London’s Whitechapel Gallery has launched the first of four chronological displays highlighting works from the Barjeel Art Foundation’s diverse and extensive collection of art from the Arab region. Featuring 100 works of art by more than 60 artists from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, and elsewhere, the series of displays tell the story of Arab art from the modern to the contemporary.The Barjeel Art Foundation was established in 2010 to manage, preserve, and exhibit the personal art collection of Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi. Comprising a wide variety of works dating from the 1900s to the present day, the Barjeel Art Foundation’s collection is one of the world’s most extensive collections of art from the Arab Region.Curated by Omar Kholeif, Curator, Whitechapel Gallery in conjunction with Candy Stobbs, Assistant Curator, Whitechapel Gallery, the series of exhibitions explore four different themes which “examine ways of defining Arab art from its early modernist beginnings and geographies,” according to the Whitechapel Gallery. The first exhibition, on show from September 8, explores the emergence and development of an Arab art aesthetic through paintings and drawings from the early 20th century to 1967. Highlights include Ervand Demirdjian’s “Nubian Girl” (circa 1900-10), Kadhim Hayder’s “Fatigued Ten Horses Converse with Nothing (The Martyrs Epic)” (1965), and Hamed Ewais’s “Le Guardien de la vie (1967-8)”The second display (December 15, 2015 –April 17, 2016) focuses on figurative works of art produced between 1968 and 1987; the third display (April 26 –August 14, 2016) showcases photography and video works made between 1990 – 98; while the fourth display (August 23, 2016 –January 8, 2017) explores the different ways that artists engage with the cities where they live or work.Barjeel Art Foundation Collection: Imperfect Chronology – Debating Modernism I is at Whitechapel in London from 8 September–6 December 2015Click the slideshow to see a selection of works from the series of exhibitions.
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