Glenn Lowry | In Between Places: Contemporary Art and the Middle East

For nearly 20 years, art historian Glenn Lowry has directed New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the most influential modern art museum in the world. He came to MoMA as an acclaimed specialist in Islamic art. Lowry returns to his scholarly roots for this lecture. Contemporary art in the Middle East can be seen variously as the continuation of the historical tradition of Islamic Art or as a radical break with the past, as a market driven phenomenon fueled by the wealth of a new Gulf-based clientele, or a searing critique of the social and political conditions of the Middle East created by diasporic artists who have been stripped of their sense of home. Lowry will explore how such artists as Wael Shawky, Shirin Nishat, Walid Raad, Rania Stephan, and Shahzia Sikander navigate highly charged issues through film-making, photography, painting, and animation.