Your Concise New York Art Guide for Spring 2020
Hyperallergic, February 18, 2020
Hyperallergic includes Taking Shape on their list of must-see, fun, insightful, and very New York art events this season.
Taking Shape
Your Concise New York Art Guide for Spring 2020
An Immediate Vast
ARTEIDOLIA, February 10, 2020
Positing the question as to why abstraction, why then, why now, giving explanations as to its purpose, its meaning, looking for reasons, interpretations, definitions, does make for an engaging exhibition, but I often wonder if the viewer actually catches what’s rooted in the subtle, invisible space that the artist has opened for dialogue, for a moment to connect, to shift one’s thinking, to expand, to recognize other forms of possibilities.
A ‘Horizon of Infinity’: The Promise of Arab Abstract Art
Al-Fanar Media, February 7, 2020
Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World 1950s–1980s, a landmark exhibition currently on display at New York University’s Grey Gallery, presents an extensive evolutionary narrative of the development of abstraction by Arab artists.
NYU Grey Art Gallery Spotlights Pioneers of Arab Art
The Hoya, February 6, 2020
Over the past decade, identity has dominated both political and cultural discourse in the US. With the new decade at a nascent stage, a former Georgetown instructor looks to use visual art to expand the scope of the identitarian dialogue, starting at New York University’s Grey Art Gallery with “Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s-1980s.” With its diverse array of pioneers on display, and the various schools of abstract art it promotes, the exhibition is an excellent window into the world of Arab art for connoisseurs and diletantes alike.
A Groundbreaking New Survey of Abstract Painting From the Arab World Adds a Vibrant Chapter to Art History
Artnet News, February 5, 2020
“Because many of these countries were entering the world arena as independent nations and young nation-states, one of their primary objectives was to begin defining themselves as being distinct peoples. A good way to do that is through culture and through art,” says Suheyla Takesh, a co-curator of “Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s” at New York University’s Grey Art Gallery.
Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s
Brooklyn Rail, February 2020
In the spring of 1964, the Beirut-based, pan-Arab cultural journal Hiwar featured a portfolio of abstract paintings made between 1959 to 1964 by Egyptian artist Fouad Kamel. The journal, which was established two years prior by the poet Tawfiq Sayigh, often featured formally experimental art that diverged from the more politically committed art that dominated other Arab cultural journals. To preface the feature, Hiwar published Kamel’s experimental text on abstract painting, titled “Meaninglessness Within and Without.” In it, Kamel espouses a belief in being “unbounded by measures of reason and logic, merging movement and energy with the tremors of solid matter,” and “shedding descriptive observation and visual knowledge.”
Taking Shape
Alserkal Avenue, February 4, 2020
Anyone familiar with the UAE art scene has appreciated the fruits of Barjeel Art Foundation, the Sharjah-based organisation established by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi in 2010 to manage and exhibit his personal art collection. Al Qassemi has acquired a magnificent collection of modern and contemporary Arab art, and made the work and its underlying art history accessible to the public through numerous initiatives, most recently with Sharjah Museums Authority.
‘Taking Shape: Abstraction From the Arab World, 1950s-1980s’ Review: A History of Flux and Formation
Wall Street Journal, February 4, 2020
While a lot of museums include artists from around the world in their shows covering the recent past, too often the contributions are minor cultural variations on the same old Western themes—a homogenized diversity. That is why “Taking Shape: Abstraction From the Arab World, 1950s-1980s,” a fascinating exhibition of about 90 works at New York University’s Grey Art Gallery, is so welcome and refreshing. It really has something new to say.
Taking Shape
4Columns, January 31, 2020
Modern and contemporary art from North Africa and West Asia has historically had a troubled reception in Europe and North America, where until the past few decades such production was often rebuffed as derivative of Western styles and not authentically “Arab” enough. The new exhibition Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s (co-curated by Suheyla Takesh of the Barjeel Art Foundation, which owns the collection that is the basis of this show, and Lynn Gumpert of NYU’s Grey Art Gallery, where it just opened) defies any such hobbled thinking with rigorous ambition.
Midcentury Middle East
Art & Antiques, February 2020
The emirate of Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, has made itself a major player in the burgeoning Gulf States contemporary-art scene, along with neighboring Dubai and Doha, Qatar. The Sharjah Biennial attracts artists, dealers, collectors, and curators from all over the world, while the Sharjah Art Museum presents an important collection of Middle Eastern modern and contemporary art. The Barjeel Art Foundation is a more personal project, comprising the collection of Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, a member of the ruling family.