THE YOUNG COLLECTORS The seventh Young Collectors feature looks at the future patrons of Middle Eastern art. They open their doors to Canvas and share works from their eclectic art collections. 87 Sarvenaz and Reza Sepehi I’d love to dine with: S: Marina Abramovic. R: Pablo Picasso. I would pay monthly installments forever for a work by: S: Mark Rothko. R: Alberto Giacometti. Wishlist: S: Shirin Neshat, Samia Halaby and Rokni Haerizadeh. R: Paul Guiragossian, Ahmed Al-Soudani, Farhad Moshiri and Charles Hossein Zenderoudi. 88 I n 2006, Sarvenaz and Reza met at a dinner hosted by Magic of Persia in London, which not only helped them discover their mutual appreciation for the arts, but ultimately, each other. At the time Reza had completed a degree in law from the London School of Economics and Sarvenaz had recently moved from Iran to pursue a degree in accounting. In 2008 they relocated to Dubai and immediately became part of the local arts community, befriending the likes of Maneli Keykavoussi, daughter of the late Iranian artist Farideh Lashai, The Third Line’s Sunny Rahbar, Ali Bakhtiar and artist Reza Aramesh. “I saw a work by Lashai at Maneli’s house in Bastakiya,” recalls Reza. “That was my first purchase in Dubai and then I started buying all sorts of things.” The couple’s eclectic collection is predominantly Iranian and includes works by artists such as Shahriar Ahmadi, Abbas Akhavan, Aramesh, Reza Derakshani, Ramin Haerizadeh, Parviz Tanavoli and Shahpour Pouyan, among others. HOW WERE YOU FIRST EXPOSED TO THE ARTS? R: I had very traditional parents so the kind of art I grew up with was decorative and mainly comprised handmade Persian tapestries from the 18th and 19th centuries as well as a couple of Qajar paintings, which I have held onto. It was either that or Chinese and European porcelain and glass, which adorned every mantelpiece in a typical Iranian home. Essentially, I grew up with colour and variety. S: My mother was a painter and insisted on me being trained as an artist. I started going to Aydin Aghdashloo, but it was on a visit to a friend’s house in London where I saw a painting and realised I really liked the idea. That painting grabbed me and made me realise that there could be a deeper meaning to art than it being just decorative. WHAT WAS IT LIKE ACQUIRING YOUR FIRST WORK IN DUBAI? R: I’ve had the bug for collecting for a very long time. I was already familiar with Farideh’s work, but then got the chance to meet her through “I don’t want to limit Maneli. She was inspirational and I knew I just had to have one of her pieces. For me art is about engagement. A piece of art either talks to myself to just one me, engages me or it doesn’t. I already had a great conversation going with Farideh’s works and meeting her put everything into context. region of the world. I S: It wasn’t until I met Reza that I thought of owning a piece. I think this work by Farideh is so dynamic. I want to see the world feel it’s changing all the time and I don’t get tired of it. This page: through the eyes of Ramin Haerizadeh. Wonders Of Nature. 2006–07. C-print. 150 x 100 cm. Facing page: various artists.” Sarvenaz and Reza with Farideh Lashai’s untitled work from 2006. Oil and acrylic on canvas. (Diptych) 150 x 100 cm each. sarvenaz sepehi 89 This page: Left: Sarvenaz with (on the wall) Reza Derakshani’s Study For Day And Night. 2010. Mixed media on canvas. 100 x 100 cm. (On the table) Parviz Tanavoli’s Sitting Heech. 2007. Bronze. Variable dimensions. Inset: Shahrzad Changalvaee. Motherland #2, from the Body Composition Remaining Within Limited Domain series. 2009–10. C-print. 95 x 145 cm. Edition of three plus one artist proof. Facing page (clockwise from left): Reza with Parvaneh Etemadi’s Still Life. 2012. Screen print. 70 x 50 cm; Abbas Akhavan. Study For A Map (Islands) – Unit F19 [zone 1] and Unit C15 [zone 3]. 2010. Gold leaf on drywall. 60 x 60 cm each. Photography by Swetlana Gasetski. All images courtesy Capital D Studio, Dubai. WHAT KIND OF WORKS DO YOU LIKE? started buying in depth. We acquired another Lashai, several S: There is subtlety in abstraction. I don’t like art that is in your face artist books and a piece by Aramesh. To begin with there was no because I like to unravel things and discover new layers and meanings. specific plan or direction and I bought whatever I enjoyed and R: I am also drawn towards abstract art, however, I keep an open mind. liked. As a result, I have some pieces that I’m happy to keep under In my opinion, art is an expression of the artist’s life. We live in quite an the bed. Now there is greater direction, as we are researching and interesting place and it just so happened that most of the artists we met collecting together. and the art we liked were predominantly Iranian. S: I try to visit as many art fairs and museums as possible. I love the Tate especially. I like diversity and I have a passion for Iranian HOW DID YOU START