In September, an exhibition tracing modern art movement in the Arabian Peninsula will open at the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery.
The exhibition, known as a first-of-its-kind display, is titled “Khaleej Modern: Pioneers and Collectives in the Arabian Peninsula, 1941-2008” and it will be on display from September 6 until December 11.
The exhibition is a historical examination of the twentieth-century modern art movements that took place throughout the Arabian Peninsula and are collectively known in Arabic as the “Khaleej.” It is curated by Aisha Stoby, who oversaw the opening of the Oman Pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale.
The exhibition will introduce contemporary audiences to the collectives that emerged in the 20th and 21st centuries, such as Mohammed Racim (1911-1974), Mounirah Mosly, Safeya Binzagr, Abdulhalim Al-Radwi, and Abdullah Al-Shaikh from Saudi Arabia, as well as Kuwait’s Al-Mubarakiya School, which has been operating since 1941. The Saudi House of Fine Arts in Riyadh’s Mohammed Al-Saleem and Abdulrahman Alsoliman have both contributed pieces to the exhibition.
Bahrain’s Manama Group was established by the 1950s, and over the next two decades, other pioneering solo artists and collectives such as Qatar’s The Three Friends and the UAE’s Group of Five also came to be. All of these artists will be present at the upcoming showcase.
The exhibition’s director, Stoby, said that “many of the paintings in this show will be on view for the first time in decades… “Khaleej Modern” establishes a space and provides resources for learning and re-understanding our own histories, which is reinforced by the presence of rare and archive material. Additionally, we hope that the show will advance regional and worldwide understandings of contemporary visual art.