Born 1939 in Al Marat Province, Mohammed Al Saleem is one of Saudi Arabia’s preeminent modern artists, and one who has greatly contributed to the growth and evolution of art in the Kingdom. Al Saleem pursued formal art education abroad, studying at the Accademia di Belle Arte in Florence. A true pioneer, he held one of the first exhibitions in the municipality of Riyadh in 1967, and later in 1979 founded Dar Al-Funoon Al-Sa’udiyyah, which was inaugurated by HRH Prince Faisal bin Fahad Al-Saud. A demonstration of Al Saleem’s commitment to younger artists, architects and designers, this multipurpose, nonprofit institute provided a creative space for artistic experimentation and exhibition and was the first of its kind in the Kingdom.
During the 1980s, Al Saleem was developing a style he coined ‘Horizonism’ or Al Afakia, that was inspired by the gradating skyline of Riyadh from the desert. Characterised by a highly distinctive segmentation of form into organic block-like structures, Al Saleem underscored the beauty of the landscape that was central to his aesthetic vision. In exploring Horizonism, Al Saleem belonged to a faction of cultural development in Saudi that sought a balance between the modernist and traditionalist aesthetics. Al Saleem passed away in 1997, aged 58. In 2023, he was celebrated with an exhibition in his hometown with the help of his daughter, Najla Al Saleem.
The present work banishes form and landscape, reimagining the distant dunes of the desert horizon through contained slabs of colour, which emerge as if struggling against one another across the surface of the image. Its layering and shading suggest a search for subtle accords and variations similar to that with which a composer achieves musical harmony, creating an astonishing sense of energy and dynamism. The artist effectively reconciles two ostensibly opposing styles of abstraction and figuration whilst balancing delicately on the edge of both. Here, Al Saleem fuses a local style with a personal narrative to create a work that speaks to the true essence of the artist.
“When I asked an Arab critic, Hussein Bikar, for his opinion about my works, he told me ‘This style belongs to you alone, the desert style. Through it, I recognise this art as Saudi art.’”
Untitled (1986) was created around the time of a significant aesthetic turning point for Al Saleem, during which he was hailed as the leading abstract artist of his generation. It thus stands as a powerful summation of the artist’s early style, whilst simultaneously acknowledging the future direction of his oeuvre, subsequently earning him recognition as one of the leading figures of the Pioneers of the Gulf.