Indian, Islamic art collected by UK artist Howard Hodgkin to go under the hammer

A fragment of a carpet and a painting from Howard Hodgkin’s collection. (Photos supplied)
Updated 12 September 2017
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Indian, Islamic art collected by UK artist Howard Hodgkin to go under the hammer

LONDON: This October, Sotheby’s will exhibit some 400 items from a collection including Indian and Islamic art that belonged to renowned British artist Howard Hodgkin, to be sold at auction in London on October 24.
Hodgkin, who died in March at the age of 84, is widely regarded as one of Britain’s greatest artists. He has been a central figure in contemporary art for more than 50 years.
Frances Christie, senior director and head of the department of Modern and Post-War British Art, described the artist as highly influential.
“Howard Hodgkin redefined the way in which we look at the world. Just as his eye for the exceptional resonates through his paintings, his ability to identify the extraordinary in unexpected places was deployed in his incessant hunt for art and objects of exquisite beauty. So confident was he in his selection, and of the importance of each piece to his needs, that he created his own collecting alchemy. Spanning art history through time and geography, they offer a vivid revelation of his private world in all its intense and exhilarating glory,” she said.
Hodgkin spoke about his passion for collecting in a talk given in 1991 at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington’s Smithsonian Institution, where Indian paintings and drawings from his collection were being shown.
From the transcript of that talk, we get an insight into his thinking.
“Everything that I’ve ever done as a collector has been based, ultimately, on the strength of feeling,” he said.
The urge to collect, he observed, can stem from many motivations.
“A great collection often seems to be the result of one very rich man going shopping. It isn’t. It is really partly illness, an incurable obsession. It’s partly — sadly, in some cases — a desire for future or posthumous glory, perhaps more often for status while the collector is still alive. Also, and of course far more importantly, it represents the human desire to get near works of art. At its worst, it’s greed or the desire simply to possess, like a child at a party being given something to take home. But it’s much more than that at its highest.”
Hodgkin remarked that he found painting solitary but that collecting brought him into contact with like-minded people. Furthermore, the discriminating eye that he developed was nurtured by close friendships with experts in the field. It was Hodgkin’s art master at Eton, Wilfrid Blunt — brother of the leading British art historian and Soviet spy, Anthony Blunt — who first introduced him to non-Western art and who inspired him to collect his first examples of Indian paintings.
Later, Hodgkin became friends with the collector Robert Erskine and through him the network of various Parisian dealers, including Charles “Uncle Charlie” Ratton. Robert Skelton, who was the assistant keeper at London’s Victoria and Albert museum, became a lifelong friend with whom the artist first visited India in 1964. It was with Skelton that Hodgkin was able to meet other connoisseurs and collectors, including Jagdish Mittal, Kumar Sangram Singh, Milo C. Beach and Stuart Cary Welch, whose own collection of Islamic and Indian art was sold at Sotheby’s in 2011.
Hodgkin wrote about his fascination with Indian art in an Asian Art article entitled “About my Collection” in 1991.
“Disconcertingly, a collection begins to have a life of its own and to make demands on its owner that seem both impersonal and peremptory. For the most part, it’s really quite easy to resist the innocent charms of gap filling. But when a picture somehow demands to be bought (at whatever price) because it appears to be a great work of art of a kind not otherwise represented in the collection, it means trouble. I long wanted marvellous Basohli pictures and eventually got some good ones. Early Mughal pictures were seemingly impossible to come by, and then, by chance, I managed to acquire the fragmentary painting on cloth (titled) ‘A Prince Riding on an Elephant in Procession,’ but my favorite and longest-lasting enthusiasm has been for Kota painting.
“Elephants are heavy animals but are depicted in paintings from Kota as capable of such wild movement that they appear almost weightless — and how mysteriously they seem to haunt the rather conventional landscape.
“As a collector, my enthusiasm for these Kota pictures became my downfall — my Waterloo. The acquisition of ‘Maharao Durjan Sal and Shri Brijnathji Hunting Tigers and Wild Buffalo’ was such a traumatic event in my life as a collector that I felt I could go no further. It’s the largest, most expensive picture I have ever bought and the only one for which I have exchanged one of my paintings. This great, though fragmentary, picture finally enabled me to escape from the almost nagging lust that often keeps collectors in a slightly restless and unfulfilled condition for the rest of their lives.”
The Sotheby’s experts who catalogued Hodgkin’s collection described a treasure trove within every room of his Georgian house in Bloomsbury, near the British Museum in London.
“Surprises lay around every corner of the house. A precious 17th century Indian sandstone relief formed a backdrop in the kitchen to the artfully-stacked china on display. A wonderful fragment from a carpet, with its interlocking geometric pattern, faced a series of wall-mounted Kashan star tiles and the foliate motifs were echoed in monochrome form in the craftsmanship of an exquisite inlaid Mughal box.”
They observed that ornamentation is a prominent thread that runs through the great variety of objects he was drawn to, from both India and Islamic cultures. He especially sought fragments — particular motifs, calligraphy, colors and textures appearing in Ottoman, Indian and Islamic tiles, textiles and rugs. Fragments of calligraphy were not sought after for their meaning, but purely for the visual language of their linear forms and he honed in on specific parts of larger pattern schemes. In doing so, he focused on small yet powerful details, freeing his imagination from the original form.
Hodgkin collected in such depth that, despite covering almost every surface of his home, many of his acquisitions were not displayed. The basement library held a rich treasure trove of prints, paintings, fabric, books and furniture and exquisite fragments. Items consigned there were not relics, but an astounding array of source material of the most varied and wonderful kind. Many items were acquired on his travels, but were never as mementos. “I particularly don’t like objects of sentiment — people who have things not because they like and admire them, but because they have associations,” the artist is known to have said.
Hodgkin, who was awarded the much-coveted Turner Prize in 1985, has been the subject of numerous international exhibitions and art fans in the Middle East will soon have the chance to view highlights from his collection at the Sotheby’s gallery in Dubai between October 8-12. The full exhibition will be on show in London from October 20-24.