BUILDING YOUR COLLECTION? and Middle Eastern art. However, I don’t want to limit myself to just R: I bought works by Shahriar Ahmadi and Shahpour Pouyan very early on. one region of the world. I want to see the world through the eyes of I also bought a lot of photographs. In fact, Sarvenaz’s first present to me various artists. was a Kiarostami piece, which is one of his earlier works when he used to sign the photograph. For a while I was also giving Sarvenaz paintings that WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE DUBAI ART SCENE? I liked as presents. I appeased her in that way and it worked in building R: It’s fantastic for the region because it has provided a platform for a my own collection! lot of artists who would never have received this sort of international exposure and recognition otherwise. But it needs more life. I wish the WHAT IS THE RESEARCH PROCESS LIKE? Middle Eastern galleries would participate more in international fairs R: As our relationship became more serious, the consultation and because they are the first port of call for the artists, after art school of the research process began to involve both of us. That’s when we course. Some galleries do have a global outlook, but they are only a 90 “Our collection is a reflection of our lives and since we are living in Dubai, it’s bizarre that we don’t have any Arab art. It is such a big gap in our collection and one which we need to fill.” Reza Sepehi handful. I also think the auction houses have been impressive in terms of works that we would love to have. We also want to increase educating people about art from this region. our exposure to other artists from the region, which means going beyond Iranian art. Our collection is a reflection of our lives and WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO DO WITH YOUR COLLECTION? since we are living in Dubai, it’s bizarre that we don’t have any R: We want to refine what we have right now. We have quite Arab art. It is such a big gap in our collection and one which we a few pieces that we want to sell so we can buy some other need to fill. 91 ramy boutros I know I want an artwork when: It starts a conversation in a language I understand and we start flirting. The work I could stare at for hours is: The Kiss by Gustav Klimt. Wish list: Kees van Dongen, Takashi Murakami and Anish Kapoor. The Middle Eastern art scene is: Pulsating. My earliest art memory is: My grandfather telling me stories about his art collection when I was five. F The artwork that got away was: A painting by Shafic Abboud. or Lebanese interior architect Ramy Boutros a sense of wonderment at what could be, instead of what is, can be traced back to some of his earliest memories: as a five-year old, he designed imaginary cities. On graduating from the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA) in 2000 with a degree in interior architecture, Boutros found himself thirsty for knowledge, so took himself to Paris. It was here that he spent three years taking courses in furniture design, visiting ateliers, hunting through This page: galleries for art and antiques, attending fairs such as TEFAF, the Armory Show and PAD, and learning how curators acquire Ramy with Khaled Takreti’s Ramy. 2013. and exhibit work. In 2005 Boutros launched his eponymous company and, three years later, first exhibited his furniture Oil on canvas. collection, followed by his jewellery designs. “My grandfather was an avid collector,” he explains. “He collected art that 260 x 331 cm. spoke to him and when I asked him questions he was always happy to share the stories behind the pieces he collected. I Facing page: loved these stories and they helped me to understand and appreciate the works.” Today Boutros’s collection includes works Hussein Madi. Coupe de Cavaliers. 2012. Oil on by Nabil Nahas, Nadim Karam, Safwan Dahoul, Samia Halaby and MF Husain, among others. canvas. 82 x 135 cm. 92 YOUR ARCHITECTURAL AND DESIGN PRACTICE The idea of being a collector seems so limited, yet art to CLEARLY OVERLAPS WITH YOUR LOVE OF ART, BUT me is limitless. WHAT INSPIRES YOU? I’m inspired by the exotic – and I don’t limit this to just WHAT WAS THE FIRST PIECE YOU BOUGHT? Contemporary art. I collect Modernist pieces, as well as I must have been 22 or 23 and came across a portrait works from the 18th and 19th centuries. There has to be of an Englishman wearing a maharajah costume, painted an inexplicable quality in a work, object or design idea to at the turn of the 20th century. The painting just drew me attract me – I love periods such as Neo-Greek, Japonism in, this Englishman with his blue eyes, wearing a turban and Egyptomania, to name a few. My interiors and with fantastic jewels, sitting on a red couch during the furniture, while inspired by the exotic, are not designed times of the British Raj – he had a story that I had to hear to be trendy or just for show. They incorporate the latest and retell. in