Doha: AlBahie’s fifth edition of its Modern and Contemporary Art Auction will be held on December 5 in AlBahie’s main auction hall at Katara Cultural Village, Building 22C.
Comprising over eighty-three lots by fifty-one artists, this is one of the most important auctions to take place in the region that features mid to late 20th century art from the Arab region, including works by pioneers of modern Arab art and notable contemporary artists.
The auction will also include a work by the late Qatari modern art pioneer Jassim Zaini, which is offered for the first time ever in a public sale and whose works are rare to find and never leave the private collections and museums they sit in.
The artists whose works are featured in the auction come from cities around the region that either are or have been considered important centres of Arab artistic movements such as Cairo, Baghdad, Damascus, Gaza, Ramallah, Khartoum, Marrakesh, Algiers and more.
It also includes works by artists from the Arab diaspora from around the world such as London, Helsinki, Holland, Dusseldorf, Berlin and Istanbul, some of whom are featured in an auction in the region for the first time.
The auction brings together works that can be great examples of certain periods and movements in Arab art that reflect the socio-political context of the generation of those artists, which makes some of the works in the auction museum-level and historically important masterpieces.
The auction is led by exceptional works by the Palestinian-British artist Bashir Makhoul (Lot 65, Promise 2, estimate $72,000 - $85,000), the Iraqi pioneer Shaker Hassan Al Said (Lots 30 & 31, estimates between $50,000 and $70,000), the Egyptian pioneer Seif Wanly (Lot 78, Untitled, estimate $12,000 and $24,000) and the Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour (Lot 66, Palestinian Phoenix, estimate $45,000 and $55,000). Other major highlights of the auction include the work of Iraqi-British artist Athier Mousawi (Lot 24, False Monument 5, estimate $14,000 and $20,000), the Lebanese artist Hussein Madi (Lot 32, estimate $28,000 and $35,000), the renowned Indian-Qatari artist M F Husain (Lot 25, estimate $8,000 and $10,000) and the Algerian Baya Mahieddine (Lot 41 & 42, estimate $7,000 and $13,000 and $11,000 and $18,000).
AlBahie is pleased to offer other outstanding examples of great works by Charles Khoury, Ayman Essa, Jamal AbdulRahim, Akram Shukri, Faraj Abbo AlNuman, Nasr Abdelaziz Elayan, Saddam Al Jumaily, Hassan Hajjaj and many more, something we expect will spark a strong response from our local and international collectors.
The range of works in terms of medium, size, period, the collections they come from and the prices they start at undoubtedly make it an incredible and unmissable opportunity for both seasoned and young collectors of art from the region. AlBahie is at the forefront of and a key player in the formation of a local Arab art market which contributes to a vibrant art scene vital to the creative economy.
