Saudi and Art.

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Saudi and Art.

Post by Hafiz »

Saudi and Art

It’s a long complicated newspaper article and not easy to read about modern art in Saudi, the changes underway and how some artists are still persecuted. It’s a surprising and unexpected story of a country everyone thinks they know – but few do.

A significant player in the story of two artists is the unusual Prince Khalid al-Faisal Al Saud, a senior member of the royal house, superbly educated ages ago in the US and Oxford but he missed out on third rate places in the region and on a 4th rate military education in Cairo.

He is an avid painter, poet and collector of the arts, a skilled administrator and governor (unlike Egypt where they are all experienced generals or boot lickers). His children are well educated, mainly in English, and are liberal and reformist and he has won awards for his concern for young people. None of his children are attention seeking, narcissistic al Waleed style style billionaires.

In brief, as governor of a Yemen border province in the aftermath of the twin towers and with many of the bombers coming from his region he ran art courses (odd choice) for young men to redirect them from fundamentalism and violence. A remarkable idea you don’t expect in that region. http://www.paintingandpatronage.com/hrh ... -province/

Ahmed Mater from that region was part of that program and is now an artist and close to the Crown Prince (not an association you would expect) and appointed by him as the arts Tsar of Saudi. He is from humble circumstances, unlike Egypt he is not 110 years old nor ever in the Military Morale Affairs Branch, not from the capital, not rich and not connected to connected persons – how can this be so. He has exhibited at the Metropolitan and Guggenheim (a dirty filthy Jewish museum that no Egyptian would enter) - no Egyptian artists have ever been invited there.

Significantly his art is ambiguous – and therefore able to be supported both by the liberals and by the conservatives but with a hidden irony. Irony is not well appreciated in some countries in the region – its too subtle.

His friend was/is Ashraf Fayadh an artist sentenced to death then to 8 years and 800 lashes for apostasy so this story has two arms.

A statue referencing the national colors of Saudi by him
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Some works by Mater

“The Evolution of Man”
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His ironic photo of the Mecca transit system.

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As the visual arts manager of Saudi Mater is collecting for the state (can anyone remember a single purchase by Egypt of any modern art object in 70 years or the Cairo billionaires collecting other than trash) including objects created by non-Muslims and people from outside the region – shock horror. Here is a statue in Jeddah by the Italian Cesar Baldaccini called ‘The Eye’

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He also organizes traveling exhibitions of modern Saudi art in the region and the west. Others countries have little to show the world that they have done in the last 2,000.

Gulfies have become big collectors of ‘decadent’ Egyptian art from before WW2 – an era loathed by the rulers of Egypt since 1952 and by their Supreme Antiques. Here is one object

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Of course they are big buyers of premium European art but they do have an interest in something Egypt ignores or suppresses about itself

There are no pyramids, Nile scenes or romantic fellahin farm workers in Saudi art – therefore it is worthless in the view of the cultural leaders of the region/world. Nevertheless the west is interested and modern Saudi art is featured in specialist art magazines world wide which will influence middle and upper class opinion in the west. At the very least these show that Saudi’s are creative.
https://www.afr.com/lifestyle/arts-and- ... 522-h10dxh

Apparently art education and practice in Saudi schools is widespread and popular – particularly for girls whilst other countries see the production of mathematically innumerate engineers as the number one national priority.

Women artists are active, activists and supported. One of many is Sakna al-Tarmoukh and here is her attempt at irony in front of her painting – she was a big activist for female car driving:
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Fida al Hussan (possibly an expat) would get arrested in Egypt for this one, which shock horror, is generated via computers and not the ‘immortal’ way which should never be abandoned under any circumstances without approval of the Artist’s Syndicate and a military court:
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In a region of the world which has the youngest population in the world you expect that energy, creativity, innovation and art would be prominent – in some places.

An aside. Before the several generations of universal and standardized conservative Wahabi religious ‘control’ (badly educated people from the north) Saudi women dressed differently according to their regional traditions. Here is a reconstruction:

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Female clothes from Asir/Highlands right near Mecca:
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Even the men’s clothing, at least from this region, is not what you would expect.
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My guess on little evidence is that after the Saud victory in the 1920's regional differences, including in clothing, were discouraged/punished to 'build a unified nation' or some such rot..

Another aside: not a single country in the world with a large population has conscription. Mostly with a large population and a well run army the locals join up voluntarily. Except for Egypt where being in the army unless you are connected or related is brutal, humiliating and offers few opportunities for training other than indoctrination. Given its so bad for most conscription is the only way to force people to do it. The problem is that conscription armies in peace time are universally regarded as not much good made worse by the rapid takeover of complicated technology which takes ages to master.

Most countries that have conscription have small populations and attractive alternative job opportunities – the Gulfies – that you need to ‘compete’ with by force, or dogmatic and aggressive countries like Iran.

Saudi doesn’t have it and Turkey (a very fine army) is abolishing it. Saudi of course is joining the rest of the Gulf and Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, India, Morocco and other Muslim countries in having women in the Armed Forces in killing roles.

Therefore with Egypt and with lots of unemployment you would think that abolishing conscription would still lead to a supply of long term – 5-10 years - candidates for the Army – if they knew the pay was OK, if they would be trained and managed well, not humiliated and not brutalized and if living conditions were better than a pig sty. None of this will happen.

Therefore unique in the world Egypt forces its kids (those not in university, those not rich, those not connected and those who can’t pay a bribe to a military man or a doctor) to join the army and if you are poor your forced term of service is three times as long (36 months) as rich kids and the rich kids get the nice Cairo/office jobs and don’t get called up much over the following 9 years for reserve duty – except to the Heliopolis military clubs or to one of the scores of their hotels or chalets.


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Re: Saudi and Art.

Post by Ruby Slippers »

Thanks for taking the time to post such an interesting topic, Hafiz. :up
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