This is very cool, exciting, and important. The Barjeel Art Foundation has curated a special digital exhibition on Google Arts & Culture to celebrate Arab woman in the field of abstract art.
Available to view online right now, for free, the newly launched Pocket Gallery from Google Arts & Culture, is a digital experience that will take you through a detailed, informative art exhibition where you can learn and explore the evolution of abstract art through the lens of Arab women artists.
A Legacy of Abstraction: Women Artists of the Arab World is a virtual experience that takes you through 3D gallery spaces, where you can discover 47 works of art from some of the Arab world’s most important woman artists.
“For far too long, the role of women artists in the development of abstraction has been dismissed, with sexist prejudices diminishing their practice to hobby status and not as serious art exploration,” Remi Homs, curator at Barjeel Art Foundation, exclusively tells me at The Culturelist.
“This exhibition intends to disrupt these misconceptions by presenting the role of women artists in the definition of modern abstraction during the 20th-century.”
Why is this virtual exhibition important?
I am a big advocate of experiencing art in more than one way. Ideally there is nothing like seeing a painting on a wall in front of you, but art lives beyond physical spaces. In fact, art and art making is born from somewhere between the subconscious and conscious mind and into physical reality.
This is particularly true when it comes to abstract art.
Not attempting to represent visual reality as we understand it, abstract art uses pictorial elements such as form, shape, colour, and gesture to connect with the viewer. Abstract art is often fuelled by the emotions, experiences and concepts an artist is exploring.
I’d like to highlight the word experience here.
It’s one of the most personal and subjective places to come from, to be inspired by, to navigate through. And one of the most underrepresented experiences are that of the Arab woman within the field of abstract art.
This is why it’s important to see that this exhibition features both pioneering and contemporary works from a diverse number of women artists from across the Arab world.
The virtual exhibition includes the works of Effat Nagy and Menhat Helmy both from Egypt, the renowned Palestinian American artist Samia Halaby, Emirati artist Najat Makk, Moroccan artist Malika Agueznay and so many more across different time periods.
The exhibition has four different sections based on historical contexts. They are:
Beyond the Visible which shows the first instances of art works which departed from classical figurative paintings.
Order and Rhythm which showcases a selection of works produced during the 1960s in Beirut, which was considered a vibrant hub of the regional art world.
Taking Shape focuses particularly on Lebanese pioneers who took inspiration from nature, science, and literature.
Between Lines and Colours which displays the contemporary abstract works of women from the Gulf.
Across these sections the exhibition not only focuses on pioneers such as Lebanese Huguette Caland, Etel Adnan, Saloua Raouda Choucair, but also highlighting artists whose contribution to the field have “remained understudied.”
“Rather than grouping the art works by aesthetic similarities, we focused on historical context, revealing how they formed a dynamic cluster that redefined abstraction in the region,” Homs says.
“This approach emphasizes their collective impact and challenges the narratives that have long overlooked their significance.”
How physical paintings can be experienced in the digital space
For me it’s always been essential to get as close as possible to an artwork, to see the artist’s hand, the gestures up close. It feels equally important to see these details and also have the freedom to step back and take in the work as a complete whole.
So how does that work in a virtual exhibition? Enter Google.
“Google Arts and Culture provides a platform for cultural institutions to tell their stories using immersive storytelling tools,” Liudmila Kobyakova, Program Manager at Google Arts & Culture, says.
“One of the technologies used to make the virtual gallery immersive is a Pocket Gallery. It’s a new digital tool that helps museums and curators present their collections in virtual 3D gallery spaces.”
What I instantly noticed in the Pocket Gallery was how easy it was to navigate. Through a few taps or clicks, I was able to move through the gallery and get as close or as far away from a wall covered in art works or zoom right into a painting.
And this is where I was surprised.
I was able to see the texture of paint, the rough constancy of the white pastel lines on the geometric blue 1973 painting Space Exploration / Universe by Helmy or the quick, thick, expressive gestural brush strokes on Hind Nasser’s 1975 work Ayla.
“One of the technologies used that makes the experience even more immersive is the Google Art Camera,” Kobyakova says.
“People can get up close and personal with the brushstrokes through select pieces captured by this technology.”
Many of the artworks were photographed in super high resolution through Art Camera technology, allowing visitors to get as close as possible and still experience those material details that make art tangible and exciting.
All these details, from the texture of material to the vibrancy of colour and the overarching narrative of the curatorial vision, makes a virtual exhibition like this especially interesting in the opportunities it offers to record and archive art works.
“Many of the works of our greatest artists are sensitive to light and humidity,” Kobyakova says.
“With the Art Camera, museums can share these priceless works with the global public while ensuring they're preserved for future generations.”
Making art more accessible to as many people as possible has always been something I’m very passionate about. And while it’s important to encourage people to visit more galleries and museums, experiencing art through digital platforms and virtual exhibitions, an area which will continue to expand, is equally important and part of the growing infrastructure of art education and entertainment from the region.
“While nothing can replace the experience of seeing an artwork in person, virtual galleries offer unique possibilities,” Homs says.
“They make it possible to bring together works that, due to logistical or financial constraints, might never be shown together in the same space, functioning in that sense as a musée imaginaire, allowing for connections that would otherwise be impossible.”
You can visit the A Legacy of Abstraction: Women Artists of the Arab World exhibition through Google Arts & Culture virtual gallery here.
" ...very cool, exciting, and important."
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