The Museum of Modern Egyptian Art (Arabic: متحف الفن المصرى الحديث) is Cairo, Egypt's main modern art museum. It holds collections of early 20th-century contemporary art pioneers, including Mahmoud Said, Ragheb Ayad, Gazbeya Sirry, and Abdel Hadi Al-Gazzar, among others. The museum was inaugurated in 1927 and is part of the National Cultural Centre, located in the former fair grounds of Zamalek on Gezira Island, across from the Cairo Opera House.
History
The museum was established in 1927 by royal decree. It is owned and operated by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture. The institution is situated within the Gezira Exhibition Grounds in the Zamalek district of central Cairo.
Collections
The museum holds more than 13,000 paintings and sculptures that document the development of the Egyptian art movement from the early 20th-century pioneers through to contemporary artists. The collection includes permanent and temporary exhibits featuring works by renowned Egyptian artists such as:
- Mahmoud Sa'id
- Ragheb Ayad
- Mohammed Naghi
- Gazbia Sirry
- Inji Aflatoun
- Tahia Halim
- Abdel Hadi Al-Gazzar
- Ahmad Sabri
- Laila Ezzat
- Ahmed Morsi
- Ibrahim Mohammed Khalil
- Georges Al-Sabbagh
- George Bahgoury
- Salah Abdel-Karim
- Adam Henein
- Abdel-Badie Abdel-Hay
- Mahmoud Moussa
- Hamed Abdallah
Notable individual works include Mahmoud Mukhtar's bronze sculpture Bride of the Nile and Mahmoud Said's painting Al Madina (The City, 1937).
Location
The museum is located in the Zamalek district on Gezira Island, Cairo, within the grounds of the former Gezira Exhibition Grounds, adjacent to the Cairo Opera House complex.
Related Institutions
A separate modern art institution, the Museum of Modern Art in Egypt, is located in Port Said, near the confluence of the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea.
