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In the Pursuit of a Commercial Art Scene - Abu Dhabi and Dubai
By Emily Doherty
2007 was a monumental year for art – and indeed, all things cultural – in Abu Dhabi. In a short space of time, the city has seen real progress in terms of cultural maturity. The Saadiyat Island project – complete with Louvre and Guggenheim museums - was announced to the world in February; the Tourism Development Investment Company (TDIC) created a dedicated exhibition space within the Emirates Palace hotel organising such prolific exhibitions as the Arts of Islam – Treasures from the Khalili Collection; three contemporary galleries, Ghaf Gallery, Al Qibab Gallery and Contempo Art Gallery, welcomed audiences for the first time; the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) brought heavyweight archaeological and anthropological exhibitions such as the British Museum’s Sudan, to the halls of the Cultural Foundation and, Art Paris-Abu Dhabi held a successful, glamorous inaugural edition in November. The city’s cultural calendar was increased ten-fold. However, is it also valid to look at Abu Dhabi one year on and question why there isn’t yet a contemporary commercial art scene to match the very one which has been blossoming, not so quietly, up the Sheikh Zayed road for the past three years?
The cultural development of Abu Dhabi is, inevitably, compared to that of its noisy neighbour, Dubai whose contemporary commercial art market has been aided by the runaway success of Art Dubai. The fair not only highlighted the existence of a contemporary art scene in Dubai in the first place but with this most recent edition in 2008, has further driven a market now complimented by two major, locally operating auction houses (Christie’s and Bonhams, with Phillips de Pury poised to make a more permanent mark on the scene). In an attempt to understand what has been happening artistically in the region, there was a palpable sense at Art Dubai 2008 of the individual Emirates being pigeon holed by visitors, speakers, gallerists and artists alike: Dubai is the centre of a flashy, on-trend burgeoning commercial art scene; Sharjah is ahead of the game in museum culture, its biennial and education; Abu Dhabi of course, is the hub of world class, blue chip museums to come.
But as Abu Dhabians are well aware, culture hasn’t - historically speaking - been built top down. With the promise of those gorgeous, shiny Saadiyat Island museums for 2012 one might assume that Abu Dhabi is focusing solely on imported cultural goods. But artists, galleries, collectors and critics feed life into a city’s cultural fabric: those mighty institutions at the top of the cultural food chain, can find inspiration in the very same. For example, would Nicholas Serota have bought Chris Ofili’s The Upper Room for Tate Britain, from London’s Victoria Miro Gallery if Adrian Searle hadn’t recommended its purchase in his Guardian review? In other words, there are complexities that surround a major art institution’s exhibitions and acquisitions programmes; the existence of important cultural institutions is just the beginning. They cannot, necessarily, operate alone.
Art Dubai is a great example of how powerful an international art fair can really be in terms of pulling together a ‘scene’. The first edition in 2007 was widely expected to “make a significant contribution to the cultural life of the region” and eighteen months later, this certainly seems to be the case. As more and more local galleries opened for business, John Martin and his selection board chose the most curatorially important of these – such as The Third Line and B21 galleries - to show alongside the international gang; hence, sorting the wheat from the chaff for the benefit of collectors new to contemporary art in the region. Outside the exhibition halls, the dots were joined by the Art Bus service shuttling art lovers from the fair to the galleries themselves, for a wider view of the city’s burgeoning scene. The Creek Art Fair, founded by Mona Hauser of XVA Gallery, is the only fringe art fair in the United Arab Emirates and was created in response to –and is held at the same time as - the more commercially driven Art Dubai.