Artists push the boundaries of technology in new media arts residency in Riyadh

Updated 03 July 2025
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Artists push the boundaries of technology in new media arts residency in Riyadh

  • Residency displays futuristic artwork inspired by the natural landscape and culture of the Kingdom
  • Diriyah Art Futures brings together artists from around the world, combining art, science and technology

RIYADH: Diriyah Art Futures opened a new residency displaying cutting-edge artwork in Riyadh on Wednesday evening.

The Mazra’ah Media Art Residency spring/summer 2025 open studio displays work that combines art, science and technology.

It is a three-month program designed for artists and scholars working across new media and digital art.

The theme, “High-Resolution Dreams of Sand,” explored the evolving relationships between humans, nature and technology in rapidly changing environments, informed by the distinctive contexts of Diriyah and Riyadh.

The evening’s open studio offered a behind-the-scenes look at work in progress from the spring/summer 2025 residents, alongside talks and studio discussions.

In the studios, Arab News met with various artists including Saudi Arwa Al-Neami whose creations explore themes of acceptance, identity and societal transformation.

During the residency, she undertook an artistic investigation of Saudi Arabia’s landscapes, collecting sand samples from various regions across the Kingdom.

Through nano microscopy and advanced imaging techniques, she created an immersive sensory experience that transforms microscopic grains of sand into pieces of art in the form of films, virtual reality and 3D-printed sculptures.

She told Arab News: “I am currently researching seven different areas in the Kingdom, where I’m exploring the sound of the sun using specialized sensors during sunrise and sunset. The resulting sound waves are translated into frequencies that create audible sounds.

“By analyzing the sound of the sun and the atomic structure of sands, I produce artwork that highlights the differences across various regions of Saudi Arabia.”

For 90 days, artist Dr. Stanza has been creating a whole body of work based on Saudi Arabia using real-time data including weather forecasts, pollution stats and news feeds.

Using an AI prompt, he created the series “Sons of Time” — an interactive Internet installation inspired by cybernetics and the future.

