Arab Modern Art Books and Artists You’ll Want to Know About
“Kawkaba: Highlights from the Barjeel Foundation” is a landmark, gender-balanced, collaborative exhibition between Christie’s London and the Barjeel Art Foundation. At the time of writing, the exhibition is ongoing until the 23rd August 2023. We welcomed the exhibition’s curator and deputy chairman of Christie’s MENA, Dr Ridha Moumni, and the Barjeel Art Foundation’s founder Sultan Al-Qassemi to the podcast to dive deeper into the featured pieces and the work that took place behind the scenes to make this exhibition a reality.
We asked both guests to recommend a couple of artists and books about art that any curious teenager should know about. Selecting a mere few was no easy task, but here’s whom and what they chose to highlight:
Shakir Hassan Al-Said (1925 - 2004)
Dr Moumni zooms in on Shakir Hassan Al-Said, an Iraqi painter, sculptor and writer who is considered “a key figure in Iraq’s Modern art movement….[who] used art as a vehicle for spiritual reflection”. He is widely seen as one of Iraq’s most pioneering and influential artists who played a fundamental role in forming two of the country’s postcolonial art movements: the Baghdad Modern Art Group and the One Dimension Group.
The “One Dimension” was not only the name of the group, but of an artistic philosophy that traversed “the realm between the visible world and that of God, where transcendence results in the disintegration of the self”.
As part of this, Al-Said’s work consists of experimental deconstruction of artistic surfaces such as the canvas. This is why you’ll notice holes or lacerations on his work. In the episode, Dr Moumni specifically pointed to Al-Said’s courage in choosing to deconstruct or “transcend” the canvas and forging a new Iraqi – and Arab – identity through art.
Safia Foudhaïli Farhat (1924 - 2004)
Safia Farhat holds a special place in Dr Moumni’s heart and not only for being his compatriot, but because she was a pioneering Tunisian artist, activist and educator. She was the driving force behind Modern Tunisian tapestry and is remembered for working collaboratively with and celebrating the work of weavers and artisans.
Beyond her artistic endeavors, Farhat also established Faiza, an Arab-African feminist magazine which was the first of its kind in post-independence Tunisia. Farhat was the only woman associated with the École de Tunis, an art movement in which French, Italian and Tunisian artists sought to distance themselves from the styles, practices and tendencies of the colonial era by creating a distinctly “Tunisian artistic modernism”.
Samia Osseiran Joumblatt (1944 - Present)
Sultan Al-Qassemi talks to us about the artist behind the work featured on Kawkaba’s exhibition poster. Samia Osserian Joumblatt is a Lebanese artist and graphic designer who pursued her artistic studies in Beirut, Florence and Tokyo, where she learnt about Japanese graphic design and woodblock printing. Her work focuses on depicting organic forms with themes of life, death, nature and the universe often appearing in her paintings.
After returning from Japan, Joumblatt founded Artisana of Saida and South Lebanon, an NGO that aims to teach women crafts and artistic practices.
Inji Aflatoun (1924 - 1989)
Sultan Al-Qassemi also chose to delve deeper into the work and life of Inji Aflatoun, an Egyptian painter and activist for the Marxist-progressive-nationalist-feminist movement. To this day, Aflatoun is celebrated as a pioneer of Modern Egyptian art.
Born to an affluent Cairene family, Aflatoun was taught by Kamel el-Telmissany, a leading Egyptian surrealist artist. It was him who initiated Aflatoun into the “Art et Liberté” movement: “a group of artists and intellectuals of communist and anti-imperialist orientation”. Aflatoun went on to be one of the first women to study art at the University of Cairo.
In spite of her socio-economic background, Aflatoun’s work sought to spotlight the struggles of poorer Egyptians. She often painted portraits of fellahin and portrayed violent historic moments from the British colonial era. One example of this is “We Cannot Forget” (1951) which is a “reflection on Egypt’s bloody nationalist struggle against British control of the Suez Canal.”
Her art was intertwined with her political activism. The Nasser government imprisoned her between 1959 and 1963 for her communist affiliations. During her time in prison, she produced a number of portraits of fellow prisoners which, as Sultan Al-Qassemi put to the New York Times, are a “window into a world that was hidden from sight”.
Arab Art Histories - The Khalid Shoman Collection
Sultan Al-Qassemi recommended “Arab Art Histories” as his favorite book about Arab art. Published by The Khalid Shoman Foundation, this collection weaves together a number of artists, architects, curators, art critics and scholars reflecting on the Khalid Shoman Collection, the region’s art history at large, and the collection’s role within it. The book is made up of three sections, differing in form: academic essays, personal reflections, and the works of 140 artists from the collection. The cover of the book features Nicola Saig’s “Surrender of Jerusalem”.
Catalogue Raisonné of Mahmoud Saïd
During our conversation, Sultan Al-Qassemi refers to Mahmoud Saïd as one of the greatest painters of the Arab world and often seen as the “founder of Modern Egyptian painting”. It is for this reason that he recommends the catalog raisonné about the artist.
Saïd was born and raised in an aristocratic Alexandrian family, the son of a former Egyptian prime minister and, under pressure from his father, he trained and worked as a judge, keeping his artistic endeavors firmly as a hobby until he retired in 1947. He is renowned for adapting and manipulating Western techniques to create a national and Egyptian aesthetic identity. His works prominently feature Egyptian landscapes and rural peasants.
Imperfect Chronology: Arab Art from the Modern to the Contemporary
Sultan Al-Qassemi recommends this book to anyone wanting to see more of the stunning works featured in the Barjeel Art Foundation’s collection. Published in 2015 in tandem with an exhibition at London’s Whitechapel Gallery, the book tracks Arab art from the 1920s till today, mapping the key artistic figures who shaped, challenged and defined Modern and Contemporary Arab art. The book features a number of essays by leading scholars and curators in the field such as Omar Kholeif, Rasha Salti and Nada Shabbout.
If you want to learn more about Modern and Contemporary Arab art, listen to our conversation with Sultan Al-Qassemi, founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation, and Dr Ridha Moumni, deputy-chairman of Christie’s MENA and curator of “Kawkaba: Highlights from the Barjeel Art Foundation”.