A viewer examining path-breaking Italian paintings observes new windows that overlook the exterior gardens as well as outstanding historical figures like the prominent Egyptian leader Muhammad Ali, or architectural structures such as mosque minarets. This openness to the outside world is not only attributed to religion, politics or royalty but also to art itself, as the artist utilises art to perfectly reflect the real world.
Leonardo da Vinci stressed ‘art’ as no longer being restricted to merely a profession of craftsmanship thus transforming it into a cosa mentale or a mind-based practice. Descartes, afterwards, explained, to Père Mercenne, ‘Concerning your question whether it is possible to identify the aesthetic mind or not, it appears true that agreeable and aesthetic dimensions mean something completely different from our judgment on things. So, agreeable and aesthetic aspects have defined measures since man's judgments are markedly different.’
Eventually, art no longer remains a repeated and traditional craft, because it is governed by mental components and individual tastes, rather than simply committing to accuracy and an agreed standard of quality. This helps to link art with the individual experience, pairing it with the artist’s feelings and views. It also creates aesthetic dimensions associated with change relating to artists, communities and cultures.
The presentation of art must therefore reflect the quest and motivation of artists to imagine and create their own art. Individuality has become a critical element in determining the artistic identity and is indeed equivalent to the artist's identity above all else.
What about the displayed art collection?
For viewers, examining these art works is as easy as reading a book with pages opening at random. The works can be examined separately and singly because each one has a commendable artistic and aesthetic history and embody the artists’ exceptional, extraordinary and highly expressive experiences.
However, the artistic presentation may incorporate rare pieces in the context of the Arab contemporary arts scene. Some of the works displayed can be traced back to the 1920s (Mahmoud Said) or 1989 (Ibrahim Salahi), and may have been created through the influence of several contemporary artists as well as others who have passed away. Born in 1925, 1936, 1930 and 1939 respectively, Gazbia Sirry, Mohamed Melehi, Ibrahim Salahi, and Dia Azzawi, for example, have all been prominent figures in this world of art.
Together the work represents many different generations comparable to a rich mosaic panel. How, one wonders, can each be separately examined and inspected? For these are the works of artists employing varied styles and approaches for each presentation.
It is possible to recognise common internal connections between the innovative artistic accomplishments of Said and Sirry, Cherkaoui and Melehi, Azzawi and Fattah, and even between Kayyali and Moudarres, thus bringing them to a context with a particular and linked definition. Other connections can bring together the various stylistic interpretations of human nature, as embodied by Said, Selim, Sirry, Kayyali, Fattah, and Moudarres. Stylistic connections can be also be found in the form, script and colour scheme, as observed in the works of Cherkaoui, Al Said, Melehi, Azzawi and Salahi.
As such, the viewer is able to create networks between each work and its field of reference, as illustrated in textiles, turbans, flutes or ornate forms. Aiming to create wider networks, the viewer needs to conduct an inclusive, civilised and stylistic reading as depicted in the Arab-Islamic ornamental forms, ancient Assyrian murals, traditional artistic textiles and masks.
Representing a rich mosaic panel of multiple generations and dimensions, these artists aspired to gain a pivotal presence, much like a deep-rooted tree which ascends shining into the higher skies of art. It is for this reason that audiences at art fairs should examine and carefully inspect the art works on display, considering them as an extended scene, or separate distinct pictures, thus allowing them to create artistic networks and understand more immediate connections between them. Even so, viewers may fail to monitor what may have happened prior to creating the art work and what could lie beyond, for their focus remains on the works that they are looking at, which seem to ascend into the sky of art as glimmering distant stars.
Rather than being mere windows, the displayed art works are mirrors which reflect a simple picture. Born in Aleppo in 1934 and 1922 respectively, the contemporary artists Louay Kayyali and Fateh Moudarres met at an art fair after a long absence. Other meetings drew together the Iraqi artist Jewad Selim (born in 1921) and Shakir Hassan Al Said (born in 1926) after they both founded the Baghdad Group of Modern Art (Jama’at Baghdad lili Fen al-Hadith) in 1951. The same also applies to Ahmed Cherkaoui and Melehi who played a radical role in the arts scene in Morocco.
While the sculpture of the Iraqi artist, Ismail Fattah, may appear unique alongside paintings and drawing, its presence allows it to come into contact once again with the work of Azzawi. Here what may not be apparent in the actual display of their works is their connection in the history of art, since both of these artists had once partnered with their peers to establish artistic schools and create a vibrant artistic environment.
