ABU DHABI and DUBAI // Revered London auction house Christie's is to launch its Middle East season with an unprecedented international exhibition to include sale highlights.
The event, taking place at Abu Dhabi's Emirates Palace on Oct 26 and 27, will be followed by a sale series at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel in Dubai on Oct 29 and 30.
A total of 75 works will go on display, including star attractions from the forthcoming New York auctions of Impressionist and Modern art, and the Post-war and Contemporary collections, most notably Andy Warhol's Statue of Liberty, Roy Lichtenstein's Self-Portrait, and Ozu (in 2 parts) by Gerhard Richter.
Though Richter's work, spanning five decades, can be viewed in several parts - paintings, overpainted photographs, drawings, graphic editions, the Atlas collection - it also avoids over-classification; one of the principal reasons for the artist's reputation as an originator and innovator amid the, sometimes, staid contemporary applications of craft-based media such as oils and watercolours. Richter's practice is, in fact, confoundingly diverse. And much of contemporary painting - Damien Hirst's spot paintings, Isa Genzken's Haare Wachsen Wie Sie Wollen (Hair Grows the Way It Wants) project, among others - is noticeably taken from Richter.
Ozu (in 2 parts) is a stunning representation of Richter's mid-1980s abstractions, finished at a time when his painted work was just coming into vogue. It sold at the New York Sotheby's in Nov 1997 for $387,500 (Dh1.42m) - and is expected draw an even higher final bid at the upcoming Christie's sale.
Richter, however, seems resigned to the increased prices now commanded by his art and that of his contemporaries: "Maybe it was always like this, so crazy, almost criminal."
The corresponding series of sales in May this year, for example, fetched more than $750 million (Dh2.7bn), and sold works by Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Lucian Freud, among others.
Further highlights of this show include major pieces from the two-day Dubai auction, encompassing contemporary Asian art, Orientalist paintings and a significant selection of jewels and watches from forthcoming auctions in London, Paris, Geneva, New York and Hong Kong.
The exhibition will be complemented by 25 works of art on loan from Middle Eastern private collections.
"It will give collectors a unique opportunity to view some of the greatest works of art being sold by Christie's International in our leading salesrooms around the globe," said Jussi Pylkkänen, the president of Christie's Europe and Middle East, at the event's launch.
The sale series at the Emirates Towers, Dubai, divided into two auctions - Jewels and Watches, and International Modern and Contemporary Art - will include Happy, the iconic light installation by the British duo Tim Noble and Sue Webster, alongside what is being billed as the strongest selection of 1960s Saqqa-khaneh works to have appeared at auction, headlined by the Iranian artist Faramarz Pilaram's Untitled, 1962.
Together with Charles Hossein Zenderoudi and Parviz Tanavoli, Pilaram worked at the forefront of the Saqqa-khaneh school, founded around the legendary Atelier Kaboud in Tehran, Iran. The movement fused Iranian folk art with the country's rich literary tradition, deconstructing each element far beyond its original context.
Saqqa-khaneh, in the original meaning of the term, are votive structures for public use, found in old districts of towns in Iran, consisting of a small shelf holding a water tank, copper bowl and other such related items. The principal function of saqqa-khaneh is to offer cold water to passers-by. They also fulfill a spiritual need, as a sort of sanctum freed from daily distractions.
Thus, Pilaram's neo-traditionalist paintings of the early 1960s incorporated twin traditions of Iranian religious and folk iconography. As with Zenderoudi, by the late 1960s his focus shifted and his mature works were chiefly concerned with the Farsi letterform.
Untitled, 1962, one of a number of paintings within the same series, is an oil work on canvas; ochres, oranges and earth tones applied with wide, heavy brushstrokes, swirling in rival directions, crafting a tableau account, to my eye, of a red sandstorm at dusk. Overlaid is a grimy gold calligraphy pattern, seemingly emanating from one point at the bottom right corner of the piece, radiating into multiplex visual moment centre-frame. A kind of molded poetry.
This Christie's season is to be held in association with the Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC), and will be sponsored by the worldwide financial services group, Credit Suisse.
afeshareki@thenational.ae
Explainer: Tanween Design Programme
Non-profit arts studio Tashkeel launched this annual initiative with the intention of supporting budding designers in the UAE. This year, three talents were chosen from hundreds of applicants to be a part of the sixth creative development programme. These are architect Abdulla Al Mulla, interior designer Lana El Samman and graphic designer Yara Habib.
The trio have been guided by experts from the industry over the course of nine months, as they developed their own products that merge their unique styles with traditional elements of Emirati design. This includes laboratory sessions, experimental and collaborative practice, investigation of new business models and evaluation.
It is led by British contemporary design project specialist Helen Voce and mentor Kevin Badni, and offers participants access to experts from across the world, including the likes of UK designer Gareth Neal and multidisciplinary designer and entrepreneur, Sheikh Salem Al Qassimi.
The final pieces are being revealed in a worldwide limited-edition release on the first day of Downtown Designs at Dubai Design Week 2019. Tashkeel will be at stand E31 at the exhibition.
Lisa Ball-Lechgar, deputy director of Tashkeel, said: “The diversity and calibre of the applicants this year … is reflective of the dynamic change that the UAE art and design industry is witnessing, with young creators resolute in making their bold design ideas a reality.”
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
David Einhorn closed out 2018 with his biggest annual loss ever for the 22-year-old Greenlight Capital.
The firm’s main hedge fund fell 9 per cent in December, extending this year’s decline to 34 percent, according to an investor update viewed by Bloomberg.
Greenlight posted some of the industry’s best returns in its early years, but has stumbled since losing more than 20 per cent in 2015.
Other value-investing managers have also struggled, as a decade of historically low interest rates and the rise of passive investing and quant trading pushed growth stocks past their inexpensive brethren. Three Bays Capital and SPO Partners & Co., which sought to make wagers on undervalued stocks, closed in 2018. Mr Einhorn has repeatedly expressed his frustration with the poor performance this year, while remaining steadfast in his commitment to value investing.
Greenlight, which posted gains only in May and October, underperformed both the broader market and its peers in 2018. The S&P 500 Index dropped 4.4 per cent, including dividends, while the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, an early indicator of industry performance, fell 7 per cent through December. 28.
At the start of the year, Greenlight managed $6.3 billion in assets, according to a regulatory filing. By May, the firm was down to $5.5bn.
