From the collection of Barjeel Art Foundation, the exhibition showcases an elite group of Arab contemporary artists such as Margeurite Nakhla, Saad Al Khadem, Mona Saudi, Ibrahim Salahi, Habib Srour, Ezekiel Baroukh, Elias Zayat, Faik Hasan, Khalil Gibran, George Hanna Sabbagh, Abdelhadi Al Gazzar, Abdul Kadir Al Rassam, Huguette Caland, Hatem ElMekki, Clea Badaro, Ervand Demerjian, Kamel Mostafa, Paul Guiragossian, Louay Kayyali, Abdullah Al Qassar, Ahmed Nesha’at Al Zuaby and Mohammed Nagi
Enquiry into the training and exposure artists from North Africa and West Asia received at the turn of the 20th century, as well as ways in which it impacted their practice and outlook towards representation drove the selection of works for this exhibition. Changing social and political milieu during this time, layered with the artists’ academic backgrounds and travel histories played into the shifting methods and strategies employed to tackle familiar subjects
This exhibition addresses these fluctuations and evolving stances on depiction through arguably two of the most long-established genres in the history of art – that of representing people and places. While certainly not complete or presented as an unbroken developmental continuum, this compilation of work drawn from the collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation demonstrates a number of common directions and highlights milestones and patterns in the evolution of techniques, methodologies, and reasons for depicting bodies and landscapes in changing contexts. From a naturalistic representation of subjects, to the flattening out of space and subsequent experiments with different degrees of abstraction, always coupled with the artists’ subjective observation and understanding of the world, these works reveal the breadth of the spectrum of influences, interests and investigations carried out in the region in the 20th century
About Barjeel Art Foundation
Barjeel Art Foundation is an independent, UAE-based initiative established to manage, preserve and exhibit an extensive collection of Modern and Contemporary Arab Art. The foundation’s guiding principle is to contribute to the intellectual development of the art scene in the Arab region by building a prominent, publicly accessible art collection in the UAE. Part of this objective involves developing a public platform to foster critical dialogue around contemporary art practices with a focus on artists with Arab heritage internationally. The foundation strives to create an open-ended inquiry that responds to and conveys the nuances inherent to Arab histories beyond borders of culture and geography. By hosting in-house exhibitions, lending artwork to international forums, producing print and online publications, and fashioning interactive public programs, the foundation strives to serve as an informative resource for contemporary art by Arab artists both locally and on the global stage. In addition to building an informative database of artists, the foundation is seeking to develop an educational program that both understands and involves the local community. By establishing partnerships with arts and cultural institutions internationally, the foundation looks to create opportunities to encourage public awareness of the importance of art to the community
