DUBAI (Dispatches) -- A new online auction at Christie’s Middle East will showcase modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art from May 1-16.
The sale comprises 63 works across mediums including paintings, sculpture and photography, from the period 1963 to 2021.
Leading the sale is the renowned work by Moroccan artist Muhammad Melehi, “Wilde,” 1963, estimated to sell for between $100,000 to $150,000. Coming from the private collection of Toni Maraini, this rare work hails from the artist’s time in New York and was exhibited in Galleria Trastevere in the same year of its making, and was also recently exhibited at London’s New Waves exhibition at The Mosaic Rooms in 2019.
The sale covers artistic production from across the Middle East and North Africa, including works by artists from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey.
Contemporary names from the region such as Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim, Ali Banisadr, Hassan Hajjaj, Reem al-Faisal, Thameur Mejri and Jawhara al-Saud, will be shown alongside strong modern works including Etel Adnan’s “Khat wa Rasm” (Line and Hand Drawing), 1986; Dia Azzawi’s “Gilgamesh Epic no 4,” 1966; and Shaker Hassan al-Said’s “Kitabat a’la jidar raqam,” 1978.
Leading modern female artists include Samia Halaby, Helen Khal, Etel Adnan, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Huguette Caland and Behjat Sadr, alongside contemporary female artists Hayv Kahraman, Tala Madani, Nadia Kaabi-Linke and Dana Awartani who comprise a third of the works on offer in the auction.