Digital Editions
Newsletters
Subscribe
Digital Editions
Newsletters
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Technology
Adventures with Van Gogh
Exhibitions
news

Goya, Magritte and Cai Guo-Qiang feature in Arab art show

Qatar Museums presents key works from collection in Bank of Santander’s Madrid space

Javier Pes
9 February 2016
Share

An exhibition that opened in Madrid today (9 February) of works by contemporary artists from across North Africa and the Middle East includes Arab-inspired paintings by Goya and Magritte alongside works by Mona Hatoum, Shirin Neshat, Wael Shawky and Manal Al Dowayan among others. A large-scale work by the Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang, who is organising his own show in Qatar, is one of the more than 160 works by 34 artists in the exhibition. They all come from the collection of Qatar Museums, which has collaborated with the Fundación Banco Santander to bring the exhibition Looking at the World Around You (until 19 June) to the Spanish capital.

The Arab art show is the foundation’s first collaboration with Qatar Museums and the first major loan exhibition in Europe of works from Mathaf, the Arab Museum of Contemporary Art in Doha. Organised by the curator Abdellah Karroum, he has included Goya’s watercolour Two Orientals (around 1825) and Magritte’s gouache Sherezade (1947), which are in the collection of Qatar’s Orientalist Museum. Cai Guo-Qiang’s 18-metre-long work Ninety-Nine Horses, which combines gold-leaf sculpture and gunpowder on paper, is displayed for the first time since it was commissioned in 2011 by Qatar Museums.  

The first work that visitors encounter, Manal Al Dowayan’s installation Suspended Together (2011) refers to Saudi Arabian women’s limited civil rights. They cannot travel abroad without permission from a male guardian. The bodies of the 124 fibre-glass doves are embedded with official travel documents obtained by female Saudi intellectuals, artists and scientists. 

The Santander Art Gallery presents highlights of the Santander Collection in a 3,000 sq. m space in the northern outskirts of Madrid and has previously hosted a series of exhibitions drawing on international private collections.

ExhibitionsContemporary artMuseums
Share
Subscribe to The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter for your daily digest of essential news, views and analysis from the international art world delivered directly to your inbox.
Newsletter sign-up
Information
About
Contact
Cookie policy
Data protection
Privacy policy
Frequently Asked Questions
Subscription T&Cs
Terms and conditions
Advertise
Sister Papers
Sponsorship policy
Follow us
Instagram
Bluesky
LinkedIn
Facebook
TikTok
YouTube
© The Art Newspaper

Related content

Exhibitionsnews
9 August 2016

Qatar to stage largest-ever solo exhibition of works by an Arab artist

Dia Al-Azzawi is a central figure of Iraqi art scene

Aimee Dawson
Museumsnews
11 December 2024

Harem work removed from show at Qatar's Arab Museum of Modern Art

Renowned Turkish artist İnci Eviner says her work was pulled "without further explanation and apology" and describes the move as censorship

Anni Irish
News
20 November 2015

Middle East looks further east as trend for Korean art continues to grow

Sharjah institution is first in the region to show works by Asian country’s contemporary artists

Aimee Dawson