modern comforts, technology and function so they can withstand the test of time. AND THE FIRST CONTEMPORARY MIDDLE EASTERN PIECE? A work by Safwan Dahoul. I’m in love with his paintings and WHEN DID YOU REALISE YOU HAD BECOME A ‘COLLECTOR’? his style because he has created an identity for himself. You I don’t consider myself to be a collector! I buy art because can’t look at his work and say it’s after the style of somebody I cannot do otherwise, it is as compelling to me as – Dahoul’s work is uniquely his. What I love about it is the breathing. I don’t know what I will buy tomorrow, I just Giaconda effect it has – his portraits’ eyes always seem to know that I will. I don’t buy to put together a collection. follow you around the room. “I don’t consider myself to be a collector! I buy art because I cannot do otherwise, it is as compelling to me as breathing.” 93 “An organic approach is also important as tastes evolve over time, so it is important that the space be timeless and flexible.” HOW IMPORTANT IS THE INTERACTION BETWEEN SPATIAL YOU TRAVEL A LOT – DO YOU FIND ART IN LOCAL MARKETS? DESIGN AND ART? Yes – I’m constantly running from country to country in search of art Very! The importance of displaying art correctly – as well as creating in all its forms. I believe you can find art in every market and in the a space for it – is an art in itself, and I am as interested in designing most surprising of places. I visit as many galleries, exhibitions and space for art as I am interested in it. Finding out a client’s particular museums as I can. I also believe that there are many artists still to dream for their home and then collaborating to make it come true be discovered. is a process that gives me great joy. The architectural concept, lighting, layout, flow and proportions must be harmonious. An DO YOU EVER BEFRIEND THE ARTISTS? organic approach is also important as tastes evolve over time, so it I am naturally curious and love people, but I don’t buy art because I is important that the space be timeless and flexible. am friends with the artist: I prefer the work to speak for itself. At the 94 This page: Ramy with (on the left wall) MF Husain. Maya V. 1973. Oil on canvas. 29.5 x 86.5 cm; (On the right wall) Gyula Tornai. Untitled. Undated. Oil on canvas. 65 x 47 x 7 cm; (On the table) Xavier Veilhan. Monceau. 2008. Polyurethane elastic painted wood. 170 x 85 x 50 cm. Inset: Farid Belkahia. (Detail) Arbre de vie. 1989. Oil on canvas. 63 x 83 cm. Facing page: Nabil Nahas. Fractals. 2012. Acrylic on canvas. 135 x 216.5 x 11 cm. Photography by Mansour Dib. © Canvas Archives. same time I understand that most artists value their privacy, space and with one of his pieces. He’d said he wanted to create a Japanese time to create. An artist whose work I have been fortunate to acquire screen – but it was in fact a painting of me! is Nabil Nahas. We live in the same apartment building, yet I used to go to various dealers to learn as much as possible about his work. He HOW HAVE YOU SEEN THE REGIONAL ARTS SCENE DEVELOP? found out and approached me one day and said, “I’m your neighbour! The boom that we’ve seen, especially with all these museums under Come and ask me anything you want about my work, don’t be shy.” construction, has given the artists a boost of energy and creativity to So we became really good friends. Another artist whose friendship I do something and be part of this movement. I think that is important. greatly cherish is Khaled Takreti – I’d fallen in love with some of his The Middle East has not promoted and encouraged local artists the pieces at Ayyam Gallery. I literally made them open the gallery on a way artists are promoted in the West. We began a little later, so weekend so I could purchase his works. This piqued Takreti’s curiosity, I find it really encouraging that there is so much innovation taking and he ended up visiting me in my home in Beirut and surprised me place now and how beautiful and amazing it all is. 95 rasha Rasha abu ghazaleh farouki 96 O f Palestinian heritage and born in Amman, Jordan, Rasha Abu Ghazaleh Farouki lived in the UAE, UK and Chile before studying for her bachelor’s degree in business and marketing in the USA. “As a student in Boston I was always visiting museums and galleries,” she recalls, “and when my parents came to see me we’d go to auctions and antique stores. The way I was exposed to art was organic and casual, and that’s the type of art collector that I’ve become.” Following graduation, Farouki worked in advertising for a year between Amman and Beirut before moving to London where she did her masters. On returning to Amman she worked in advertising again before getting married and living in Dubai for four years. In 2009 she moved back to the Jordanian capital, where she is now a mother and co-owner with her sister of the boutique Sketch, which specialises in women’s clothing. DID YOU GROW UP WITH ART AROUND YOU? My parents