When Images Speak: Highlights from the Dubai Collection presents work largely from the collection of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the founding group of artworks that launched the Dubai Collection initiative in the spring of 2021, together with loans generously offered by other patrons of the initiative.
While private collections are always expressive of their collectors’ visions, this collection being no exception, it further introduces some of the main and dominant nodes and thoughts in the Arab World, particularly around the mid-twentieth century. Overall, the works here navigate the negotiations of modernism by Arab artists during the past century and its evolution into contemporary trends.
The chosen works of art represent some of the most influential and progressive artists who shaped the modern movements in the region as well as reflect the critical inquiries and social dynamics of their time. The twentieth century was one of major shifts and changes that resulted in founding the different countries of the Arab World, following periods of colonization and struggles for independence. In forming national identities and iconography, those artists played a vital role that further aided in the construction of the national consciousness.
The exhibition is divided into three broad and overlapping categories that conjure up a variety of conversations among the works and the artists. Most of the pieces exhibited defy a simple stylistic classification and instead flow between the allocated different spaces.
The artists themselves span the region, with many living in diaspora, yet they intersect through their realities, imaginations and constructions. More than their themes and messages, these objects are beautiful works of art that signify artists’ visions and imaginations. They are also documents of their time that narrate a history of connectedness, shared hopes and struggles.
