Eigner’s preface provides a bittersweet autobiographical overview of Arab and Iranian culture over the past few decades. “During my childhood,” Eigner who was born in 1963 writes, “the Arab world — particularly the capital cities of Beirut, Cairo and Baghdad — was experiencing an exciting engagement with the arts, infused with a dose of pan-Arab nationalism.” Unfortunately, this period didn’t last long and by the early 1970s, the Middle East was mired in conflict, with culture relegated to the back seat in the Arabic-speaking countries (meanwhile Iran, which has a long history of artistic practices, continued to produce outstanding works of literature, cinema and art. Its Museum of Modern Art, unrivaled in the region, was opened in 1977 and contains a number of works by leading Western artists). But after being mostly dormant for some two decades, several Arab cities were swept by a wave of cultural revivals starting in the 1990s. Today, as was the case in earlier times, Beirut and Cairo helm the Arabic cultural comeback. But the Gulf States are also playing an important role, providing much-needed arts patronage to Arab artists at home and elsewhere.
     While The Art of the Middle East features artists who are regularly shown in the US and have gallery representations here — such as the Lebanese Walid Raad, the Iranian Shirin Neshat, and the Egyptian Ghada Amer — and some of those who have appeared in the few group shows on Arab art in New York (most notably the Queens Museum’s Tarjama/Translation from last September), many of those included are not recognizable names.