On 19 January 1939, Art et Liberté was officially formed in Cairo around Georges Henein and a circle that included Cairo Surrealists such as Kamel el-Telmissany and Ramses Younan, alongside anarchist and Marxist intellectuals. The founding followed the group's December 1938 manifesto, Vive L'Art Dégénéré!, which deliberately reclaimed the Nazi slur 'degenerate art' as a badge of artistic freedom. The group linked Egyptian modernism to international Surrealism while opposing fascism, colonial nationalism, academic conservatism, and narrow definitions of national style. Its later exhibitions of 'Free' or 'Independent' art created an alternative platform for painting, sculpture, photography, and literature in wartime Cairo.
The group became a key bridge between Egyptian modernism and international Surrealist anti-fascist networks.