love to collect and our family home was full of antiques. Although I didn’t really get involved with my parents’ art, I appreciated what they bought. Whenever I see a Monet painting, it immediately makes me think of my mother. She loves that kind of art – classical landscapes, great use of colour – and that is what I, in a contemporary sense, look for in art. HOW DID YOU START COLLECTING? There was never a point at which I decided, “I want to be an art collector”. After I got married and moved to Dubai I bought a Campana Brothers stuffed animal chair. It set the tone, in the sense that I want to surround myself with art This page: that makes me happy. Everything is aesthetic rather than Youssef Nabil’s (above) Self-Portrait Looking Out Of The Window, Paraty and (below) Self- Portrait Looking With Sunset, Rio De Janeiro. 2005. Hand-coloured gelatin print. 27 x 40 cm. philosophical for me. When people visit our house they always say, “I love this, who is this?” It’s never been, “Hmm Facing page: Rasha with Hassan Hajjaj’s Coiffeur. 2000. C-print, walnut wood frame and found objects. what does this mean...” I like to surround myself with things 136 x 93.5 cm. that have joy in them and I tend to stay away from art that has darker themes. My husband Ali and I believe that if “I had never given a you’re living with an artwork, it’s got to exude an energy that you feel comfortable with. thought to middle WHAT WERE YOUR FIRST ACQUISITIONS? The Campana Brothers chair, at my first Art Dubai fair, where I also bought a Youssef Nabil self-portrait and a eastern art, before Hassan Hajjaj work. I had never given a thought to Middle Eastern art before then, but suddenly I felt a kind of then [art dubai], but explosion with all this Middle Eastern art around me. That’s kind of where things started. I was buying by gut instinct rather than making educated purchases, but I’ve moved on suddenly i felt a kind since. Now we do research! ANY FAVOURITE MEDIUM? of explosion with all I love photography, it totally speaks to me. There is something about a well-composed photograph that really draws you in. this middle Eastern We have a beautiful work by Yto Barrada, who I think is an amazing artist and photographer. I also really like Bouchra Khalili, who has great breadth of colour and composition. art around me.” Her Constellations are wonderful. I certainly see myself purchasing works like that in the future. 97 My favourite works in my collection: Works by Yto Barrada and Timo Nasseri. Wish list: Never ending. Art motto: Don’t buy on Instagram. This spread: The Middle Eastern art scene is: At a crossroads. Rasha and her husband Ali Farouki with Yto Barrada’s Déjeuner Sur l’Herbe, Perdicaris Forest, Rmilet, My earliest art memory was: My mother showing me works of her favorite Chilean artist Tangier. 2007. C-print. Claudio Bravo. 150 x 150 cm. Inset: Timo Nasseri. Glance #10. 2013. Poloshed stainless steel. The artwork I will get by hook or by crook: A Warhol/Basquiat collaboration that is 254 x 236.2 x 53.3 cm. hanging in my father’s office. Photography by Benoît Almeras. © Canvas Archives. “the way i purchase art now is indicative of this change, in that it’s no longer on a whim. today everything is thought out, calculated and done with a purpose.” 98 WHY DO YOU COLLECT ART? decision is now tied. We visualise where each potential new acquisition I want to surround myself with beautiful things that I enjoy being with will go, how the light will fall, how it will fit with our other works etc. and I want my children to do the same. That’s why I would never buy a The house and the art need to go together. We bounce ideas off one piece, no matter what it cost or who’s advising me to get it, if it didn’t another, but if I love something and Ali doesn’t, I can’t bring myself to move me in some way. convince him. We both have to live with it. Fortunately we have very similar tastes when it comes to art. WHERE DO YOU BUY? Through art fairs and galleries. I’m lucky to have friends who work in HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR COLLECTION? the art world and they send me recommendations. I think The Third It has one main theme: happy art. Colourful, striking and certainly Line is an incredible gallery. I regularly visit their website and check more aesthetic than it is intellectual or academic. The polar opposite out what’s going on. We live in a time when you can buy art very of me, in fact! easily. There are so many outlets from where you can get information about artists and their work, unlike before. HAS BUYING ART CHANGED YOU? I look at myself when I started collecting and feel like I’ve grown up so much HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHAT TO BUY? since then. My life has changed a lot, plus there was that first Art Dubai My husband Ali wasn’t involved in my first purchase but then he got and the first Christie’s sale. It’s like I’m looking at someone else. The way I hooked and now we decide together. We’re currently building our new purchase art now is indicative of this change, in that it’s no longer on a whim. home, a project that started two years ago and to which every art Today everything is thought out, calculated and done with a purpose. 