Lord of the auction ring: Christie’s Middle East holding online sales

Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer

Christie’s Middle East has announced the return of the Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art Online auction, now taking place May 1 – 16.

The sale comprises 63 works across mediums including paintings, sculpture and photography, from the period 1963 to 2021. 

It covers artistic production from across the Middle East and North Africa, including key works by artists from the U.A.E, KSA, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey. Well-known contemporary names from the region such as Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim, Ali Banisadr, Hassan Hajjaj, Reem Al Faisal, Thameur Mejri and Jawhara al Saud, are balanced by modern works including Etel Adnan’s Khat wa Rasm (Line and Hand Drawing), 1986; Dia Azzawi’s Gilgamesh Epic no 4, 1966 and Shaker Hassan Al Said Kitabat a’la jidar raqam (1) (Writings on the Wall number (1)), 1978.

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Leading the sale is a work by Moroccan artist Mohamed Melehi, Wilde, 1963, coming from the Private Collection of Toni Maraini, Rome. It hails from the artist’s time in New York, and was exhibited in Galleria Trastevere the same year of its making. It was also exhibited at London’s New Waves exhibition at The Mosaic Rooms in 2019. Female artists include modernists Samia Halaby, Helen Khal, Etel Adnan, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Huguette Caland and Behjat Sadr, alongside contemporary female artists Hayv Kahraman, Tala Madani, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Dana Awartani and Shirin Neshat.

They comprise a third of the works on offer in the auction - a strong market barometer of the continued interest in and rising demand for works by these talented artists. Highlights include The Maghreb section of the auction which has a work from Tunisian-Ukranian artist Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Carthage Presidence, 2009.

At over four metres long, it represents an opportunity for collectors to access a work from the sold-out series. Kaabi-Linke’s work can be found in MoMA, Guggenheim and Centre Pompidou collections. There are two commissioned works on paper by the Iraqi female artist Hayv Kahraman, who explores themes of identity, femininity and transformation in her work.

 Nabil Nahas’s untitled work.

Kurdish Women, 2009, depicts a group of women from Kurdistan bird-watching, and is the largest figurative work on paper by the artist to come to the secondary market. Dana Awartani’s (Saudi Arabian, b. 1987), Icosahedron Within a Dodecahedron (from the Platonic Solid Duals series), 2016, is a sculpture comprising wood, copper and glass. Awartani has recently showcased her works at prestigious venues such as the Sharjah Biennial and Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art. In this work, she fuses Euclidean geometry with Islamic geometry, and craftmanship with contemporary practice.

Etel Adnan’s leporello Khat wa Rasm (Line and Hand Drawing), 1986, illustrates the poem ‘Stations Beyond Death’ by Adnan’s friend, Iraqi poet Shawqi Abdel Amir. Produced in California in the 1980s, it weaves Amir’s verses with Adnan’s hand drawing and writing in 28 sheets using watercolour, ink and coloured pencils.

Shaker Hassan Al Said Kitabat a’la jidar raqam (1) (Writings on the Wall number (1)), 1978, among the works up for sale, was one of the founders of the modern Iraqi art movement and Baghdad Modern Art Group (1951). It comes from his sought after Wall series and his quest for One Dimension. U.A.E artist Mohammed Kazem’s Scratching series, 2021, is also among the highlights. Kazem is one of the leading Emirati artists, as part of the ‘Famous Five’ informal group of artmakers alongside Hassan Sharif, Hussein Sharif, Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim and Abdullah Al Saadi.

The work is a continuation of the series which he began in the 1990s, using a scratching technique with scissors to create reliefs scratched onto the surface of cotton, while also tearing material to produce repetitive sound. Nabil Nahas’s Untitled work, 1980, is considered a rare example of a piece from the artist’s geometric period that platformed his oeuvre. It intertwines Islamic geometrical principles with the geometric forms of American Abstract expressionists.

Suzy Sikorski, Specialist, Post War and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art, said: “There is a rising demand for Middle Eastern art at a regional and international level, now met with a growing interest of new collectors to the category that are focusing on GCC, especially Saudi Arabia. International exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale and Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art have also built more awareness of Middle Eastern art. Christie’s Middle East’s auction this season in Dubai reinforces our role to nurture the market here, for the regional and the international stage.” Marie-Claire Thijsen, Head of Sale, Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art, commented that “our online sale includes strong representation from the contemporary market which is going from strength to strength. We are seeing a significant increase in demand for work by contemporary names from the region, not only from collectors in the Gulf but notably internationally. We anticipate that there are names to watch included in this sale who will become highly sought after in the immediate future.” Founded in 1766, Christie’s is a world-leading art and luxury business. In its live and online auctions, as well as private sales, the auction house offers a portfolio of global services to its clients, including art appraisal, art financing, international real estate and education.

It has a physical presence in 46 countries, in the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific, with flagship international sales hubs in New York, London, Hong Kong, Paris and Geneva. It also is the only international auction house authorised to hold sales in mainland China (Shanghai).