Abu Dhabi Art: 2017

Elmarsa is pleased to participate in the eleventh edition of Abu Dhabi Art with a group exhibition of leading Modern and Contemporary artists from the Middle East and North Africa. This selection of diverse and multi-disciplinary important works spans from the second half of the twentieth century to today and offers a perspective on the development of modern art from the Maghreb by shedding light on how this particular chapter fits into the wider art history of Arab art.

This exhibition begins with the figurative paintings of early Tunisian modernists Yahia Turki (1903-1969), Aly Ben Salem (1910-2001), Ammar Farhat (1911-1987), Jelal Ben Abdallah (b. 1921), and Abdekaziz Gorgi (1928-2008) whose realist representations of life in the Maghreb mark a shift away from the orientalist academic style of painting taught in local art schools established by the French Protectorate. A period of experimentation follows as modern artists across the region from Lebanese artists Chafic Abboud (1926-2004) and Huguette Caland (b. 1931) to Nejib Belkhodja (1933-2007) explore abstraction. Similarly, actively politically-engaged artists like Hatim Elmekki (1918-2003) introduce an expressive representation of the struggle for independence in their paintings.