2023 In Review: Middle Eastern Art

Modern And Contemporary Middle Eastern Art: 2023 Highlights

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  Omar el Nagdi 'Alif' (1961)

  Omar El Nagdi is one of Egypt’s most celebrated artists, renowned for his calligraphic period which he initiated in the 1960s and of which this is a beautiful example. El Nagdi’s calligraphic artistic practice is inspired from Sufism. The consistent repetition of a letter or a number channels the meditative elements of Sufism – in this present painting the word “Allah” repeated to form the Arabic letter “H” is akin to transcendental twirling of the Sufi dervishes.
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  Kathleen Hoare

  Gazbia Sirry 'The Garden' (1959)

  The present painting can be interpreted as a ‘coming of age’ artwork for Egyptian artist Gazbia Sirry , whose lively figurative scenes crystallise both her concerns vis-à-vis unstable family structures, representations of women or class inequalities, and her hopes for social progress. In this work, we see depicted different stages in the life of a woman, cadenced by fluctuating relationships and shifting notions of self.
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  Marjane Satrapi Persepolis (Original Book Art, page 69) (circa 2000)

  This page features a particularly poignant scene from Volume 1 of the international bestseller autobiographical comics series Persepolis by French-Iranian artist Marjane Satrapi . Working in collaboration with the artist, Sotheby’s offered the second part of the original book art for this iconic graphic novel.
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  Fahrelnissa Zeid Ischia (1965)

  Fahrelnissa Zeid cemented her reputation in the global art world as an artist of considerable talent, depth, discipline and dynamism. Born into a family of intellectuals in 1901, Fahrelnissa Zeid was brought up in Istanbul during the reign of the Ottoman Empire. This rare work with impeccable provenance was painted on the island of Ischia, where the artist and her family vacationed in the summers from 1958.
  
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  Huguette Caland Untitled (1980)

  This sublime work was created in 1980 by Huguette Caland and follows her earlier Bribes de Corps (Body Parts) series, produced between 1973-1976, which zoomed in on abstracted parts of bodies, thus capturing the viewer’s imagination. Characterised by soft, sensual curves, evocative of touching body forms, the subtlety with which Caland hints at the curvature of the female form through carefully curated contours and flushes of colour is where her genius lies. Here, her simple use of line - perhaps a magnified detail - manages to lustily dominate the canvas with bold, unerring beauty.
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  Saloua Raouda Choucair Poem (2013)

  Saloua Raouda Choucair is regarded as Lebanon’s first true modern abstract artist and a leading radical sculptor of the Arab world. Choucair’s prolific career spans almost six decades and is defined by her tirelessly ambitious and experimental disposition to volume and space. This sculpture, which made 698,500GBP, established an auction record for the artist.
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  Aref El Rayess The Sahara (1981-1982)

  In this painting, the Lebanese artist Aref El Rayess , who relocated temporarily to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia during the Lebanese civil war in the 1980s, captures the tranquility and spirituality of the Arabian desert and coastland, which provided a sanctuary from the conflict of his homeland. Sharing Lebanese philosopher Mikhael Nouaymeh’s belief that mysticism connects man to the natural world, the present work radiates with a sense of serenity and the sanctity of nature.
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  Manoucher Yektai Fruit Bowl 11 (1959)

  This dynamic work by Iranian artist Manoucher Yektai embodies his Western mid-century sense of artistic freedom (he was a founding member of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism and its associated style of Action Painting) but one can still discern the subject of the fruit bowl, unique to him.
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  Mohammed Al Saleem Untitled (1986)

  Born in 1939, Mohammed Al Saleem is one of Saudi Arabia’s preeminent modern artists and one who has greatly contributed to the growth and evolution of Saudi art in the Kingdom. The present work exemplifies the artist’s unique style which he termed Al Afakia (Horizonism) which takes inspiration from the skyline of Riyadh as seen from the desert.