Inspired by their contemporaries, these artists have collectively generated influential milestones in the context of the Arab modern arts scene. This is reflected by the Baghdad Group of Modern Art, initiated by Selim and Al Said, (along with the art critic Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, the sculptor Mohamed Ghani Hikmet, and Naziha Selim), as well as the One Dimension Group, co-founded by Shakir Hassan Al Said and Azzawi (including Madiha Omar, Qutaiba al-Sheikh Nouri, Jamil Hammoudi and Rafa Nasiri). Also part of this is the Khartoum School which included Salahi (along with Ahmed Shibrain), and other leading Sudanese contemporary artists in the 1970s.
While it is true that each work is heavily influenced by the artist’s surrounding ‘environment’, each also represents different and individual themes. These themes include the countryside (Said and Kayyali), the city (Al-Said), the human figure (Selim, Moudarres, Sirry, Salahi and Fattah) and the pure form (Cherkaoui, Melehi and Azzawi). Yet such atmospheres do not just represent the varying mediums used but also reflect the artists’ experiences of interactions which helped to preserve, celebrate and express the artistic style and distinctive touch of each. For example, what seems to be a carefree image reflecting the countryside, as demonstrated in Said's work, soon changes to a flute seller’s image, loaded with anxiety, in Kayyali's painting. The work of Moudarres seems to evoke the happy, cautious, and concerned glances of a multi-faceted society, whereas Salahi's triptych integrates glances derived from faces which transform into abstract forms.
The key question that arises here is about the corresponding analogy between the artistic veil and the natural human face, as far as its geometric structure is concerned. The depiction of the human figure is quite straightforward in the two art works by Selim and Fattah; the subject appears in the former's work with unveiled expression, while the figure’s face in the latter work is completely concealed.
The corresponding analogy between the artistic veil and natural human face is manifested through their difference, but the apparent vestiges of the past and man's impressions represent signs which remain hidden and suppressed. This is evident in the ongoing dialogue between two women sitting face-to-face in Sirry’s painting. This is also evident in the language of the form as shapes seem to struggle as they intermingle in Azzawi's work, whereas Melehi's painting appears to have been injected with wavy lines which burst into a flaming fire, or ascend like a poem, while Cherkaoui seems to adopt a more intimate expression sharing a preference for colour and form, as demonstrated in his diaries.
In such a scene, the portrayal of these visualisations represent mere blinks of the eye, amidst dialogues with time. They depict the artist's exchange of phrases and notions about the social setting and surrounding conditions. The artist does not solely inspect things, but passionately responds to what is witnessed and can be expressed as aspirations. This also involves the existence of certain conditions and feelings that touch the artist from within and are smoothly recollected in a mode of expression and form, which may vanish within the structure or become apparent through colour, line, sign and symbol.
Viewers of Selim's painting can effortlessly comprehend the blending of signs which incorporate, within a single form, the artist's inspiration through the use of light and gentle brushstrokes. It is not enough to stress the need to draw inspiration from the Mesopotamian or Baghdadi heritages, unless the artist has certain artistic and aesthetic purposes which are related to constructing and remodelling local form in a contemporary context. This makes the ultimate artistic purpose limited to the personal delight embodied in the artist's ability to make additions and changes in a traditional and sequential approach combining both local and European artistic heritages.
Thus it is that an artist, like Salahi, is driven to speak about a sentimental harmony which is closer to moments of Sufism. Al Said, too, perceived this theoretically and artistically when he spoke about the ‘existential moments’ and ‘spiritual moments’, while Azzawi seemed particularly interested in expressing society’s conditions at home and in public, especially when depicting people in conditions of misery and torture. Eventually, this leads the faces in Moudarres' works to appear more obviously visible or analogous to the heads of ancient Assyrian relief sculptures, murals in Palmyra, and ancient Christian icons.
Here, however, the art work is neither a mirror nor a window, as it represents a particular presence embodied in the artist's experience, particular history, as well as the sequential artistic path. This is frequently true in such a display since each work of art has its own unique history and biography, because it is either originally extracted out of a context or represents a unique example within a previous structure, or it has garnered fame which distinguishes it as being exclusive and of outstanding value.
Generally speaking, artists can through their interactions mirror the real essence materialised in their exhibited works. This is because their accomplishments are part of a well-defined history, having been acquired by prominent collectors. They will also have come to be renowned through other means such as magazines and front covers (Iraqi artist Jewad Selim), book covers (the modernist painter Melehi), art-fair guides (Al Said), or they may have gained extensive artistic admiration (Said).