99 Tarek tarek shamma B orn in London in 1981 to Egyptian parents, Tarek Shamma grew up in Cairo but returned to the British capital in 1999 to study architecture at the Architectural Association. “I wanted to study art,” Shamma recalls, “but my mother’s response was, ‘Over my dead body!’” After a time out following a car accident, he worked for India Mahdavi in Paris and then for Zaha Hadid before resuming his studies and graduating. Now a practicing architect, he has a particular interest in design and has lived with art for all his life. In the late 1980s his mother, aunt and grandfather set up Cairo’s Extra Gallery, designed to promote Egyptian artists and craftsmen. “The gallery had great works by Seif Wanly, Adam Henein and Ragheb Ayad, so I grew up with those in view,” Shamma remembers. 100 This page: Adam Henein. Ritual 2. 1985. Bronze sculpture. 9.9 x 10.3 x 72.7 cm. Photography by Tarek Shamma. Facing page: Tarek with Eric and Heather ChanSchatz’s PTG.102. 2008. Screen print on silk and mirror polished stainless steel with etching. 213.5 x 290 cm. “It’s always I’d love to dine with: Raqib Shaw. important to train I would pay monthly instalments forever for: Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden Of Earthly Delights. your eye, but also My favourite work in my collection: The Credo by Fremiet. accept that your An artist I think is undervalued or underpublicised: Adrian Villar Rojas. tastes change I know I should like but I just can’t: Marlene Dumas. over time.” Best art advice I ever got: Collect what you like. WHO WERE THE FORMATIVE INFLUENCES ON YOUR ART EDUCATION? WHAT WERE YOUR FIRST ARTWORKS? Certainly my parents, who were collectors of objects, but also my maternal The first serious work I owned was a painting by Marcel Gromaire grandfather. He was man of great curiosity and once found a Man Ray from 1951, given to me on my 21st birthday. I was working for work in Cairo. His house was wonderful, full of amazing objects and Zaha Hadid and was never out of the studio, so I saved money and furniture. We were encouraged to appreciate, but never allowed to bought a photograph, Hall Of 33 Bays – Time Exposed, by one of touch. Instead, he’d bring a book or catalogue and explain it; he was a my favorites, Sugimoto. I love photography and think it is incredible man of incredible knowledge. He loved rearranging everything, things how you can convey so much through one technique. Great works of would disappear and reappear a few months later, every piece with its art have an aesthetic sensibility, a thesis and are technically perfect. own story. I remember him saying, “It was difficult after the Revolution as Those three variables combined really draw you in, such as when I everything was taken, but I managed to buy this piece.” Sadly, by the saw an exhibition of Thomas Demand and understood his painstaking time we both could fully appreciate one another he’d had a stroke and so construction; the compositions are incredible but only make sense in I missed out on many conversations that could have been had. photographic form. 101 This page: Tarek with (on the wall) Miao Xiaochun’s Industrial World. 1999. C-print. 127 x 252 cm and (in the foreground) a hand from a sculpture of a Cambodian earth Buddha. Facing page: Above: Hiroshi Sugimoto. Hall Of 33 Bays – Time Exposed, from the Buddha series. 1995. Black and white photograph. 50.8 x 61 cm. Below: Sama Al-Shaibi. Close Support, from the Warhead series. 2009. Pigment print on cotton rag. 110 x 74 cm. Edition of five. Photgraphy by Palden MacGamwell, unless otherwise specified. © Canvas Archives. WHAT ELSE DO YOU LIKE? AT WHAT POINT DID YOU START CALLING YOURSELF A COLLECTOR? I love works by Timo Nasseri – the architect in me really admires his I find it arrogant to call myself a collector, to be honest. For me, collect- precision. I also love Cy Twombly. Even though his work looks like ing is something that has grown organically and from listening to myself. chaos it’s actually very controlled and that’s important to me, an ap- If I buy, I hope it is forever. The story is always extremely important to preciation heightened by Rolland Barthe’s essay explaining the work me. When I was designing a Madrid store for Christian Louboutin, he as a form of writing. One early piece I bought was by Eric and was collaborating with David Lynch to create a series of unwearable Heather ChanSchatz, who were showing at the Albion. I liked their fetish shoes. David took amazing photographs in which the technique, large compositions made of smaller, aggregated glyph components. shadows and narrative are all very strong. The colours were