Key paintings by Samia Halaby, Paul Guiragossian, Mahmoud Said and Aref El Rayess are being displayed at Christie’s Dubai, with many of the works coming from the Dalloul Collection.
The exhibition, running until October 10, is presenting highlights that will feature at two upcoming auctions by Christie’s. These include a live auction, Silsila: Highlights from the Dalloul Collection, on November 6 and an online auction of Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art, which will be running between October 28 and November 11. Both auctions will be held at the Christie’s headquarters in London.
The former will present highlights from the Dalloul Collection and is the third sale by Christie’s that features work from the esteemed trove that was started by art collector couple Ramzi Dalloul and Saeda El Husseini Dalloul.
The Dallouls began acquiring Arab art in the 1970s, and the collection is now overseen by their son, Basel Dalloul, and his Beirut visual arts institution, the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (Daf).
The sales come as part of the foundation’s bid to diversify the collection and incorporate more contemporary voices.
“It’s an honour to present works from the Dalloul Collection,” Ridha Moumni, chairman of Christie’s Middle East and Africa, says. “It is an incredible collection that has been built over almost 50 years, and that has its own vitality.”
Among the works being shown in Dubai is Paul Guiragossian’s Automne. Painted in 1989, the large-scale work exhibits the idiosyncratic elongated forms and brushstrokes the Armenian-Lebanese artist was known for. The painting is estimated at between £120,000 and £180,000 (up to $242,000).
“Guiragossian is probably an artist we have featured in every single auction,” say Marie-Claire Thijsen, head of sale and a specialist at Christie’s London and Dubai. “However this is a true chef-d'œuvre, its scale, its vibrant colour and energetic brushstroke… this late 1980s period I think really appeals to our audience.”
There are also several works by Palestinian artists, including Kamal Boullata and Samia Halaby, both of whom are represented in the Dubai exhibition.
Boullata’s Nocturne I, painted in 2001, is an abstract work featuring broad and textured blue, navy and violet lines, and is estimated at between £30,000 and £50,000.
Halaby’s Gardenia (1978), from her coveted Diagonal Flight series – in which she explores the interplay between diagonal lines and contrasting hues as part of an abstract exploration inspired by Islamic geometry – comes from an artistic period that is particularly in demand. The painting is estimated at between £50,000 and £70,000.
“It’s an intimate-scale work from the 1970s,” Thijsen says. “This is really the most desired, most celebrated period by the artist.”
The exhibition in Dubai also features works by famed Egyptian modernist Mahmoud Said, a landscape painting titled La colline de Mekarzel (Mekarzel Hill), with an estimate of £60,000 to £80,000; Soukhour Meyrouba by Lebanese painter Aref El Rayess (£100,000 to £150,000); an untitled 2019 piece by Lebanese artist Etel Adnan (£70,000 to £100,000); and an untitled mirror mosaic, a reverse glass painting by Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, produced in 1976 (£80,000 to £120,000).
The works reflect upon the diversity of geographies and styles that is predominant in both sales, but particularly within the Silsila auction.
“In our selection we tried to reflect the different geographies represented in the Dalloul collection and showcase how they helped to shape Arab art history in the various geographies within the region,” Thijsen says. “But there is a strong focus of artists from the Levant particularly Lebanon and Palestine, which are the roots of the Dalloul family.”
The exhibition in Dubai is part of a series of previews in London and Paris that Christie's is hosting ahead of the two sales in London.
Those from Silsila sale and the Dalloul Collection include a work by Said that, when it went to the market in October 2007, caused controversy involving Christie's, the Egyptian government and the international police organisation Interpol.
Said's La Fille aux yeux verts (The Girl with the Green Eyes), the Egyptian government claimed, belonged to the state and should have been displayed at a diplomatic residence in New York. However, after a stringent research process, it was revealed that Said had painted two almost identical versions of the same subject, the first in 1931 and a second in 1932, named La Fille aux yeux verts (replique). The second painting was the one that had been featured in the 2007 auction, then withdrawn and offered in 2015 once the research had been completed. It is now being re-offered and is estimated between £250,000 and £350,000.
Another masterpiece from the collection is a large-scale work from Marwan, presumably one of the last in his Kopf (Head) series. Painted in 2013-2014, two years before the Syrian artist’s death, the painting features bold and feverish brushstrokes in bright colours while maintaining his renowned topographic texture. The work is estimated between £150,000 and £200,000
Mona Saudi’s Shajarat al-Hayat (Tree of Life) is a stunning pullout from the Jordanian sculptor’s oeuvre, with stacked geometric forms carved out of green marble. Produced in 2000s, the work is estimated between £50,000 and £70,000.
“They don’t come up often in the market,” Moumni says of Saudi’s works. “And this one is absolutely spectacular.”
An important piece by the Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour is also being offered. A sprawling triptych depicting the harvesting of oranges in Jaffa, the untitled work was painted in 2014, carrying an estimate of £120,000 to £180,000.
“It spans over three metres wide,” Thijsen says. “It’s a very impressive work and towers over you. It has the orange groves on the outer panels and the ladies in traditional Palestinian dresses with baskets in the middle. It’s stunning.”
A 1998 work by Lebanese artist Huguette Caland, titled Vive La Liberte (Long Live Freedom) is another showstopper. It is estimated between £180,000 and £250,000.
"The image doesn’t do the work justice," Thijsen says.
“It shimmers in silver – delicate, intricate and truly beautiful. Created during a period when Caland embraced mixed media, she used metallic pens to painstakingly build up the surface. The flowers and trees seem to emerge from the canvas, almost sculptural in their texture."
“A masterpiece like this has never before appeared at auction,” Moumni adds. “It’s unquestionably one of the sale’s most extraordinary highlights.”
