Art Across the Arabian Gulf

Glimpses into the evolution of Gulf art. 

 “Art Across the Arabian Gulf” brings together pioneering artists from the mid-twentieth century through the 1990s, illuminating a formative period in the region’s art history. The exhibition foregrounds seminal practices that shaped national identities and transregional dialogues, recovering narratives that have been overlooked or underdocumented. 

Before the establishment of the GCC in 1981, artists across Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia were already cultivating visual languages rooted in environment, tradition, resistance, abstraction, and experimentation. From the 1950s onward, depictions of daily life, vernacular architecture, and social customs reflected both local realities and shared regional threads. As oil wealth and modernization transformed Gulf societies in the 1960s and 1970s, artists began engaging with shifting national narratives, forging new aesthetic vocabularies that bridged heritage and change.  

Amid rapid urbanization, artists responded to the tension between modernity and tradition, drawing on folklore and oral traditions to reframe questions of identity and belonging. The Arabian Gulf itself, more than a geographic feature, emerges as a cultural symbol and site of shared experience, where histories of trade, pearl diving, and migration continue to shape collective memory. 

Through 150+ artworks by 70+ artists, “Art Across the Arabian Gulf” revisits the foundations of modern Gulf art, celebrating a generation whose creativity contributed to the region’s cultural landscape and continues to influence it today.