For the UAE and its neighbors, the second half of the 20th century was a time of significant change. But in the midst of these fast-moving fields of socioeconomic and cultural transformation, one particular seed—a tradition of modern arts—bloomed quietly.
Khaleej Modern: Pioneers and Collectives on the Arabian Peninsula, a historic exhibition examining the rise of contemporary art in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman, will open at NYUAD Art Gallery on Tuesday following years of planning and curating.
The exhibition’s curator, Dr. Aisha Stoby, an art historian, tells, “It’s not really timely.” The fact that it hasn’t been done yet surprises me. Her meticulous research provided a clearer picture of how the forces of urbanization, globalization, and other elements worked together once oil was discovered to fuel the region’s developing visual arts groups.
New discussions and understandings about the concepts of public and private places and their relationships with national identity, as articulated via art practices, emerged when foreign workers and teachers flooded into the peninsula and students from the area went abroad to study.
With the addition of rare and archive material, some of the exhibition’s dozens of pieces will be seen for the first time in decades. In addition to giving the area a chance to reexamine its own past, Stoby thinks the initiative will advance knowledge of current visual art and foster a more nuanced and inclusive appreciation of world art histories.