Heritage and abstraction: affinities in Modern art from the Global South

Art Dubai Modern, and its accompanying talks programme, has long been a space for scholarship around under-explored art histories and this year’s edition is no exception. The Art Dubai Modern curators are Magalí Arriola, art critic and independent curator, Mexico, and Nada Shabout, Art History Professor and the Coordinator of the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Initiative at the University of North Texas, U.S.

The pair were brought together by the fair’s artistic director Pablo de Val and have spent the last months sharing their knowledge on the art histories of their regions—Latin America and West Asia and North Africa, respectively—finding crossovers in the themes and styles of artists’ works during the modern period. The exploration has seen them uncover lesser known artists and connections that traverse these two sides of the southern hemisphere. Here they share what to expect at the fair.

Alfred Basbous, Le mysterieux, Ed.8, 1991, Bronze, Courtesy of Alfred Basbous Foundation

Ibrahim El-Salahi, The Tree, 2008, Acrylic on canvas, Courtesy of Vigo Gallery and the artist

The artists included in this year’s Modern section are so diverse—can you sum up in a sentence what binds them together?

MA: The 20th century saw anti-imperial struggles that created deep cultural ties between West Asia, North Africa, and postcolonial regions worldwide, and this year’s section looks at how the resulting migration, cross cultural relationships, and influences of different regions influenced artistic practice.

The section includes a Latin American artist for the first time—why did that feel necessary or important?

NS: Art Dubai has always worked to make connections with other non-Western regions, so it made sense to expand that to Latin America in the Modern section. Historically, large communities of Arabs have migrated to Latin America, especially Lebanese and Palestinian—I even have relatives from my aunt’s husband’s family, who are Lebanese but moved to Brazil early last century. There are lots of Arab names that have been Latinised over time but it is very difficult to find a lineage of migration. So we decided to focus on solidarities and affinities between artists—there were periods of time where both regions were part of the postcolonial third-worldism discourse so that’s another way that they are connected. We discovered that there needs to be more work and research done in this area. In fact, there is a book being published on the subject this May: Art and Politics between the Arab World and Latin America, edited by Laure Guirguis and Maru Pabón.

Experiments in abstraction in response to post-colonial realities is one of commonalities between the artists that you have uncovered—which artists’ works can we see this in?

MA: Venezuelan artist Dario Pérez Flores is one of these artists working with abstraction that will be represented in the fair. In the 1960s, Pérez Flores conceived a series of plexiglass kinetic works and then relocated to France where a group of Latin American creators—mainly Argentine and Venezuelan—were already established working close to Denise René gallery. In the early 70s, he exhibited with important artists such as Carlos Cruz Diez (who will be exhibiting in the contemporary section with Galeria RGR).

How does this fit with the theme of heritage?

NS: The notion of heritage and abstraction are very connected. Many of the artists included in the fair, such as Hussein Madi, Bahman Mohasses, Mehdi Moutashar, and The New Vision Group, draw from their own heritage to express their identities. This was an important artistic endeavour for both regions in the 20th century.

Bertina Lopes, Untitled, 1979, Mixed media on canvas, 99.5 x 119.5 cm, Courtesy of Richard Saltoun Gallery — Bertina Lopes, Untitled, 1979, Mixed media on canvas, Courtesy of Richard Saltoun Gallery

Do you think that these similarities in artistic production were felt at the time that the works were being made, or is it that we can now reflect upon them and see them having developed in tandem?

NS: It was not necessarily happening consciously, but rather the artists were responding to similar situations and provocations, which is what makes the connections even stronger. The fact that they were feeling the same dynamics and forces that propelled them to respond in certain ways speaks volumes to the colonialist conditions of the world at the time.

Any works that you are particularly excited about?

NS: The Mohasses work is going to be stunning—it’s a large painting with a very important history and context.

How do you think people will respond to this year’s Modern section?

NS: I think they will see new discoveries and old favourites, but we hope this will be an entry into more explorations around the artistic connections between these two regions in the modern period.

There are many artists from last year’s Venice Biennale that will also be in the fair.

Yes, it is often the case that Venice Biennale curators come to Art Dubai to find artists to include in their presentations. Adriano Pedrosa came to the fair last year and it’s not surprising that many of the artists that he included in his exhibition are also at this year’s fair, given his Biennale’s theme around the Global South. There is a solo presentation of the Lebanese artist Omar Mismar with SECCI Gallery (Milan/Pietrasanta) in the Bawwaba section and Richard Saltoun Gallery (London/New York/Rome) is bringing three artists, all in their late-70s or early-80s, that were included in the Biennale.

Are there any themes you can anticipate emerging from across the fair?

There is a theme of displacement, for sure. You can find it within the contemporary section both in the artists themselves, some of whom have been forced to relocate for different geopolitical and social reasons, and in the subjects of the works on show. Many artists are creating illusionary or imaginary places in their works, so as to escape certain realities; others are depicting different iconographies that they have collected from moving from one place to another; and some are depicting dystopian scenes that reflect their alien environments. So I think there are going to be lots of very interesting discoveries to make.

The Bawwaba section—which exclusively features artworks made in the past year or specifically for Art Dubai—also has a theme of displacement running through it. Curated by Mirjam Varadinis, Curator-at-large Kunsthaus Zurich, the 10 solo presentations relate to new forms of coexistence, both amongst people and with the planet. Technology offers the ultimate escape and reimagination of our world, so many works of fantasy and dystopia can be found in Art Dubai Digital, too. The Modern section this year looks back at historic diasporas and migration between West Asia and North Africa and Latin America and how artists visualised their cultural differences and similarities. Displacement and migration are also key to the DNA of Dubai and its cosmopolitan population, so these connections across the fair are exciting.