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Thanks to oil revenues, the desert nation of seven emirates
has been on an art-investing binge for three decades that has,
for those with deep pockets, made it the region's prime fine art
market.
Repeated delays suggest that both the Louvre and the Guggenheim
are likely to miss their planned opening dates of 2015 and 2017
respectively in the UAE’s capital, but both museums are using
the time to show previews of their future collections or
borrowed works from their sister locations.
The annual Abu Dhabi Art fair, held every November, also brings
in the art lovers, but it is Dubai that is the real art
marketplace of the Middle East.
The emirate of 2.1 million people is home to branches of
Christie's and Sotheby’s auction houses and countless galleries,
making it the place where much of Middle East's fine art trade
is done.
Prices tend to start in the tens of thousands of dollars, and
have risen sharply since 2008. But an alternative art scene on
Al Quoz and Alserkal Avenue, where galleries such as The Third
Line and Ayyam Gallery are located, provides a more affordable
alternative.
A visit to the XVA Gallery in the historic but remodeled
Bastakiya district led to an encounter with the Iraqi artist
Halim al-Karim, who has made Dubai his home.
"There is real art life here," he said. "Even if the market goes
up and down, the art will go on."
Even Sharjah, the most conservative of the UAE's seven emirates,
has been hosting biennial art fairs since 1993, and Kito de
Boer, an avid collector who has been based in Dubai since 1990,
says it is not all about money.
Sharjah's Barjeel Art Foundation, for instance, shows Middle
Eastern and Arab art from the private collection of Sultan al-Qassemi,
an art enthusiast and member of the ruling family, as well as
regularly rotating temporary exhibitions.
"Sharjah has the most sincere interest in the arts," said de
Boer. "They are motivated by art for art's sake."
(Reporting by Michelle Moghtader, editing by Michael Roddy and
Kevin Liffey)
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