quite striking, even if a bit out of my comfort zone. DOES EVERY PIECE YOU OWN HAVE A NARRATIVE? HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT BUYING ART? Absolutely. My collection comprises pieces with their own narra- It’s as and when it happens. I try to maximise my exposure by going to tives, rather than being a group of works with a unifying focus or exhibitions and reading, everything is online. Auction catalogues are also theme. For example, I designed Selma Feriani’s booth at Art Dubai great. I play a game with my mother and aunt at art fairs: we pretend we one year and she offered me a photograph by Sama Al-Shaibi. Or have a set budget and figure out how to spend it. It’s always important to rather, a photographic series of missiles. At first all I saw were sim- train your eye, but also accept that your tastes change over time. ple forms making strong architectural compositions. Then I realised 102 “My dream is to set up an arts- and-crafts foundation in Egypt to prompt a conversation differentiating art from arts and crafts, both equally important.” these innocuous items were warheads, creating a very charged narrative. Talking about seemingly familiar subjects in new and differing ways always intrigues me. WHICH PERIODS OF ART DO YOU PARTICULARLY ENJOY? I really like the Egyptian Modernists, because – again – there’s a narra- tive involved. As a child, my parents once bought a Mahmoud Mokhtar painting of a woman at an auction in Paris. It hangs in their salon and still fascinates me. It is such a pure and strong work and intrinsically Egyp- tian. I grew up seeing other works of his, such as his sculpture of Saad Zaghloul. A lot of public art. As Egyptians we no longer seem to respect or encourage our wonderful history and heritage, which I find sad. HOW DO YOU SEE YOURSELF HELPING TO TACKLE THIS PROBLEM? My dream is to set up an arts-and-crafts foundation in Egypt to prompt a conversation differentiating art from arts and crafts, both equally impor- tant. I’d like to see more dialogue between 21st century designers and craftsmen working with traditional techniques. I would like to apply my knowledge and skills to implement something constructive. 103 MAYA samaan JALBOUT B orn and raised in Damascus, Maya Samaan Jalbout moved to Beirut three years ago after studying architecture in Damascus and interior design in Montreal. “I wanted to do interior architecture, but I thought I’d start with architecture itself,” she recalls. “I’ve always had a passion for art and design and so did a lot of history of art courses alongside the architecture.” Whilst in Canada Jalbout worked as an advisor on interior design, was involved in several commercial and residential projects and then, with a friend, founded the company Artiform. “Our main purpose was to do interiors and import furniture from the Middle East, especially high-quality mother-of-pearl pieces,” she explains. “We did a few shows at fairs and, in 2003, started an art show with the Festival du Monde Arabe, to which we brought Syrian artists to exhibit.” Thereafter, Jalbout was involved in several exhibitions featuring Syrian artists such as Mustafa Ali, Saad Yagan, Hammoud Shantout, Lutfi Rumhein and Sara Shamma. “It was a great way to promote Syrian art in Canada,” she recalls, “as even Syrians who were living there didn’t know about these artists.” More a way of supporting the artists of her homeland than a commercial enterprise, these shows also enabled Jalbout to develop her own art collection. 104 “When I need longer, or seek other people’s opinions, it means I need a push and that it’s not really coming from me.” This page: Fateh Moudarres. Untitled. 1961. Ink on paper. 30 x 20 cm. Facing page: Maya with Omar Hamdi’s untitled work from 2012. Oil on canvas. 100 x 100 cm. DID YOU GROW UP WITH ART AROUND YOU? WHAT CAME NEXT? We had a few pieces at home, paintings by Moudarres and I bought a few other pieces by artists such as Mustafa Ali and Zuhair Hasib, Nasser Nabaa, for example. Like all Syrians in the 1970s, my and maintained contact with the Arab art scene during visits home. I’d try to parents bought such works and we grew up with them. No one buy at least one or two pieces on each trip. The artists became friends and knew then what they’d be worth today and how important they each piece reminds me of a particular time, place and happy memories. would become. WHAT WAS THE FIRST PIECE OF ART YOU ACQUIRED? WHAT’S THE MAIN FOCUS OF YOUR COLLECTION? When I was 19, I helped a gallerist in Syria organise a show at the Shera- The wider Middle East, but particularly Syria. My husband is Lebanese ton Hotel and instead of being paid for my work, I asked for a Moudarres and he became an art lover because of me, so I realise that now we piece, which he offered to me at a good price. Having lived with all that have to buy Lebanese art for him! Although art has no nationality and I art for two weeks, I felt