The Middle East's Rise in the Art Market

The Middle East's Rise in the Art Market

By: Josie Renkwitz and Kimber Nimue    

 Since the late 2000s - early 2010s, Middle Eastern Art has become increasingly important on many fronts, both in its native region and abroad( the same can be said about China, but that’s a topic to be explored some other day). In 2009, Sotheby's hosted a series of international auctions focusing on the Middle East for the first time, these included their first Islamic art auction in Doha, Qatar. The show didn’t generate much money at the time, but when Sotheby's hosted another Middle Eastern Art auction in 2013, they made almost four times as much money and established the highest price ever for an auction of contemporary art in the region. 

Interest and investment in Middle Eastern contemporary art has only grown from there. In 2014, The New Museum “offered New York its first comprehensive survey of contemporary art from the Middle East and North Africa.” called “Here and Elsewhere”. 45 different artists’ work was on display, many for the first time in the U.S. It is also worth noting that half of the artists were women, “a percentage still rarely mustered in major exhibitions in the United States or elsewhere”. The 2015 Armory Show in New York featured 15 galleries worth of art from The Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean (MENAM). This was followed quickly in 2016 by a Guggenheim exhibition called “But a Storm Is Blowing from Paradise: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa”, which traveled from New York to Hong Kong, Singapore, Mexico City, and Milan. 

Governments in the Middle Eastern world have eagerly embraced the new-found international interest in their art. Back in 2008, The Museum of Islamic art opened in Doha, Qatar. This was quickly followed by the opening of the Arab Museum of Modern Art in 2010. Most recently in 2019, the National Museum of Qatar opened as well. It is not difficult to assume that The art world's recent interest in the Middle East stems from the region’s intricate role in politics, war, and social movements in the past two decades. It is interesting to see how ready and willing the regional art scenes and the international art market were, to play ball with each other when the time came. How anticipated this emergence of Middle Eastern art in the West was, is certainly worth investigating. 

Shifting the focus to current times, there is a private foundation called the Barjeel  Art Foundation, that has been doing a lot of work to amplify modern and contemporary artists. “The foundation’s guiding principle is to contribute to the intellectual development of the art scene in the Arab region by building a prominent, publicly accessible art collection in the UAE. Part of this objective involves developing a public platform to foster critical dialogue around contemporary art practices with a focus on artists with Arab heritage internationally.” Most recently, an exhibition organized by the foundation called Taking Shape: Abstractions From the Arab Art World 1950s to 1980s opened at NYU’s Grey Art Gallery in January. I closed early due to COVID, but the Museum created podcasts discussing the exhibit to supplement it’s shortened display. Along with highlighting works of many artists that have never been seen in the US before, it is clear that the Barjeel’s founder, Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, is truly passionate about sharing Middle Eastern art with the world. Whatever financial gain-based strategies may motivate most of the market, it is nice to know there are passionate people supporting under-represented artists.

When it comes to the Middle East's rising art scene there is no shortage of success, however, when approached from a broader lens issues arise; particularly in the way of workers rights, homophobia, and sexism coming into conflict with external ideas of how “the system” should be run and how quickly they should be “modernizing.”13  Putting politics aside, there are also economic concerns. Western art has long been seated on a commercial pedestal that has excluded art of color and capitalized off of a narrow slice of Middle Eastern history. Whereas, the museums that have come up in the Middle East are paying homage to a far richer history of their culture than the Western museums that pump people through exhibits like rabbits rumbling through a borough. Additionally, to the credit of the National Museum of Qatar, they utilize more than the basic expectations of art interactions and enhance their spaces, “with 21st-century lights, sounds, and visuals.” Other Museums such as The Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art are working toward bushing boundaries by allowing uncensored art from nudes to politics.14 There is the question lurking as the elephant in a room of whether or not the Middle East should be supported and engaged within their growing art endeavors. It goes without saying that there are many opinions on the topic, so I shall leave it simply that we cannot learn and grow without open conversations, however they should appear.15 

Similarly in Asia’s growing art scene, there are political, economic, and human rights issues that intersect their progress.16 Most recently is the new national security law in Hong Kong. This law impacts all people, native artists, and those abroad; everyone is subject to this law.17 However, as Asian art has also been kept on a short leash gripped tight by the white hand of Western art, it is culturally relevant and important that they too are given space to honor their bountiful history, create authentically without outside bias, and to produce commentary from a lived perspective.18

When specifically addressing issues of politics in art it is important to acknowledge how art creates a safe space for artists to speak their truth. 

