Modern and Contemporary Art From the Middle East Collections

Collecting guide: Center Eastern Modern and Contemporary art

Specialist Hala Khayat explains how postal service-independence optimism in the region generated a new grade of Modernism that transcended borders. Illustrated with works offered inMiddle Eastern, Modern and Gimmicky Art in Dubai

Since 2003 the marketplace has been growing steadily for art from the Middle E, with prices hitting the £2.7 million mark for paintings by Fahr El-Nissa Zeid. The recent opening of Louvre Abu Dhabi, the connected success of Mathaf in Dohar, and major exhibitions of painters such as Saloua Raouda Choucair, reveal there is a vigorous appetite for fine art from the region.

The origins of Middle Eastern Modernism

To sympathise the beginnings of Standard arabic Modernism it is important to go back to the spirit of optimism forged in the post-war era, when, having gained independence from imperial masters, artists in the Middle Due east and North Africa began to search for a unifying Pan-Arabic cultural identity that would span new national divisions. Movements similar the New Vision Grouping in Iraq, spearheaded by the innovative creative person Dia Al-Azzawi, championed the idea of an Arab Modernism united on ideological grounds rather than mode.

'And then there were other artists,' says Christie's specialist Hala Khayat, 'like Mahmoud Saïd, who started to await inward and say, "OK, I don't desire to paint a adult female who looks European, I want to paint a picture that looks similar my mother or my sister, I want to paint the street outside my window".'

Mahmoud Said (Egyptian, 1897-1964), The Whirling Dervishes, painted in 1929 . 38⅜ x 27½ in (97.v x 69.8 cm). Sold for $2,546,500 on 26 October 2010 at Christie'southward in Dubai

Today collectors are actively looking for artworks that were office of this pioneering moment in the history of Eye Eastern art. 'It defines an era and it defines us, as a people,' says Khayat.

What are the hot trends in Middle Eastern art?

'The big tendency in the Middle East right now is female artists,' says the specialist. 'There are a lot of works empowering women. Painters similar Afifa Aleiby and Shirin Neshat are amazing artists who have provided stepping stones for a younger generation.' Such artists paved the way for the likes of the young Iraqi-born painter, Hayv Kahraman. Iranian artist Shirin Aliabadi (below) is another one to spotter.

'The war and the ongoing political unrest in the region is too a big theme: these are key moments in the socio-political scene,' explains Khayat. The Syrian painter Naim Ismail and the Lebanese creative person Zena Assi look beyond the atrocities to the lives of individuals caught up in the struggles, and seek to detect a common identity.

Naim Ismail (Syrian, 1930-1979), Al Fiddaiyoun ('Freedom Fighters'), painted in 1969. 39⅜ x 51¼ in (100 x 130 cm). Sold for £25,000 on 24 Oct 2018 at Christie's in London

For many years, countries like Arab republic of egypt, Lebanese republic and Syria were the leading producers of Middle Eastern Modern art, but Khayat is less certain now. 'With people migrating there is a lot of lost identity.'

But i overriding theme that continues to dominate the market is Arabic calligraphy. 'A lot of people look for a calligraphic element,' the specialist says, 'and a lot of works explore abstraction.' Paintings by the Iranian artists Mohammed Ehsai and Farhad Moshiri 'look calligraphic to someone who doesn't empathize the script, only it is really Lettrism, a form of fine art that uses messages but is non supposed to mean anything. Information technology is really about the beauty of the thing.'

Ultimately, Khayat thinks collectors are looking for a good story, particularly i that bridges the gap between the Eastward and the W in a universal way. A adept instance of this isThe Final Supperby Fateh Moudarres, which reflects the creative person's experience of living on both sides of the divide.

'A lot of the works we are selling at present from collectors are the fruits of friendship,' adds Khayat. 'Someone believed in the artist back in the 1950s when no 1 was looking at his work. It takes a long time — you have to be passionate, and not wait for the monetary value.'

Shaker Hassan Al Said (Iraqi, 1925-2004), Untitled, painted in 1984. 47⅔ x 47⅔ in (121 x 121 cm). Judge: $l,000-70,000. Offered in Middle Eastern Modern & Contemporary Fine art on 23 March 2019 at Christie's in Dubai

Who are the of import artists to know in Eye Eastern Modern art?

Mahmoud Saïd (1897-1964) is renowned as the male parent of Mod painting in Arab republic of egypt. His oil paintings utilize Western techniques to describe scenes of contemporary life that reference the country's long history. The son of an Egyptian prime minister, he left a career in law to report painting in Florence.

Dia Al-Azzawi (b. 1939) is an Iraqi abstract creative person and founder of the New Vision Group in the tardily 1960s, which sought to create a new Arabic Modernism. He divides his time between London and Dohar and was recently historic with a joint retrospective at Mathaf and the Qatar Museums Gallery Al Riwaq.

Shirin Neshat (b. 1957), one of the almost famous artists to accept come out of Iran, is known for her photographs and films that explore ideas of femininity in relation to Islamic fundamentalism and militancy in her home country. She won the International Laurels at the Venice Biennale in 1999.

Shakir Hassan Al Said (1925-2004), the founder of the Baghdad Mod Art Group, wanted to create a distinctive Iraqi cultural identity, picking up the thread of Iraqi art from where information technology had been cut short by the Mongol invasion in the 13th century. He later formed the mystical One Dimension Group that sought to reveal, through Standard arabic symbols, the hidden essence of being.

Paul Guiragossian (Lebanese, 1926-1993), Nay, painted circa 1986. 51⅛ x 39⅜ in (130 x 100 cm). Estimate: $eighty,000-120,000. Offered in Heart Eastern Modern & Contemporary Art on 23 March 2019 at Christie's in Dubai

Burhan Dogançay (1929-2013) is regarded as Turkey's leading Modern artist. In the 1970s he moved to New York and became fascinated with the dynamism and spontaneity of street art; works from this menstruum, including the renowned Ribbons serial, are the near sought afterwards by collectors.

Lebanese creative person Paul Guiragossian (1926-1993) is acclaimed for his Expressionist paintings in which groups of women are a recurring theme, symbolising hope, continuity and liberty. In the 1980s his work became less figurative, and his vibrant colour palette and intense brushstrokes laid the background for the completely abstracted works that followed.

Farhad Moshiri (b. 1963) has been described as 'the Warhol of the Middle Eastward'. His works play on the kitsch, the fabric and the banal to highlight the gulf that exists between Islamic history and tradition on one side, and contemporary attitudes within Iran and the Western earth on the other.

The Lebanese artist Nabil Nahas (b. 1949) lives and works in New York, where he blends Western techniques with traditional motifs from his homeland in richly coloured abstract works that celebrate nature.

Afterwards living in New York between 1945 and 1957, Monir Farmanfarmaian (b.1922), who is at present in her nineties, returned to alive in her Iranian homeland before the Islamic Revolution of 1979 forced her to back to the United states, where she spent a further 26 years in exile. It was in New York that she variously befriended artists such as Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol. Her re-appropriation of the traditional Iranian technique of mirror-mosaic has produced mirror balls that exude the glitz of the pop civilisation the artist encountered in 1970s America. In 2015, the Guggenheim in New York staged a major retrospective of Farmanfarmaian's work.

Where are the best places to come across Modernistic and Contemporary fine art in the Center Due east?

Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha and Sursock Museum in Lebanese republic are both excellent.

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Source: https://www.christies.com/features/Collecting-guide-Middle-Eastern-Modern-and-Contemporary-Art-9470-3.aspx