After nine years and 16 seasons, Christie’s Dubai’s sales of modern and contemporary art from the region have established themselves on the international auction calendar. They attract buyers from the Middle East and beyond who are keen to invest in a market that seems finally to be coming of age.
“Even if it is labelled as Arab or Middle Eastern art, art is universal and it is starting to be appreciated by the same audiences as European and western art from the same period,” says Hala Khayat, Christie’s Dubai’s director and head of sale.
While Khayat has seen her market grow from a relatively small pool of specialist collectors with connections to the Middle East to include an increasingly international audience, the auctioneer points to recent events outside the sale room as evidence of a more profound shift in public appreciation, perceptions and taste.
“The more international initiatives that take place, the easier it becomes for us to reach out to people,” she says. “Firstly we looked at the region as a first step, then we started to attract a lot of Christie’s clients who are based in Europe, the United States and Asia and now we are attracting people beyond the region.
“But the fact that we have a huge show, such as the Armory in New York, dedicating itself this year to the art of the Middle East means that there is a real connection with this art now and a collector group who are starting to ask for this sort of thing.”
Khayat cites the ongoing exhibition at London’s Whitechapel Gallery, which features works from Sheikh Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi’s Barjeel Art Foundation Collection, as further proof of a wider change in attitudes.
“The number of people who are from Middle Eastern backgrounds who have been to see the show is unbelievable and I’m receiving emails and photographs every day from people who have said: ‘We saw this and thought of you.’ I think this is the ultimate blessing of what we have been trying to create for the past 10 years.”
Christie’s latest sale features works from across the Middle East including rare works by artists whose reputations are already established, such as the Lebanese painters Paul Guiragossian and Elie Kanaan, internationally recognised masters such as the Egyptian artist Mahmoud Said, who holds the world record for the sale price achieved by an Arab artist at auction, and lesser known artists, such as the Lebanese Bibi Zogbé, who until now have been known more as the subject of art rather than as serious creators in their own right.
Tonight’s event, Khayat says, is an opportunity even for art lovers who have no intention of taking part in the auction.
“These auctions are public events and, in the absence of established museums in the region at the moment, having 120 works of this calibre on display is really like hosting a temporary gallery or museum,” she says, welcoming everyone to come and see the lots while they are on public display in the Godolphin Ballroom at the Jumeirah Emirates Tower Hotel.
“After these pieces are sold, they will go into private museums or collections and they might not be seen ever again.”
Dubai: Modern and Contemporary Art is at 7pm (lots 1-121) at Godolphin Ballroom in Jumeirah Emirates Towers hotel
nleech@thenational.ae
