Illuminating the Shadow Œuvre of Mohammed Racim

The painter Mohammed Racim (1896–1975) was the best known Algerian artist of the twentieth century. His neo-traditional revival of the genre of the illuminated miniature appealed equally to French imperialists, to colonial subjects and to later generations of liberated Algerians.This book offers close readings of a series of previously unseen chromolithographic prints which the artist created on a clandestine basis in the early decades of the twentieth century. It shows how these works merit consideration as radical, modern forms of Islamic art, noteworthy not simply for the manner in which they deployed religion as a means of challenging foreign rule, but for the richness and complexity of their spiritual purpose.An affirmation of the major significance Racim's work had in shaping the modern art history, this book challenges the reader's preconceptions as to what constitutes Islamic art and the degree to which it developed in the modern period.