“A piece of art is dead if it’s not being seen”: Khaled Ead Samawi And His Daughter Maya on The History and Future of The Samawi Collection
Author
Nicole Kanne
Published
1 November 2021
Sadik Alfraji, In Baghdad, Under the Freedom Monument, 2013. Courtesy of the Samawi Collection.
The concept of settling in a new and at times foreign place, of creating a ‘home away from home’ in both a physical and emotional sense, is a common sentiment within the community of Dubai’s international residents.
If – as is the case for some – ‘home’ is no longer an easily accessible destination, be it due to political unrest, civil war, or other external factors, the urge to create a stable and lasting domicile in one’s new surroundings becomes even more pronounced.
The notions of expatriatism and exile are closely reflected in the history and artworks of the Samawi Collection. Featuring more than 3,000 works by renowned Middle Eastern and international artists, Khaled Samawi and his family have built what is today one of the most prominent art collections in the city of Dubai.
Alongside a variety of pieces from across the world, including Eastern Europe, India, and Pakistan, the Samawi Collection provides a historical survey of the past decades in the Middle East, and most particularly the Levant, through works by some of the most critically acclaimed masters of modern and contemporary art from across the region.
Perhaps somewhat paradoxically, the early days of the collection mainly saw acquisitions of Western art from galleries in the family’s French winter-holiday retreat Courchevel.
“It wasn’t really a collection when we started,” says Khaled Ead Samawi, “we used to go to Courchevel every winter. While the family was skiing in the afternoon, I would go and hang around with the gallery owners. I wanted to learn more about art and that’s how I started collecting. So, each vacation, we would go up there and we would collect one or two pieces, but it was based purely on our visual impression.”
Khaled, who spent most of his early years in Switzerland, adds, “at the time, I didn’t know much about Middle Eastern art. I thought it was Orientalist art, because that’s what most foreigners, which basically I was back then, thought it was.”
It wasn’t until the family moved to Damascus that the collection began to take the shape and direction it is known for today.
“When we went to Damascus to look at what the art scene was like there, I realized that Middle Eastern art is not what I thought it was. It was completely different and had nothing to do with my initial perception. Eventually, I found myself more and more leaning towards art that has a message behind it, a humanitarian message against inequality and oppression. That’s what the core of my collection is today. I sometimes like to call it the ‘war collection’, but it’s really more of a humanitarian collection. Art that speaks about the state of humanity today,” Khaled reflects.
Works such as Louay Kayyali’s Then What? (1965) or Sadik Alfraji’s In Baghdad, Under the Freedom Monument (2013), both now a part of the Dubai Collection, throw into sharp relief the despair that comes with displacement and exile as well as the effects of war on society, while documenting the history of the Levant during the past decades.
Khaled explains, “In these 3,000 works, I think 1,000 can tell you about the mood in the Levant over the past few years, what was happening right before the Arab Spring started, what happened during the Arab Spring, and what happened after. That’s all documented in about a third of the paintings we have in our collection.”
In addition to merely documenting recent Levantine history, the works also share a distinctly emotional quality.
“I think something else that really ties our collection together is the visceral aspect. It’s more visceral than it is conceptual,” adds Khaled’s daughter Maya Samawi.
Beyond continuing to build their collection, the Samawis have also redefined the notion of arts patronage by helping several artists and their families leave war-torn Syria to Dubai.
Khaled remembers, “when the civil war in Syria started, my family and I moved to Dubai, and I told all the artists that it’s not going to get better any time soon. At the time, a lot of people thought it was just a small thing, that it would be over in one or two months. I was doubtful it would be that quick, so we moved about 20 artists and their families out of Damascus, out of harm’s way.”
Now firmly settled in Dubai, the family’s decision to lend some of their works to the Dubai Collection stems from their firm belief that art needs to be seen as well as their gratitude to the city for providing a safe haven for themselves and their artists.
“My dream was to build a museum for the collection, but unfortunately in the Middle East today, it’s hard to find a location. When we were approached about the Dubai Collection, we were very eager to do it. I think a piece of art is dead if it’s not being seen and it’s depressed in a warehouse,” explains Khaled, “I’m a strong believer that nobody ever owns art. You own the privilege of maintaining it, archiving it, and making sure that it’s in good hands until you pass it on to the next generation. Art belongs to the public – us collectors are merely its custodians.”
For the Samawi family, the Dubai Collection initiative is indicative of the emirate’s position in the Middle Eastern cultural scene and its development into a critical hub for art in the region.
Khaled reflects, “it is amazing that in only a little over 15 years, Dubai has become the art center of the whole Middle East, Art Dubai is the most important art fair in the region, and all the artists want to come and show here. Dubai wanted to be the cultural hub of the Middle East even before the Arab Spring, but the Arab Spring almost forced it to take that role. And where else would we go right now? Which Middle Eastern city would Middle Eastern artists be able to show in today?”
He concludes, “I hope this initiative can become more concrete and a museum can be built for Middle Eastern art where art patrons can actually show or donate their works. I’m happy to donate all the most important works I have because Dubai has given us a lot and I don’t know how to pay them back. I’m sure with time, when they build a museum, I’ll be one of the first standing in line, knocking on the door to donate some of the most important works I have, because then, those works are free.”
The rise of Dubai as a contemporary art capital took place first and foremost through the establishment of for-profit ventures in the city over the last two decades, as part of an increasingly globalised commercial art sector. International auction houses and art organisations, with Christies a pioneer amongst them together with the Art Dubai fair, played a crucial role in this process. Whilst expanding existing operations or ‘exporting’ commercial models already developed in Western cultural capitals, these organisations found in Dubai fertile ground to challenge established frameworks for presenting non-Western art, which ultimately changed the very notion of what it means for art to be ‘global’.
