At the dawn of the 20th century, Egypt awakened to a national struggle for its independence and cultural identity. The arts and architecture of the formative Egyptian modern nation-state were designed in the context of the political struggles and crises, which took place throughout the twentieth century, and reflected the intellectual discourse seeking to design and produce the new Egyptian modern culture. The course will trace the prominent artistic genres in Egyptian modern art scene, beginning with the establishing of the School of Fine Arts (Madrasat al-Fanun al-Gamila) in 1908; through the appearance of figurative and realistic sculpture of the 1920s and early 1930s; the establishing of La Chimère in 1927 and the formation of the National Style; the formation of the Egyptian Surrealism movement in the late 1930s, and finally the social expressionism of the 1950s, in the context of the Free Officers Revolution of 1952, and the rise of Gamal Abd al-Nasser to power. We will conclude the course with a discussion of contemporary street art in Cairo, following the January 25 Revolution of 2011.