His other work, “Machine Cities,” connects 90 cities and towns across the Kingdom and tracks them in real time, presenting a visualization that the public can engage with.

The London-based artist has exhibited worldwide and earned numerous awards for his use of the Internet as an art medium.

“While I’ve been here, what I’ve really learned about Saudi Arabia is it’s a very warm and inclusive country that’s moving forward toward 2030.

“There’s a whole series of ideas about AI and agency that (are) also incorporated within my artworks. I look forward to presenting some of these works here in the future,” he told Arab News.

Indian artist Harshit Agrawal has taken his time at the residency to contemplate the juxtaposition of Diriyah’s rich heritage with its exponential development in the past few years.

Set against Diriyah’s historic farms and Riyadh’s evolving environment, the participants were encouraged to consider the impact of technology on natural and constructed landscapes.

“While I was here, I was quite fascinated, in my early days by the cultural richness, the different practices of culture, but also Diriyah as a city in transition in this beautiful time where it’s developing into something else with all these constructions and all these new things that are happening,” Agrawal told Arab News.

In “Machinic Meditations,” the artist was particularly fascinated with subhas, or prayer beads, that are commonly used in Saudi Arabia.

This prompted his research, where he also found electronic subhas. “It’s quite fascinating to move from this kind of manual device to an electronic version of it,” he said.

“I started thinking — because I work a lot with machine learning, AI data— what is the extreme scenario of that? So, I created these devices, which are motorized systems that rotate these beads autonomously, and they keep doing that continuously.

“And with each rotation, they pick up new human data to meditate on. It’s kind of the machine’s version of meditating, but on human data and climate data.”

In “Data Excavations: The New Soil,” the artist takes inspiration from construction and excavation machinery, using its mobility as a way to write out words in a choreographed manner using light strips.

“It’s been a really exciting time to be here, because it’s a great intersection between deep cultural practices that are here that I can kind of see in the city, but also really cutting-edge studios and facilities that I’ve had and (been) exposed through the material residency,” he said.

The open studio event welcomed a number of artists and prominent figures in the art scene, aiming to introduce them to the findings and research of this year’s cohort around new media arts in the region.

“Having Saudi Arabia attracting so many different cultures right now is a great thing, for artists to meet and research in the new media and technology is a great thing because they can implement their culture’s ideas in so many different ways and that’s what we see here — it’s a great cultural bridge,” visual artist Lulwah AI-Hamoud, who was attending the event, told Arab News.

DAF Director Haytham Nawar and DAF Director of Education Dr. Tegan Bristow delivered opening remarks, followed by talks from Dr. Anett Holzheid, an ZKM science and art researcher and curator, and Mizuho Yamazaki, an independent writer and scholar.

Attendees then enjoyed an open studio preview with Dr. Stanza, before a break for networking and a tour of the fabrication lab, sound lab and prototypes.

The evening concluded with studio discussions featuring Arwa Alneami, Harshit Agrawal and Reem Alnasser, all media artists.


Exhibition on animal rights in Athens spotlights Arab artists

Updated 02 July 2025
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Exhibition on animal rights in Athens spotlights Arab artists

ATHENS: An art exhibition at EMST, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, ponders a challenging yet crucial question: What are the rights of animals?

The exhibition, “Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives,” curated by EMST’s artistic director Katerina Gregos, is among the most ambitious staged by a public institution on animal ethics at a time when wars rage around the world and basic human rights are in crisis.

The show presents more than 200 works by 60 contemporary artists from four continents and runs until Jan. 7, 2026.

Evocatively curated, with works unfolding in the various rooms of the museum in dialogue with the visitor and each other, the various depictions of animals prompt both philosophical and political questions.

The show evokes questions on the nature of humanity, the emotional intelligence of animals and how to confront systems of political domination, such as colonialism and rampant industrialization, that have restricted humans and animals.

From the Arab world, Egyptian artist Nabil Boutros has created “Celebrities,” a moving series of studio portraits of lambs, ewes and rams. Each image depicts not only their aesthetic beauty but seemingly also their emotional state.

