Social Issues and Their Representations in Contemporary Arab Art

Abstract

The study deals with social issues and their representations in contemporary Arab art, and in order to achieve the desired goals, the study included a group of axes that reviewed the history of Arab art and its handling of social and political issues, and among the most important of those issues that Arab art interacted with are: poverty, the issue of women and the dispossession of their rights, the absence of their role The study dealt with art and political issues, and how art - in its interaction with its fateful issues - played a role in shaping the collective consciousness of the Arab man about the issue of Palestine, the occupation of Iraq and the Syrian revolution. The study aimed to identify the extent of the impact of social issues on the transformation of the tools of expression of the Arab artist, and it also aimed to identify the forms of artistic styles that match the size of events and issues in the Arab world, and the sample of the study consisted of contemporary art works by each of the artists: Huda Al-Omar, Noura Bouzo Randa Maddah, Raedah Saadeh, Khaled Tarqali, Juman Al-Nimri, and Alaa Bashir. The results of the study found that the Palestinian issue, the identity crisis, the refugee issue and the woman issue are the most important social issues that the Arab artist addressed, and that the social issues related to political issues have a role in influencing the transformation of the Arab artist’s expression tools, as he is subject to the changes and developments of the era, in addition to the diversity Artistic forms and styles in plastic art in new expressive areas in styles and ideas; To express the self and the human identity in light of these issues. The study contributes to shedding light on the most important issues that the Arab human being suffers from and the cultural state that has been characterized by it, and also contributes to clarifying the forms of artistic expression in the topics I dealt with.