In a 2006 European Commission report for the European Capital of Cultures Organisation, researchers attempted to underpin the importance of creative cultural “clusterings” (i.e. a set of reactive and adaptable industries). With reference to Art Fairs in particular, the report concluded that their importance is three-fold: fairs play the role of incubators and promoters of new artists; they help maintain a significant element of the arts’ market; they generate important indirect economic effects, as the event requires involvement from a number of ancillary activities (marketing, shipping, insurance and so on) and in particular, they foster cultural tourism. An art fair’s economic relevance to its host city is clear. More significantly for Abu Dhabi – in conjunction with its quest for preservation of local heritage, support for contemporary artists and the import of other world cultures - is how an art fair can contribute to the Emirate’s vision of itself as an enlightened society. After all, “success not only depends on continued quantitive material advancement but a society in which ‘wealth’ is further measured in relation to human values, the state of the environment and social cohesion.”*
Abu Dhabi witnessed the successful inauguration of its very own international art fair in November of 2007 complete with white-cubed galleries and the ubiquitous international dealers & collectors. In the wake of Art Paris Abu Dhabi – whose sales were widely touted as totalling just under $16 million – and the current world economic crisis, one might expect a trail of contemporary galleries from all over the world to open one eye, sniff and smell the (Arabic) coffee. True that the Ghaf and Al Qibab Galleries opened to the public in early 2007 but the expectation that others might follow hasn’t yet been realised. In contrast, in the last ten years – the past three being particularly productive - Dubai has seen its stable of contemporary art galleries increase from two to over thirty five.
Why is it then that Abu Dhabi, whose active cultural enrichment programme and accompanying financial muscle are widely recognised (particularly following the Emirate’s recent high profile acquisitions of Manchester City football club and the Chrysler Building in New York), does not yet boast a handful of strong contemporary galleries with international reach?
A number of factors may be accountable. When asked about the challenges of running a gallery in Abu Dhabi the owner of Al Qibab gallery, Lamees al Bazirgan cites lack of audience but more importantly, an absence of art collectors. As the bread and butter of a commercial gallery, sparse collectors and patrons will be viewed as a potential problem by any institution thinking about planting a flag in the sand. However, it could be said that Art Paris Abu Dhabi is paving the way for future local galleries by enticing international dealers and collectors in their masses, to come to the city in the first place. Middle Eastern contemporary art is currently on the receiving end of the world art market’s attention and hence, it couldn’t be a better time (pre Louvre and Guggenheim) to set up shop here. Despite its inevitable perceived status as a cultural ‘import’, Art Paris Abu Dhabi drew a crowd of 9,200 visitors over four days in 2007 and hopes to increase this number for 2008.
But if audience - or lack of – is an issue in terms of attracting gallerists to open up in the city, long-term investment in local arts education is key. The Abu Dhabi government is well aware of the need to create art loving audiences prior to 2012 and hence, time and effort are being poured into regional arts programmes. Educational events have also been given priority at the forthcoming edition of Art Paris Abu Dhabi: the fair’s accompanying education programme includes a two-day lecture series in association with Canvas Magazine which will be covering the very hot topics of Chinese, Indian and Pakistani art. Sotheby’s Institute will also be returning to Abu Dhabi on November 17th, with their three-day education programme. Emilie Faure, Public Programming Director for Sotheby’s Institute, confirms that interest in this year’s offerings has already proven strong, as local enthusiasts clamour to learn more and in greater depth, about art and the art market. Perhaps most curious of all the peripheral educational events, is a new initiative for 2008, the ‘Art Talks and Sensations’ on November 18th which aims to bring together around “forty significant figures from the four corners of the globe ranging from artists, critics, poets, writers, designers, fashion stylists, architects, museum directors, actors, illustrators and DJs”** in a round table discussion, lasting three hours and transmitted live on Abu Dhabi television. Curator Fabrice Bousteau will be asking “Which aesthetics define the Arab world today?” as the central question for debate. Covering 300 million people, 22 nations and an ancient/ modern language (“the Arab World”) it’s a broad enough topic, but worthy and relevant nonetheless.
In June 2008 the TDIC also held the first of their informal, free ‘Artscape’ evenings in association with the blockbuster summer exhibition Picasso Abu Dhabi – Masterpieces from the Musee National Picasso, Paris. ‘Artscape’ was a refreshingly contemporary cultural event that included an art historical lecture and, a hands-on painting studio for children (which was wildly and messily popular). Young audiences were given a chance to get excited about their relationship with art and the popularity of the evening proved that audiences in Abu Dhabi do exist: they are hushed and waiting for curtain up - they simply need to be engaged and nurtured.
And perhaps it will take a generation of brave gallerists to stick one toe in the – let’s face it warm, turquoise and rather sparkly - water, take a deep breath and jump. In this way, Abu Dhabi’s future cultural landscape - a place in which major institutions, artists, critics, dealers and collectors can all thrive together – may be truly realised |