Part of Nabil Boutros's 'Celebrities' series. (Supplied)

“I wanted to talk about the human condition through these works,” Boutros told Arab News. “These first portraits of (these animals) show they are different. They have different races, different attitudes and different characters, but we never look at them.”

“What is our relationship with animals? Is it just about food, about slaughtering?” he asked. “We are all part of this world and there is a whole organic structure that connects us that has been forgotten.”

Boutros’ touching portraits, exalting the personality and individuality of each animal, similar to traditional human portraiture, show us a rarely encountered world of animals and their emotional depth.

The show presents more than 200 works by 60 contemporary artists from four continents and runs until Jan. 7, 2026. (Supplied)

“They’re very expressive,” said Boutros, when discussing the moments he photographed them. “We imagine that they don’t have feelings, but that is not true.”

Algerian artist Oussama Tabti’s “Homo-Carduelis” is an installation that covers an entire wall of empty birdcages, each encompassing a speaker playing a birdsong created by human voices to imitate that of birds.

The work strives to show the connection between animals and humans. “The idea for the work came from the goldfinch, an appreciated bird in Algeria,” Tabti told Arab News.

“Born and raised in Algeria, the goldfinch was always in our daily soundscape.

“My work talks about the relation between the bird and the human because people appreciate (the goldfinch) and have it as a pet. They keep the bird in a cage and sometimes even go for a walk with it.”

Tabti finds the relationship at times “awkward and strange.” He thinks that Algerians at times “identify themselves in the birds.”

He added: “The work goes beyond the state of Algeria to reflect on the state of the human condition. Each one of us is in our own cage; it could be work, the environment or even one’s identity.

“I thought the bird in a cage would be a good metaphor for what we are today as human beings. We human beings are able to accomplish a lot but we live in a society that does not let us be completely autonomous.”

“For this installation,” said Tabti, “it was important for me that we can hear the birds, imitated by human beings, so it is like a human in a cage.”


Imaan Hammam continues to highlight Arab culture  

Updated 01 July 2025
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Imaan Hammam continues to highlight Arab culture  

DUBAI: Dutch Moroccan Egyptian model Imaan Hammam touched down in Cairo this week for an undisclosed photoshoot and shared highlights from the trip on social media, set to music by the late Egyptian singer Abdel Halim Hafiz.

Posting to her 1.7 million Instagram followers, Hammam offered a visual diary of her stay, capturing a mix of street scenes, style moments and local ambiance. 

The carousel opened with a mirror selfie in an elevator, where she wears a high-waisted printed maxi skirt paired with a black fitted top. In another shot, she appears in a more laid-back look featuring camouflage trousers, a white tank top, a grey hoodie and yellow sneakers.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Imaan Hammam (@imaanhammam)

She also shared a short video that captures her tuk-tuk ride through a narrow alley, followed by snapshots of Cairo’s street life, including a local bookstore and a rooftop view of a mosque at sunset.

Hammam’s Cairo visit reflects a growing interest in reconnecting with her roots, something that also drives her latest passion project, Ayni.

Launched earlier this year, Ayni is an archival platform dedicated to preserving and celebrating Arab artistic expression through Hammam’s perspective. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by AYNI by IMAAN (@ayni.vault)

In a video she shared on the Ayni’s Instagram account, she said: “For me, its always been so much deeper than just fashion. It is about staying connected to my roots, telling stories that move me and shining a light on the voices that need to be heard.” 

She said her hope for Ayni is for it to grow beyond a personal vision and become a “real community.”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by AYNI by IMAAN (@ayni.vault)

Hammam is one of the most in-demand models in the industry. She was scouted in Amsterdam’s Centraal Station before making her catwalk debut in 2013 by walking in Jean Paul Gaultier’s couture show.  

Hammam has appeared on the runway for leading fashion houses such as Burberry, Fendi, Prada, Bottega Veneta, Marc Jacobs, Moschino, Balenciaga and Carolina Herrera, to name a few, and starred in international campaigns for DKNY, Celine, Chanel, Versace, Givenchy, Giorgio Armani, Tiffany & Co. and others.