Other art works, however, can also acquire prominent positions when connected to the production of the aforementioned artists. This notion is materialised with Al Said whose drawing belongs to the Wall paintings collection, which achieved a strong artistic shift starting from the 1970s, and had a crucial impact on many Iraqi and Arab artists. The same applies to the paintings of Azzawi, who tackles the Iraqi-Kurdish struggle that was absent in the art of photography, which he personally experienced during his military service in the north of Iraq. Azzawi displayed the painting at a fair in Baghdad before he finally settled in London.
Such works firmly establish certain relationships which surpass the artists' experience and reunite them within artistic paths or aesthetic, stylistic and artistic networks—reflected in summaries of modern and contemporary art history.
Here, the viewer can make an inclusive and stylistic reading which demonstrates the multiplicity and difference of the works displayed, reflecting the rich artistic experiences of some of the art works dating from about a century ago. The viewer is also able to make readings which display the connection and also the disconnection between these experiences. Thus, colours, shapes and symbols witness dialogues that make them extend and split or even open novel tracks. For example, the dialogue seems veiled between Selim and Al Said, but is explicit between Said and Sirry.
Dating back to 1971, the pioneering sculptor Fattah’s work entitled A Tribute to Picasso highlights the strong relationships established by him with other artists who adopted certain approaches in the field of fine art. Amongst others, this includes the artistic interaction between Fattah, Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti; Jewad Selim and Cubist artists; Shakir Hassan Al Said and Antonio Tàpies; Mohamed Melehi and the American School.
However, what the viewer attempting to thoroughly analyse is observing is the relationship which the art work establishes between material aspects and its resource. This is what Selim, Al Said and Sirry aspire to achieve, while Melehi, Salahi and Azzawi create works according to intricate techniques that aim to conceal more than they reveal.
Said needed to move out of his artistic community so he could follow the Impressionists' footsteps. He sat down, putting his painting holder in front of him, and started to carefully examine and portray different aspects of culture such as the plough, the cultivation and tillage of land as well as its scenery.
With Sirry and Selim, this act of sitting becomes an internal scene as if observing a picture through a keyhole. Fattah creates a sculpture of a man who stands on his fragile feet, whereas Kayyali's painting portrays the flute seller’s image as a cinematic shot, where the figure of the peddler comes closer to the artist. Moudarres, Al Said, Melehi and Azzawi executed their works by standing in front of the picture plane, just as if it were a wide wall or paper, and Cherkaoui and Salahi have chosen to use paper to depict the human body, separating it into abstract geometric and circular forms.
To create the work, the artist employs certain tools based on different methods and by observing the subject from different viewpoints— standing, sitting, near or faraway—using various media (canvas, paper, bronze) to become a veteran designer, painter and colourist.
Some of these art works seem quite rare, especially those related to outstanding later artists such as Selim, Said and Al Said. These works are now growing in value in the art market. It is enough to explore the names of former collectors of some of the displayed art works, such as Said's, to conclude that the works of contemporary Arab artists have been acquired and traded for many decades now, and especially in the last twenty years after many GCC countries and institutions are starting to establish museums, galleries and art groups, and many Western galleries have been positively impacted by this shift.
While many Chinese, Russian, and Indian art collectors have also robustly entered the art market recently, many contemporary artists have played a crucial role in the art scene, asserting their growing presence in London, Paris, New York and Abu Dhabi among other places.
Taking a closer look at important works of art acquired by major international museums, especially in London and Paris, reveals a growing tendency towards buying outstanding art and also the establishment of new galleries. The Centre Georges Pompidou has, for example, acquired a work by Melehi, while the Tate Modern recently unveiled a rare epic drawing by Dia Azzawi, depicting the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Indeed, many work by Melehi and Salahi have been displayed in exhibitions and auctions around the world, while one of Moudarres' paintings achieved a record-breaking price at an important auction of modern art in Dubai.
The exhibited works are mostly of small sizes and employ different materials which reflect expressions and forms related to ancient times, and retain the everlasting allure and glitter of art. Walter Benjamin has spoken about the glamour quotient which surrounds art over time, stressing that the influencing impact of art is no more than a picture in a book or a simple fair guide, and viewing authentic art works may gain them great importance or make no sense at all.
The value of art is therefore not abstract since it is restricted to the artistic elements we aspire to carefully examine. Like the light we see when our vision moves out of darkness into bright light, the glamour of art shines in our eyes, moving from darkness to behold the sight of these colours, reflecting an ascent of glimmering distant stars.
(Abu dhabi art 2012 exhibition, 7 – 10 november 2012, MEEM gallery, U. A. E.).