Abdulhalim Radwi’s Haj Day, 1987.
By Anand Holla
In what promises to be a fascinating insight into a range of art world voices, Focus: Works from Mathaf Collection will showcase an ongoing series of solo exhibitions featuring artists from the museum’s Permanent Collection.
Mathaf’s curatorial team and guest curators have selected the first five artists in this exhibition series—Faraj Daham (Qatar), Inji Efflatoun (Egypt), Saloua Raouda Choucair (Lebanon), Abdelhalim Radwi (Saudi Arabia), and Farid Belkahia (Morocco)— so as to highlight the plurality of artistic perspectives represented by the Museum’s collection and the diversity of curatorial interpretations that it prompts.
“With this exhibition series, the Museum’s role is not only to conserve art over time, but to suggest paths for revisiting, re-experiencing, and seeing anew the selected artworks in light of current events and curatorial choices. Together, the exhibitions invite viewers to rethink their understanding of art history and its connection to the world outside the Museum’s walls just as they attest to the Museum’s support of original research, writing, and curating,” says Mathaf.
Framed by an original curatorial approach, each of the five exhibitions explores multiple artistic approaches towards identity, modernity, and experimentation, Mathaf points out.
“The work of these artists embodies critical moments from the establishing of an Arab modernity. Committed to producing new aesthetic forms, Daham, Efflatoun, Choucair, Radwi, and Belkahia believed they had a responsibility as intellectuals to embrace historical traditions and social progress. They innovated the direction of artistic practice in ways that have proved crucial for subsequent generations. Their diverse backgrounds, education, and interests, as well as their dedication to social reform, allowed for original yet universal creations,” says Mathaf.
Through a variety of approaches and forms, the five artists have played a major part in generating ideas and inventing techniques as they, in conversation with international art movements and other geographies, make sense of their artistic, social, and political worlds.
The curators of the exhibition are Fatma Mostafawi, Namkha Beschi, Laura Barlow, Mayssa Fattouh and Abdellah Karroum.
Meanwhile, for the kids, Mathaf’s school programmes offer a wide range of learning activities from kindergarten to grade 12, for both local independent and international schools.
“Our programmes are aligned with the new SEC (Supreme Education Council) Art Curriculum Standards. Programmes can be delivered in English or Arabic,” says Mathaf.