The Samawi Collection Curated Selections of Arab Art Volume 1

The Samawi Collection Curated selections of Arab art Volume 1 ayyam gallery The Samawi Collection Curated selections of Arab art Volume 1 ayyam gallery Texts by Maymanah Farhat ISBN 978-9933-9089-1-1 Published by Ayyam Gallery on the occasion of the exhibition "The Samawi Collection" at ayyam art center|dubai in 2011 Text: Maymanah Farhat (English) & Talal Moualla (Arabic) General design & photography: Nassouh Zaghlouleh © All rights reserved 2011 The Art (History) of Collecting Art patronage in the Middle East has existed for thousands of years-since the Fertile Crescent gave birth to the world’s first civilizations. In ancient times, artisans and architects created artworks and monuments that spoke of the glory of rulers and the flourishing of cultures. This gave way to the formation of aesthetics and the fashioning of complex visual languages that marked every facet of life. Advancements in technology and the improvement of techniques led to the sustained progress of artistic approaches over centuries and throughout the rise and fall of dynasties, empires, colonies and regimes. With the rapid spread of Islam from the Arabian Peninsula throughout the Levant, North Africa, Asia and Europe, art continued to be critical to the defining of spiritual, political and cultural realities. From its modest beginnings in Mecca and Medina, where the earliest plans of mosques were executed during the time of the Prophet Mohammad, to the grandiose structures of the Ottoman Empire, the impact of art patronage was realized in the development of visual culture. This has been carried on through countless elements of the modern Middle East, as the fashioning of Arab society has frequently been felt through the building of its cultural patrimony. Behind these developments have been individuals who commissioned, supported and encouraged breakthroughs in art. Although the collecting of art in the region as it stands in its current manifestation has its roots in the Ottoman Empire, the widespread use of easel painting in the Arab world was seen under colonialism, with artists in Egypt, Lebanon and Syria regularly creating commissioned portraits or landscapes. In Palestine the art of Christian iconography and the studios of artists from which paintings could be purchased were equally important during this time. The use of professional photography in a similar manner became a local art form in the Middle East at the end of the nineteenth century. The process of collecting changed as modernism spread throughout the region by the 1960s and artists gained greater creative freedom. The prevalence of works that sprung from independent explorations brought on a new dimension to the acquiring of art, prompting patrons to reexamine the ways in which they amassed collections. Concurrently, art became increasingly drawn to the political arena while artists began to express the Arab world’s teetering social currents. Despite its often-challenging content, this type of work was not only met with great enthusiasm from audiences, it became essential to private and public collections. Today’s art patronage reflects the range of this history. Official initiatives and collections are changing the face of local society in myriad ways, while a growing number of private collectors and an increased interest in the region’s culture are encouraging (and making it financially feasible for) artists to chart new ground at an unprecedented rate. Overall, this fairs well for the grounding of the Middle Eastern art scene even further, in both its creative growth and its market, as artists are supported in their individual practices. More often than not, these collections come with a distinct vision, be it based on specific tastes in art or larger intentions for the assemblage of works. Fundamentally, the act of curating is intrinsic to the art of collecting. The forty-seven works that makeup the four part exhibition “The Samawi Collection: Curated Selections of Arab Art” represent some of the region’s most prominent artists, beginning with its modernist masters and ending with its recent trendsetters. Although divided into distinct themes, three critical views are offered. Organized according to two separate time periods, (1960 – 2000) and (2001 – 2010), “Then What?” examines the ways in which artists have responded to the inescapable effects of a politicized reality. Several of the examples that are featured in the second half of this segment were commissioned by Khaled Samawi, the founding partner of Ayyam Gallery, after the 2008 Israeli bombardment of Gaza, an attack that left over one thousand Palestinian civilians dead and thousands more displaced. “Looking Forward” proceeds from the recent experiments that are hinted at in “Then What? (2001 – 2010)” with over a dozen paintings by artists who are currently redefining Middle Eastern art. “A Tribute to Samia Halaby” provides an in-depth look at a seminal figure whose fifty-year career has traversed many of the threads that have shaped contemporary Arab art. As an overview of the countless aesthetics, experiments, narratives and subjects that have dominated