In 2010, Mathaf (the Arab Museum of Modern Art) was opened in the Gulf state of Qatar. In his essay, I provide an overview of pan-Arabism in recent decades and looks at what this museum can do to restore a pan-Arab cultural identity that has been neglected and in some cases even vilified for decades. Read more »
Archives for 2013
Of Politics and Art – The Barjeel Art Foundation
With a quarter of a million Twitter followers and dozens of political articles published on notable news sites such as the Huffington Post, Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi may well have established himself as one of the most resonating voices on current affairs in the Arab world. Rising to fame through his coverage of political unrest in the Middle East, Al Qassemi is increasingly representing the region by way of an ever widening platform and his audience thankfully follows his insightful analysis of current affairs. Due to his constant exposure to the public eye, many may believe that they know who Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi is and what he stands for. But how much does a 140-character tweet reveal about a person? To understand what motivates this young Emirati to reach out to the world in the way he does, it is advisable to take a closer look at his great passion for the arts. Read more »
In the UAE the only tribe is the Emirati
The UAE’s ethnic make-up includes natives whose ancestors can be traced back here for centuries as well as people who immigrated to the country from across the region. Today, the cultures of these immigrants and natives have amalgamated into what has become the Emirati identity. Over the past four decades being Emirati started to denote far more than a citizenship — it was also a way of life, a sense of common destiny. Read more »
Correcting misconceptions of the Gulf’s modern art movement
On Oct. 25, after a brief visit to the region, a Wall Street Journal writer declared, “The Arabic-speaking part of the Gulf has essentially no indigenous tradition of visual or plastic arts.” It isn’t the first time that the modern art movement in the Gulf was dismissed by those who don’t know better. In fact, modern art as defined in the West stretches back several decades across the Gulf with multiple generations of artists. Read more »
Thriving Gulf Cities Emerge as New Centers of Arab World
An old Arab saying goes, “Cairo writes, Beirut publishes and Baghdad reads.” These three capitals, along with Damascus, were long the hubs of culture and education in the Arab world. However, over the past few years, as these traditional Arab capitals became more embroiled in civil strife, a new set of cities started to emerge in the Gulf, establishing themselves as the new centers of the Arab world. Abu Dhabi, its sister emirates of Dubai and Sharjah and the Qatari capital, Doha, have developed as the nerve center of the contemporary Arab world. Read more »
Abu Dhabi’s Foreign Assistance Steals Spotlight
Although lost in the spotlight on Abu Dhabi’s foreign financial aid, historically the emirate has also been tremendously generous in its own backyard, where it counts the most. While attention is to be focused on Abu Dhabi’s aid to other states, its generosity to the other emirates of the federation is even larger and more noteworthy. Read more »