Muscat: Artists of the Sultanate of Oman are taking part in an art exhibition, which is a landmark historical survey of twentieth century modern art movements across the Arabian Peninsula, collectively known in Arabic as the “Khaleej.”
It traces the region’s ‘pre-boom era’ of the twentieth century through 2008 and examines the evolution of visual art movements as the discovery of oil began to transform the region. It delves into the shifting understanding of public and private spaces and their relationship to national identity as expressed through art practices.
Abdulkarim al Bosta, Abdulkarim al Orrayed, Abdulqader al Rais, Abdulhalim al Radwi, Abdullah al Qassar, Abdullah al Saadi, Abdullah al Shaikh, Abdulrahman Alsoliman, Ahmed Qassim al Sunni, Ali Mohamed al Mahmeed, Anwar Sonya, Budoor al Riyami, Ebtisam Abdulaziz, Hassan Meer, Hassan Sharif, Hussain Qassim al Sunni, Ibrahim Ismail, Issa Saqer al Khalaf, Khalid Albudoor, Khalifa Qattan, Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, Mohammed Ahmed Rasim, Mohammed al Saleem, Mohammed Kazem, Mojib al Dosari, Moosa Omar, Mounirah Mosly, Munira al Kazi, Najat Makki, Nasser al Yousif, Nujoom Alghanem, Rashid bin Abdulrahman al Balushi, Rashid al Oraifi, Safeya Binzagr, Sami Mohammed, Thuraya al Baqsami, Yousef Ahmad, and Yousef Khalil are among the participants.
Curated by art historian Dr Aisha Stoby, the show will run from September 6 to December 11 at the art gallery of New York University in Abu Dhabi. According to Stoby, many of the works in this exhibition will be on view for the first time in decades, and it is a genuine privilege and honour to have been invited to bring this work to a wider audience. “Enhanced by the presence of rare and archival material, Khaleej Modern creates a space and offers resources for learning and re-understanding our own histories. More broadly, we hope the exhibition will contribute to wider regional and global understandings of modern visual art”, she said.
This project responds to emerging debates around recent art narratives, towards a more nuanced and inclusive appreciation of global art histories. “It has been incredible to be a part of this project and to see the artworks of these pioneering artists brought together for the first time”, she added.
For Khaleej Modern, Dr Stoby traces local art histories contextualised by deeply rooted traditions, the ongoing modernisation process and evolving national identities. Foregrounding the importance of community and early art institutions, the exhibition brings to life the curator’s research on the artistic pioneers and collectives that sprang up in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, beginning with the first exhibition of Kuwait’s Al Mubarakiya School in 1941.
While Oman’s participation takes a considerable step in bringing Omani art to international audiences, Stoby’s curatorial approach focuses on the historical presence of conceptual art in Oman, particularly the work of the local artist collective The Circle.
Saudi Arabia’s modern art community began as early as 1938 with Mohammed Racim (1911-1974) in Jeddah, and some of the artists in the exhibition include Mounirah Mosly, Safeya Binzagr, Abdulhalim al Radwi and Abdullah al Shaikh. The Saudi House of Fine Arts in Riyadh, meanwhile, included to works by Mohammed al Saleem and Abdulrahman Alsoliman. By the 1950s, Bahrain’s Manama Group had formed (Abdulkarim al Orrayed, Nasser al Yousif and Ahmed Qassim al Sunni). In a recent interview with Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, referring to Oman’s participation in Venice Biennale, she said as a researcher for the region, she has always felt that the Gulf has suffered from marginalisation.
“I felt that the Middle East is often overlooked, and the Gulf is often overlooked within the Middle East. Even more so than that, I was really happy that Oman was given some attention”. Commenting on the exhibition, Executive Director of The NYUAD Art Gallery and University Chief Curator Maya Allison said, “An exhibition like this is quite rare, a kind of opening salvo and call to action, offering new vistas on art history and art practice in this region”. Rather than a definitive survey, this project sets us on a journey to explore the under-studied — and, for some people, unknown — the emergence of modern art in the Arabian Peninsula over the last century.
Source: Oman Observer