the desire to have one of the works myself. After don’t buy for nationalistic reasons, we do have so much talent in Syria. getting one, you want another. It’s a collector’s disease! It started then and Now that I am in Lebanon and being exposed to its artists, I’m seeing it hasn’t stopped. From then on, whenever I had any spare money, I’d buy some amazing work here too. The artists I really love at the moment are little paintings. Before buying furniture for my house, I’d buy art. Marwan Sahmarani and Zena Assi. 105 I am a young collector because: I have been collecting art since I was 19 years old. I am still young and have a long way to go. The work I could stare at for hours is: Any artwork that could speak to my soul. My wish list: Marwan Sahmarani. My earliest art memory: A visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, where I tried to ‘play the guide’ to some friends. The first thing I do when I buy a new piece: Just look at it and enjoy it for some time before it finds its place. The artist’s name I can never pronounce is: Cerith Wyn Evans. 106 “Maybe in time I’ll have a collection that is of museum calibre, but right now it’s a personal project for me.” This spread (from left to right): Maya with (on the wall) Safwan Dahoul’s Rêve. 2005. Oil on canvas. 50 x 40 cm and (on the floor) Joseph Coletti. Untitled. 1992. Marble sculpture. 83 x 30 x 60 cm; Ahmed Moualla. Martyrs. 1995. Oil on canvas. 55 x 65 cm; Salvador Dalí. Biblia Sacra. 1969. Lithography. 50 x 35 cm. Photography by Mansour Dib. © Canvas Archives. HOW DO YOU USUALLY BUY WORKS? Although I like sculpture, I connect better with paintings, I feel the I buy straight from artists or from gallerists I’ve known for a long time. Usually artist’s soul more through them. My taste has changed over the I know instantly that I want a piece. When I need longer, or seek other peo- years, however. I’m not sure I’d buy today what I bought in the past. ple’s opinions, it means I need a push and that it’s not really coming from me. Yet even though my appreciation of art and technique has evolved, I still love those early acquisitions. WHY DO YOU COLLECT? I love art and love having it around me. It makes me feel good. I don’t buy WHAT LONG-TERM PLANS DO YOU HAVE FOR YOUR COLLECTION? to sell, but I’m happy to know that my pieces have gained in value over the I’m not sure yet. When I started collecting I felt I would pass the years. When I started collecting, I didn’t think about such issues. I really regret works on to my kids in the hope that they’d know what to do with not buying so many things that came my way, like works by Safwan Dahoul, them. Maybe in time I’ll have a collection that is of museum calibre, whose atelier I visited a long time go, and a couple of works by Sara Sham- but right now it’s a personal project for me. I love my pieces. Look- ma in a show I organised. I wish now I’d bought them at the time. ing at the collection, it isn’t harmonious – some pieces are calm and serene, others strong and daring – but I like the variations and I love HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE YOUR COLLECTION? to hang them and look at them. I collect for the love of the art, not More Modern than it is Contemporary, mainly from the 1970s on- its value, and there always has to be a connection. That’s something wards. In terms of medium, it’s oriented more towards paintings. I hope I never lose sight of. 107 Latest acquisition: Two self-portraits by Mohammed Al-Shammarey. The work I could stare at for hours is: Nothing. I don’t have that kind of attention span. My favourite works in my collection: Abdul Rahman Katanani’s Boy Flying With A Balloon and Banksy’s Trolleys. An artist I think is undervalued or underpub- licised: Yazan Halwani. Tarek tarek My earliest art memory was: Going to Aali village in Bahrain and watching local craftsmen work with clay. The artwork I will get by hook or by crook: A giant Botero sculpture that will have me and my future miknas kids paying monthly instalments forever! 108 This page: Above: Banksy. Donuts Strawberry. 2009. Screen print on paper. 56 x 76 cm. Edition 244 of 299. Below: Banksy. Trolleys (B&W). 2006. Screen print on paper. 56 x 76 cm. Edition 44 of 150. Facing page: Tarek with (on the table) Michael Rakowitz’s What Dust Will Rise? (1). 2012. Hand-carved Bamiyan travertine. 25.4 x 33 x 6.4 cm and (on the wall) Robert Mars. All American Marilyn. 2011. Mixed media on panel. 106.7 x 106.7 cm. “Art becomes an addiction once you’ve bought your first proper piece.” B eirut-born, Bahrain-raised, US-educated, Dubai-based: Tarek Miknas is an individual with an international perspective. This cosmopol- itanism runs through his private art collection, which although acquired worldwide has a regional edge to it. “When you look at the creativity within our industry that is now celebrated around the world, it is becoming more local,” says the CEO of advertising firm FP7 MENA. “Things are much more flexible now compared to the 1990s or early 2000s, when the big global message seemed so important. The audience has changed, too. People have grown up with a different popular culture than what was fed to them in the past. With art, the first place you see new and brave work is among the non-commercial artists, which is why we started this private collection of young Middle Eastern artists that I display on the walls of our offices throughout the region.” 