Christie’s opens first Abu Dhabi fine art auction with 70-plus works

The latest:

More than 70 works spanning six decades of modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art will go under the hammer in Abu Dhabi on November 1, Christie’s first fine art auction in the capital. The sale, titled Mawasim: 20 Years of Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art, gathers artists from across the Arab world, Iran and Turkey. It is staged at the Abu Dhabi Edition hotel.

Details:

• The anniversary: Christie’s has framed the sale around two decades in the Emirates, counting from its first UAE auction in Dubai in 2006. The Abu Dhabi edition is the auction house’s first fine art sale in the capital, and the title Mawasim ties the 20-year span to the lineup of more than 70 lots.
• The collections: Works are drawn from holdings including Beirut’s Dalloul Collection and Sharjah’s Barjeel Art Foundation, two of the best-known private and institutional collections of modern Arab art in the region. Christie’s has not published a full list of consigning collections.
• Top estimate: Fahrelnissa Zeid’s Composition, painted in 1948-49, is estimated at $500,000 to $700,000, among the most valuable lots offered. Interlocking blue, red, yellow and orange passages divided by dark lines mark her shift toward the kaleidoscopic abstraction that built her international reputation in the following decade.
• Zeid’s provenance: After her husband Prince Zeid Al-Hussein became Iraq’s ambassador to Britain, Zeid set up a studio at the Iraqi Embassy in London, where Composition was shown. The painting stayed with her through later stages of her life, including her years in Amman.
• A royal portrait: Mahmoud Said’s Portrait de Princesse Fadia, estimated at $400,000 to $600,000, depicts the youngest daughter of King Farouk I and Queen Farida. Said was the sitter’s great-uncle, and had painted Queen Farida herself as a child decades earlier, linking two generations of one family.
• The timing: Said completed the Fadia portrait in 1952, months before Egypt’s monarchy fell. He gave it to Queen Farida before it passed to Princess Fadia, and according to the catalogue it was among the possessions Fadia took into exile, remaining in the family.
• The largest lot: Paul Guiragossian’s Noces, painted in 1958-59 and nearly 2.4 metres wide, is one of the largest works by the Lebanese-Armenian artist to reach the market. Estimated at $300,000 to $500,000, it predates the mature figurative style he became known for.
• A personal detail: A seated bride anchors a gathering of musicians, dancers and guests in Noces, among them a blind figure recalling Guiragossian’s father, remembered as a violinist and singer. Lebanese architect Farid Trad bought the work directly from the artist, and it was shown at his 1959 Beirut exhibition.
• The art season: The auction opens a dense stretch for Abu Dhabi’s art calendar, with the Frieze fair following later in November and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi opening on December 11. The Bassam Freiha Art Foundation is also presenting an exhibition devoted to Guiragossian, whose birth centenary falls in 2026.
• The strategy: Christie’s Middle East and Africa chairman Ridha Moumni told The National the auction house intended to become “more present and more visible in the city”. Moumni has separately described Noces as one of Guiragossian’s most exceptional works.

Background:

Christie’s entered the Gulf market with a Dubai sale in 2006, building the emirate into its regional base for modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art. The move to Abu Dhabi extends that presence to a second UAE city.

Between the lines:

Scheduling the sale days before Frieze and weeks before the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi opening places Christie’s at the front of a calendar already drawing international collectors to the capital. The consignments from the Dalloul Collection and Barjeel Art Foundation, alongside the Guiragossian centenary and the Bassam Freiha exhibition, suggest the house is aligning its first capital sale with institutional attention it did not have to create.

What’s next

Results from the November 1 sale will show whether bidding clears the top estimates, led by the $500,000 to $700,000 Zeid. Frieze follows later in November, and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi opens December 11.