A new exhibition at the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation is reflecting upon the evolution of abstract art in the UAE over the past 20 years.
Running until February on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, Hour Eternal brings together works by 14 Emirati artists, each of whom has delved into abstraction in an idiosyncratic way, evoking emotions and concepts that can be difficult to express in figurative terms.
The works come from a number of varying collections and sources, including the UAE Ministry of Culture. Several works have also been lent out by the artists themselves.
Michaela Watrelot, curator and director of exhibitions at the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation, says abstract art in the UAE is often traced back to the works by “The Five”, and Hour Eternal similarly identified the group as a starting point for its research on Emirati abstraction.
These Emirati artists – Hassan Sharif, his brother Hussein Sharif as well as Abdullah Al Saadi, Mohammed Kazem and Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim – came to be known as the “Group of Five” or “The Five” because of their participation in the 2002 exhibition in Germany that was titled 5 UAE.
“Approaches to abstract art and the artists that followed are often credited to the influence of Hassan Sharif and the artists from The Five,” Watrelot says. Four of those artists, except for Al Saadi, are featured in Hour Eternal.
Squares No 33, a 2013 work by Hassan Sharif, presents a grid of 20 squares, painted with bold strokes in varying colours and directions. The artist’s Sand Dollar No 16, meanwhile, shows a set of vertiginous circles that delve into the darkness of the canvas with a pit-like depth.
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