A timeless tribute: Celebrating Mohammed Abdul Wahab at Ithra

RIYADH: On Feb. 8, the auction house Sotheby’s will host “Origins” in Riyadh. The sale is billed as “the first international auction in Saudi Arabia’s history.” Many of the lots have already been on display in the accompanying week-long exhibition in Diriyah’s Bujairi Terrace, which ends tomorrow. 

Here, Ashkan Baghestani, Sotheby’s head of contemporary day sale, contemporary art, New York and Middle East, talks us through some of the highlights from the artworks up for sale in “Origins.” 

Abdulhalim Radwi 

‘Untitled’ 

He played a crucial role in the development of Saudi modernism, alongside Mohammed Alsaleem and a few others. He was actually one of the first artists to be sent abroad by the Kingdom to study in Europe, and he’s one of the rare artists who blends European traditions like cubism and expressionism with Saudi traditions. Personally, he’s one of my favorite Saudi modernists — maybe because of his European influences. This particular work hasn’t actually been seen since the Eighties. It was acquired directly by the current owner from the artist himself. We selected this one from a few others we were offered because we felt it really described Saudi culture and the color palette is quite rare for Radwi. You see a lot of his work with blue hues or green tones, but rarely with red.  

Monir Farmanfarmaian 

‘Variations of Hexagon’ 

No one created works like Monir — blending Western abstraction with Persian traditions — she’s so distinctively unique; a lot of her practice and technique was very much informed by traditional Persian craftsmanship that you would find in mosques and palaces from the Safavid era up to the Qajar era. The specific technique is called aina-kari, which is mirror work. So she brought some of these sophisticated American techniques of construction and building and architecture and sculpture into traditional Persian craftsmanship with mirror works like this one.  

René Magritte 

‘L’État de Veille’ 

Magritte may be the most celebrated European surrealist of all. He’s broken records season after season. He’s of Belgium origin. He died in 1967. This work is from 1958, so later in his career, but very much informed by his most iconic motifs — the architectural blend with the environment. This is a gouache that depicts the bright blue skies dotted with cottony clouds, and what seem very close to old Belgian facades. And there’s always this idea of trompe l’oeil with Magritte, where you’re not really sure what you’re looking at or when you’re looking at it.  

Refik Anadol 

‘Machine Hallucinations: Mars’ 

Anadol embraces new technology, but his works are deeply human-centric, exploring emotions and the interplay between people and their environments. “Machine Hallucinations” is his best-known body of work. He collaborated with NASA, feeding millions of pictures from satellites and spacecraft of deep space into an algorithm which generated these images that are constantly morphing and transcend any understanding of what we’re seeing. They’re extremely abstract. They’re also very spiritual. They’re constantly in flux. This one is blends images from the International Space Station, the Hubble Telescope, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. One of the reasons I really wanted a digital artwork is that I thought it was a perfect nod to a country that’s heavily invested not only in many forms of traditional art but also in the art of the future.  

Louay Kayyali 

‘Then What ??’ 

This is probably the most important iconic Arab modern work ever to come to auction. It’s a very important moment for us and for the market. Kayyali is regarded as one of the most socialist artists in the region, alongside Mahmoud Sabri, and he was really committed to representing ‘normal people.’ He was deeply angered and moved by the Naqba — the exile of the Palestinians — and the title of this painting asks: After the exile, what is left? There’s real psychological depth and a real division in the canvas. On the left, looking at the past, and on the right looking towards God and the future.  

Asim Abu Shakra 

‘Untitled’ 

Abu Shakra died aged 28. He painted a cactus most of his life, and his works are always in these earthy colors — greens, browns, gray. They have a certain nostalgic tone to them. And the brush strokes are sudden, they’re very spontaneous. They sort of sit in nothingness.  Abu Shakra was living in Israel as an Arab artist, so there’s this analogy of a cactus surviving in arid conditions in the desert, without much help. It doesn’t need a lot of water. It has the needles to protect it from exterior harm. It’s a symbol for dislocation and endurance but also a deeply personal reckoning with the artist’s own mortality. The cactus offered hope because some actually produce flowers when they’re about to die, which is a beautiful analogy.  

Fernando Botero 

‘Society Woman’ 

Botero has transcended every generational guideline and every geographical region; he speaks to such a wide audience. His works became iconic in the Nineties. They are easy and playful, but they’re also serious paintings. Botero anchors himself in the tradition of Old Master paintings, but gives them a twist: most of his paintings and sculptures are always a bit inflated. And regardless of the size and the scale, they have an elegant, commanding posture. He showed that even if you’re voluptuous, you can have grace, femininity, confidence and celebrate your fullness. He often highlights the contrast between the soft sensuality of the body and the sculptural qualities of the human form. He really reconsidered conventional ideals of beauty and proportion.  

RIYADH: Jordanian-American impact artist Aida Murad hosted an exhibition in Riyadh’s St. Regis on Wednesday, commemorating the launch of her new book, “Life Is a Miracle.”

Through the book, Murad told Arab News, “I want them to feel seen. I think that my purpose in life is to help people feel seen, heard and loved. I think because I wanted that the most, and there is something so beautiful when a human sees you and loves you, even when they see you fully.”

She hopes that she can help people to feel seen through life lessons and navigate the different emotions that humans experience.

“In the book, you would find harder emotions like sadness and confusion and being lost, and also happier ones, and how to navigate both. As Arabs, I don’t think we do a good job of talking about the spectrum of emotions,” she said.

Through her art and her book, Murad hopes to inspire readers to appreciate and celebrate the smallest of miracles in life, such as breathing.

“The title, ‘Life is a Miracle,’ came to me because I find that people, including my past self, would wait until big things happened in our lives to be like, ‘Wow, this is a miracle’ or ‘Wow, this is beautiful.’

“I started realizing that to train myself to be happier, whole, human and more content, I started training myself to notice the small miracles,” she said.

“Just by me waking up, you know how many miracles have happened, you know how many trillions of cells are moving,” Murad said.

The book has been five years in the making: “The real-time that it took was the courage. I feel that the content could have been ready years ago, but I think it’s the courage to take a step out and say, ‘This is me.’”

Murad stressed the importance of courage when it came to publishing the book: “You just have to trust and share.”

The book has sections titled “key messages” that serve as reminders of important life lessons.

She encourages readers to open to a random page, find their message of the day, or flip through until they connect to a message.

“I decided to compile my pieces into the ones that are ready to be shared with the world and their stories and a key life message because I don’t want people just to be passive; I want them to be involved, and that is why I created the creative activity,” she said.

Along with the launch of her book, Murad is co-hosting an art exhibition at St. Regis Riyadh, which she described as her “dream partner.”

The exhibition that opened on Wednesday features 30 paintings with a common theme of “accepting your higher mission on Earth.

“It’s about connecting with your inner purpose and accepting it,” the artist said.

Each of her pieces comes with lessons and themes that help people to unlock their mission in life through greater understanding.

Murad underlined that her aim through the book and her art was to heal, inspire and help people be seen.

Originally from Jordan, Murad has lived in US cities such as New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. She has called Riyadh home for more than a year.

Speaking about her year living in Saudi Arabia, Murad said: “The people are the kindest people I have ever met. I do not want to be anywhere else in the world other than here. The land inspires me, the energy inspires me, everything, and I am grateful to be here.”