Les Femmes du Moroc: Grande Odalisque 2 (Lalla Essaydi) Ka’aba, 2015 (Ahmed Mater)

To conclude, it is vital to spread awareness of the western gaze we put upon the world. Artists in the Middle East are aware of the climate they live in and deserve the same support we would give to any other protest against brutality. Wherever the lense of attention should land, it should be viewed with cultural relativism, patience, and respect. At the end of the day we may look, act, or sound different, but the fight is still the same. 

Belcher, David. “Skip the Vatican Museum. Go to the National Museum of Qatar.” The New York Times. The New York Times, January 7, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/07/opinion/national-museum-qatar-art.html.

Boucher, Brian. “Sotheby's Tests Middle East Contemporary Art Market.” ARTnews.com. ARTnews.com, December 18, 2017. https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/sothebys-tests-middle-east-contemporary-art-market-59385/.

“But A Storm Is Blowing from Paradise to Travel to Milan.” The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation, December 16, 2007. https://www.guggenheim.org/news/but-a-storm-is-blowing-from-paradise-milan.

Ghorashi, Hannah. “A Checklist for the 2015 Armory Show Focus: Middle East, North Africa, and the Mediterranean.” ARTnews.com. ARTnews.com, November 18, 2019. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/a-checklist-for-the-2015-armory-show-focus-middle-east-north-africa-and-the-mediterranean-3714/.

Ink, Social. “Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s.” Grey Art Gallery, September 10, 2020. https://greyartgallery.nyu.edu/exhibition/taking-shape-arab-abstraction-1950s-1980s-barjeel-january-14-april-4-2020/. 

“Contact and About.” Barjeel Art Foundation. Accessed October 5, 2020. https://www.barjeelartfoundation.org/contact-us/. 

Kinsella, Eileen. “New Fairs, Auctions Highlight Growing Middle East Art Scene.” ARTnews.com. ARTnews.com, August 10, 2012. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/new-fairs-auctions-highlight-growing-middle-east-art-scene-1288/.

“Mathaf Panel Discussion.” Mathaf. Accessed September 27, 2020. https://www.mathaf.org.qa/en/.

“NATIONAL MUSEUM OF QATAR.” Qatar Museums. Accessed September 27, 2020. http://www.qm.org.qa/en/project/national-museum-qatar.

“Now Contemporary Art / Doha.” Sotheby's | Auctions - International Contemporary Art Sale, | Sotheby's. Accessed September 27, 2020. http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2013/contemporary-art-doha-do1301.html?locale=en.

Pollack, Barbara. “Intimate Impressions: 'But a Storm Is Blowing From Paradise' Offers a Nuanced View of Middle Eastern Art at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.” ARTnews.com. ARTnews.com, November 18, 2019. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/reviews/intimate-impressions-but-a-storm-is-blowing-from-paradise-offers-a-nuanced-view-of-middle-eastern-art-at-the-solomon-r-guggenheim-museum-in-new-york-6765/.

User, Super. “MIA PARK IS OPEN.” The Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar. Accessed September 27, 2020. https://www.mia.org.qa/en/.

Wei, Lilly. “The Women of the Arab Art World.” ARTnews.com. ARTnews.com, November 18, 2019. https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/women-of-the-arab-art-world-3036/. 

“Hong Kong's National Security Law: 10 Things You Need to Know.” Amnesty International, July 17, 2020. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/07/hong-kong-national-security-law-10-things-you-need-to-know/.

Luke, Ben, Julia Michalska, and Aimee Dawson. “Hong Kong: Has the New Law 'Destroyed' the Art Scene?” The Art Newspaper. The Art Newspaper, September 26, 2020. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/podcast/hong-kong-art-world-future.

Nasser, Nasser bin, Paul Salem, Cameron Khansarinia, Wided Rihana Khadraoui, Hadani Ditmars, and Joseph Fahim. “Critiquing Arab Society and Politics through Art.” Middle East Institute, September 15, 2020. https://www.mei.edu/publications/critiquing-arab-society-and-politics-through-art.

Neild, Barry, and Rima Maktabi. “Nudity Courts Controversy in Qatar's New Museum.” CNN. Cable News Network, December 13, 2010. https://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/12/09/qatar.mathaf.art/index.html.

Smith, Karen. “'We Cannot Build a Truly Globalised Art World without China'.” The Art Newspaper. The Art Newspaper, September 1, 2020. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/comment/we-cannot-build-globalised-art-world-without-china. 

Essaydi, Lalla. “LES FEMMES DU MAROC.” LALLA ESSAYDI. Accessed October 5, 2020. http://lallaessaydi.com/9.html. 

Mater, Ahmed. “Ka'aba: Artworks.” Ahmed Mater, 2020. https://www.ahmedmater.com/artworks/artwork/kaaba.