The competition in the art world for business in the Gulf is heating up. Next week Christie’s is set to host its first fine art auction in Abu Dhabi, featuring some 70 lots of modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art.
The sale, dubbed “MAWASIM: 20 Years of Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art,” features works by Turkish abstractionist Fahrelnissa Zeid, one of the first women to attend art school in Turkey; Iraqi painter Faisel Laibi Sahi; Egyptian modernist painter Mahmoud Saïd; and Palestinian American artist Samia Halaby, among others. Estimates for works in the sale range from $8,000–$12,000 to $500,000–$700,000. (Mawasim means “seasons” in Arabic and is meant to reference the 20 years since Christie’s held its first sale in the United Arab Emirates, in Dubai, in 2006.)
In an interview with the Khaleej Times, the house’s chairman for the Middle East and Africa, Ridha Moumni, called the sale “probably the most important event of modern and contemporary Eastern art for many years.”
The sale is something of a starting pistol for what is rapidly becoming the November arts season for the UAE: several weeks later, from November 19–22, Frieze will host the first edition of its Abu Dhabi fair at Manarat Al Saadiyat, and just a few weeks after that, on December 11, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will finally open its doors. And on December 10, Sotheby’s will culminate the second edition of its “Collectors’ Week” in the emirate with its inaugural fine art sale, titled “Breaking Ground,” to be hosted at the new Saadiyat Grove Experience Center on Saadiyat Island, the city’s cultural hub. (Sotheby’s sale, notably, features works with much higher top estimates and headline names like Andy Warhol and Claude Monet.)
There will be some major works featured by Christie’s in Abu Dhabi, though they won’t be for sale. Rather, the house has said it will be showing, starting Wednesday, three major works from its upcoming marquee New York sales: Wassily Kandinsky’s Betonte Ecken (1923), which carries a $60 million to $80 million estimate; Mark Rothko’s Untitled (1968), which carries a $10 million to $15 million estimate; and Pablo Picasso’s Tête de femme (1939), which carries a $12 million to $18 million estimate. All three works will be on view at Abu Dhabi Edition hotel on Al Bateen Marina.
One imagines that Christie’s is hoping those lots catch the eye of some deep-pocketed Gulf collectors ahead of the sales. After all, Moumni touted to the Times, “The UAE is the country where we have the biggest number of bidders in our auction. In terms of concentration, the UAE is the land of collectors of modern and contemporary art.”