon and their relation to left-wing ideologie. Her researches focus on modern art, visual representations and images, as well as in gender issues in the Arab and Islamic world.