regional visual culture since the 1960s, “The Samawi Collection” expounds the importance of championing their contributions. The Samawi Collection Curated selections of Arab art Volume 1 6 Then What 1960 - 2000 Of Poets and Men: Allegory, Reality and Abstraction as Intersections of Art and Politics Since emerging from the furrows of colonialism during the first half of the twentieth-century, modern Arab history has been punctuated by struggles for independence (and power), the formation of nation-states (and political parties), and the carving out of collective (and independent) identities. While in the scheme of politics, narratives are written according to the accounts of the victorious and the defeated, artists have sought to provide greater nuance. Laced with the lyricism of a rich literary heritage, a deep understanding of the potency of visual culture, and the legacy of interlacing civilizations over the millennia, Arab culture has functioned as a vast tableau upon which artists have projected, deconstructed and challenged the shifting peripheries of their surroundings. Shortly after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and amidst European mandates, painters and sculptors sought to reckon with the collision of two distinct modes of representation-that driven by the imposition of colonial decrees versus a centuries-old empirical aesthetic. As World War I brought increased entanglement among international forces and European art could no longer deny the influence of non-Western cultures, modernism evolved as a global movement. Encountering this school through various channels, Arab artists began to heavily identify with its range, recognizing details of their own visual culture among the works of its masters-from the influence of ancient art to the inherent abstraction of Islamic art-while simultaneously finding alternative means of communicating their newly found position in the world. With the shedding of direct colonial rule came periods of social reckoning amidst the dawning of nations. Uncertainty loomed as European forces attempted to maintain a degree of political hold behind closed doors and Arab leaders vied for command. While the region faced an acute period of domestic instability as foreign powers continued to sustain or depose heads of state, the founding of Israel in 1948 and the preceding annexation of Palestinian lands produced catastrophic effects. Rippling through the Arab world with disastrous consequences, in many ways the establishment of the Zionist state solidified the strangulation of the Middle East by imperialist agendas. As states developed under systems of governance that were essentially put into place for imminent failure, culture became a dire asset to the masses, summoning the political vision that was needed to move forward. In the 1950s and 60s a modern renaissance occurred in which poets, writers, artists, intellectuals and activists came together in cities such as Cairo, Beirut and Baghdad. This vibrant environment inspired work that was inline with global art movements, its impact trickling down to every aspect of Arab society as the political and creative worlds engaged in intense conversation. Variations in figurative art during this time are observable in paintings by Naeem Ismael and Omar Hamdi, It was during this time that Syrian modernist pioneer Louay Kayyali painted his masterpiece “Then What?” whose canvases exhibit preoccupations with space. When contrasting the two Syrian artists, it is interesting (1965), a prophetic composition that speaks of the post-Nakba experience. Grand in scale (and in impact), its to note the generational gap that existed between them. In the mid 1970s Ismael was in the latter part of depiction of a displaced people calls to mind the mass exodus that occurred when Zionist occupiers began his influential career, while Hamdi was just emerging as a young artist. Nevertheless, Ismael’s work reflects to descend upon Palestine under the British Mandate, terrorizing inhabitants while expelling those who had contemporary techniques and Hamdi’s demonstrates a command that is usually only associated with established survived the onslaught. Culminating in one of the largest refugee populations in the world, the Nakba (or artists. Both embraced complete abstraction at some point in their careers, the evidence of which is visible in “catastrophe”) has defined many aspects of recent Middle Eastern history. The decades that followed witnessed their politically minded works. This is most apparent in how they place their subjects against backgrounds that the further seizure of Arab territory by Israeli forces during violent conflicts that drew in neighboring Lebanon, are dominated by large areas of uninterrupted color, setting their figures in contrast to moments of painterly Syria, Jordan and Egypt. That “Then What?” was painted prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli War demonstrates the abstraction that have an ominous feel, an abyss that creates an overall tension. It is this use of non-readable extent to which the cultural subset was hyper in tune with the political sphere.

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