Twenty years of Emirati abstract art on show in new Bassam Freiha Art Foundation exhibition

Curator reveals collection on display can all be traced back to 'group of five'

Hour Eternal brings together works by 14 Emirati artists, each of whom has delved into abstraction in an idiosyncratic way. Pawan Singh / The National

A new exhibition at the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation is reflecting upon the evolution of abstract art in the UAE over the past 20 years.

Running until February on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, Hour Eternal brings together works by 14 Emirati artists, each of whom has delved into abstraction in an idiosyncratic way, evoking emotions and concepts that can be difficult to express in figurative terms.

The works come from a number of varying collections and sources, including the UAE Ministry of Culture. Several works have also been lent out by the artists themselves.

Michaela Watrelot, curator and director of exhibitions at the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation, says abstract art in the UAE is often traced back to the works by “The Five”, and Hour Eternal similarly identified the group as a starting point for its research on Emirati abstraction.

From left: two paintings by Khalid Al Banna and Sand Dollar No 16 by Hassan Sharif. Pawan Singh / The National

These Emirati artists – Hassan Sharif, his brother Hussein Sharif as well as Abdullah Al Saadi, Mohammed Kazem and Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim – came to be known as the “Group of Five” or “The Five” because of their participation in the 2002 exhibition in Germany that was titled 5 UAE.

“Approaches to abstract art and the artists that followed are often credited to the influence of Hassan Sharif and the artists from The Five,” Watrelot says. Four of those artists, except for Al Saadi, are featured in Hour Eternal.

Squares No 33, a 2013 work by Hassan Sharif, presents a grid of 20 squares, painted with bold strokes in varying colours and directions. The artist’s Sand Dollar No 16, meanwhile, shows a set of vertiginous circles that delve into the darkness of the canvas with a pit-like depth.

Ahmed Ibrahim’s renowned papier-mache sculptures are also exhibited, drawing inspiration from the forms and colours of his native Khor Fakkan. There are also several paintings by Hussein Sharif, which highlight the artist’s ability to render complex landscapes using minimal lines and a restrained palette.

Michaela Watrelot is curator and director of exhibitions at Bassam Freiha Art Foundation. Pawan Singh / The National

By using The Five as a starting point, Watrelot began to map out how abstract art in the UAE has branched out to include geometric abstraction, conceptual minimalism, colour fields and figurative abstraction. “All have been used to communicate very complex themes of heritage, identity, the qualities of times as both ephemeral and eternal,” she says.

This quality of abstract art to touch upon the fleeting and the everlasting was what inspired the title of the exhibition, Hour Eternal.

While works by The Five may have been seen as a starting point for the exhibition’s survey of local abstraction, the oldest work in the exhibition is a sculpture by Noor Al Suwaidi. The Head was produced in 2003, presents a starting point of the artist’s stride towards the abstract. Facial features are swirled out of place on the plaster cast.

“Her sculpture work actually, she told me, was her way into abstraction,” Watrelot says. “She explored the elements of reducing the figuration through the sculpture.”

The Head by Noor Al Suwaidi. Pawan Singh / The National

Al Suwaidi’s steadfast exploration of figurative abstraction is shown in the nearby two paintings, produced in 2011 and 2024, which also present a face that has been drawn out and textured with topographical flair. “We can identify the face and the lips, but she's more and more moving away from the figuration into a pure abstraction,” Watrelot says.

Several works by Najat Makki are also exhibited, including paintings from her Composition and Resonance series. In one painting, vistas layered with varying shades of teal extend towards dark, rolling hills and a golden sky. It is a landscape that seems untraversable, evoking feelings of helplessness. An adjacent work, meanwhile, uses the same palette of colours to convey a sense of liberty, with a smooth landscape under an open, smoothened sky. The works show Makki’s masterful sensibilities towards colours and what they can evoke.

Works by Najat Makki on display at Hour Eternal. Pawan Singh / The National

Works by Mohammad Ibrahim Al-Qassab, meanwhile, show a different take on landscape abstraction. Whereas Makki uses free gestures to draw out a scene, Al-Qassab renders his terrains with bold but measured strokes. An untitled painting from 2022, for instance, shows a landscape that comes together through a polychromatic patter of short, thick lines. A work form 2007, on the other hand, is more frenzied, with ladderlike patterns depicted in a spectra of blue.

Other notable works include acrylic and mixed media canvasses of Mona Al Khaja, which bring together myriad forms and perspectives to evoke feelings such as hope. Abdulrahim Salem, meanwhile, deconstructs figurative forms to blurred and symbolic outlines.

Unfolded Creases by Shaikha Al Mazrou presents a steel installation that has been produced with pillowy quality, evoking a harmony between strength and softness. Ebtisam Abdulaziz’s Untitled work from 2014 brings together forms of disparate geometric shapes and solid colours in a manner that is as pleasing as it is jarring. At the entrance to the foundation is a seven-metre long work by Abdul Qader Al Rais, blending textures, forms and Arabic calligraphy to create a landscape that looms from the chaotic to the liberated.

Hour Eternal is one of four new exhibitions that have been launched at the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation.

Artworks by Hussein Sharif at Hour Eternal. Pawan Singh / The National

In Boundaries, Lebanese-Australian artist Tarek Elkassouf is presenting more than two dozen sculptures crafted from limestone and gold in Boundaries. They explore the tensions between societal norms and liberation. Lines from Letters, an accompanying display, shows concept drawings by Elkassouf, offering insight into his process. US artist Anthony James is also presenting two installations at the foundation’s Sculpture Garden.

But it is how Hour Eternal contrasts with the foundation’s other indoor exhibition that is particularly interesting.

Visions of the Orient takes cues from the foundation’s inaugural exhibition by displaying 19th-century orientalist works. The works are replete with the exoticisation of the Arab world that was prevalent among European painters of the time. The scenes featured in the paintings are decked with items that are arranged out of context. Balconies are draped with carpets. Tiger pelts are stretched over the floor alongside water jugs and copper lanterns. The objects were merely props as the artist considered aesthetic over function.

Orientalist paintings at the Visions of the Orient exhibition at the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation. Pawan Singh / The National

“The inaugural exhibition was curated in a way where we have juxtaposed the works from the founder’s collection with works by Arab artists and photography,” Watrelot says. “These are all works coming directly from the Bassam Freiha art collection. And what we wanted to show is how diverse his collection is.”

But even if the orientalist paintings are not directly displayed alongside contemporary examples of Arab art, by virtue of the two exhibitions taking place in one space, a contrast is inevitably presented.

If Visions of the Orient looks into the past of the 19th century and how the region was viewed from the lens of Western artists, Hour Eternal provides a vantage point that reflects upon the contemporary sphere from the eye of local artists, an eye that challenges the visual field altogether.

The four exhibitions are running at Bassam Freiha Art Foundation on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi until February 16, 2025