109 This spread: Christo. The Mastaba – 1240 Oil Barrels. 1998. Offset lithograph and silkscreen on somerset pag paper. 45.5 x 58 cm. Edition 48 of 60; Damien Hirst. Tryptophan, from the Woodcut Spots series. 2010. Woodcut in colours on Somerset white textured paper. 102.5 x 101.7 cm. Edition 14 of 48; Tarek with Abdelrahman Katanani’s Boy Flying With A Balloon. 2012. Aluminium, bottle tops and screws. 190 x 65 cm. Photography by Swetlana Gasetski. All images courtesy Capital D Studio, Dubai. WHO IS THE ‘WE’ BEHIND THIS PRIVATE COLLECTION? DOES THIS INTEREST IN PHOTOGRAPHY FEATURE IN YOUR ‘We’ is me! I buy the art myself and always look to the non-commercial COLLECTING HABITS TODAY? sector. I think those artists are always the first to express interesting Not really. I’m probably much more critical when it comes to photogra- ideas, mainly because they don’t have the boundaries that commercial phy, especially as so much of it today is digitally manipulated. I’ve artists do. bought three pieces of photography that I love but everything else has been painting. At some point you weed out everything except what is BAHR AIN HAS A RICH CULTUR AL ENVIRONMENT. WERE really interesting and makes a statement. I like what surprises me. YOU EXPOSED TO THIS WHILST GROWING UP? Absolutely. My mum would follow certain artists that she really liked HOW WAS ART LIFE IN NEW YORK? and my dad is very much into the arts. We always used to visit Really exciting, quite unlike California. But I didn’t really follow shows, museums and galleries when away travelling. Whilst in California I heard about things through word of mouth. Somebody would tell me at university I was only one credit away from earning a minor in about a great artist in, say, Queens, so I’d go all the way there for that. photography. I would spend hours in the dark room with all those Once I walked past a gallery and saw something and just thought, “I’m chemicals, totally losing track of time! I used to photograph people going to get it.” It was a Robert Mars collage with a big Coca Cola that looked a bit different or strange – not portraiture as such, just logo across it. It was instant – no sleeping on it, I just got it. Art becomes natural shots of people in their authentic environments. an addiction once you’ve bought your first proper piece. 110 “I think that the art here is a story of our times, a very brave kind of art and often the sort of thing you wouldn’t think they’d display.” HOW DID YOUR TASTE DEVELOP? thing you wouldn’t think they’d display. Adel Abidin’s Cover Up, for I liked Pop art for a while, perhaps because of my work in adver- example. It shows that our part of the world is capable of having a tising, but overall I’m just attracted to certain pieces. It’s maybe not sense of humour about itself. I think there is a lot of Middle Eastern so much a question of taste but of your eye saying, “I love this and art that is raw, but that’s what I like about it. There’s so much more to want it.” I found an artist, Michael Rakowitz, in a fair two years come. They are really doing something brave. As much as any of us ago. He had a beautifully designed stone from Afghanistan, where can, we should all be supporting it. stone religious idols were being blown up by the Taliban. He went and collected stones and transformed them into art. I loved the story DO YOU HAVE ANY RULES FOR COLLECTING THAT YOU IMPOSE behind what he was doing. ON YOURSELF? No, but the last time I travelled for pleasure I went to Armenia. I was WHAT GOT YOU MORE INTO THE MIDDLE EAST SCENE? curious to see the art scene there and found a few galleries that had That was a whole other journey, which for me began in 2010. I the kind of art I like. I had no intention of buying, but ended up getting started visiting more galleries, ironically not in Dubai but on visits to three works. Just pieces that I loved, there’s no science to it other than Jordan, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. I’d say to myself, “I only have that. My wife is much more structured and practical and tries to lay 24 hours, I need 30 minutes to see a gallery!” I think that the art here down rules like, ‘Try not to come back from a trip with 10 pieces!’ I’m is a story of our times, a very brave kind of art and often the sort of working on that... 111 Written by: Myrna Ayad Katrina Kufer Maria Mumtaz James Parry Anna Wallace-Thompson 112
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