Global sculptures at open-air museum in historic Jeddah

The new sculpture installations at Al-Arbaeen Lake reimagine public spaces as platforms for cultural engagement. (SPA)
Updated 29 June 2025
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Global sculptures at open-air museum in historic Jeddah

  • The sculptures form a dynamic dialogue between the past and present, blending the site’s heritage with the language of contemporary art

JEDDAH: As part of a broader effort to revive the region’s visual identity through art, Al-Arbaeen Lake in historic Jeddah has been transformed into an open-air gallery featuring a curated collection of sculptures by international artists.

Led by the Ministry of Culture in cooperation with Jeddah Municipality, the initiative features 14 world-class artworks integrated into the city’s visual landscape, Saudi Press Agency reported.

Historic Jeddah's Visual Identity Reimagined Through Art Installations at Lake Al-Arbaeen. (SPA)

The sculptures form a dynamic dialogue between the past and present, blending the site’s heritage with the language of contemporary art.

Notable works on display include “The Illusion of the Second Cube” by Hungarian-French artist Victor Vasarely; “Rouge” and “Flexibility of Balance” by Alexander Calder; “Circular Mass” by Arnaldo Pomodoro; “The Bird” by Spanish sculptor Joan Miro; and “Giving and Receiving Love” by Lorenzo Quinn — a powerful piece that reflects human values through striking aluminium forms.

FASTFACTS

• Led by the Ministry of Culture in cooperation with Jeddah Municipality, the urban art initiative features 14 world-class artworks integrated into the city’s visual landscape.

• Notable works on display include ‘The Illusion of the Second Cube’ by Hungarian-French artist Victor Vasarely and ‘Giving and Receiving Love’ by Lorenzo Quinn.

The installations are part of a wider artistic movement that reimagines public spaces as platforms for cultural engagement.

By transforming urban environments into art experiences, the project invites both residents and visitors to explore the intersection of architectural heritage and modern creativity.

It underscores the growing role of art in shaping urban identity and fostering public appreciation for visual beauty in shared spaces of the Kingdom.

 


Em Sherif Art Foundation reimagines global restaurants as cultural hubs

Updated 29 June 2025
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Em Sherif Art Foundation reimagines global restaurants as cultural hubs

DUBAI: With 24 outposts around the world, the minds behind Lebanese restaurant Em Sherif are keenly aware of their responsibility when it comes to sharing the country’s culinary culture with international audiences.

Now, they are taking things one step further with the launch of the Em Sherif Art Foundation that aims to provide increased visibility for artists through restaurants — in Doha, Monaco, London, Paris and Dubai, among other cities — which are being reimagined as cultural hubs.

Earlier this year, the Em Sherif Cafe in Paris showcased the work of Lebanese photographer Ziad Antar, and part of the initiative sees diners at all Em Sherif locations presented with three menus — a food menu, a drinks menu and an art menu — inviting guests to engage with the evolving story of contemporary Lebanese art.

'Kiev' (2024) by Ziad Antar at Em Sherif Cafe in Paris. (Supplied)

Em Sherif CEO and co-founder of the art foundation, Dani Chakour, spoke to Arab News about the cultural initiative.

“The art menu is not intended for commercial or financial purposes. Rather, it serves as a curated catalogue that showcases the artworks currently on display,” he said.

The decision to focus exclusively on Lebanese artists was intentional, Chakour added.

'Potato Portraits' (2025) by Ziad Antar at Em Sherif Cafe in  Paris. (Supplied)

“In Lebanon, it is often the private sector that drives meaningful cultural and artistic initiatives, as government support for the arts remains limited. Through this foundation, we aim to be an added value for our artists, helping them gain the visibility and recognition they deserve on a global scale.

“We need active public-sector involvement: We need more art fairs, modern infrastructure, supportive tariffs and dedicated museums. Without this foundational support, our artists will continue to be overlooked, despite their remarkable talent,” he said.

Chakour, who has a personal collection of more than 600 artworks, spotlighted celebrated names in the international art industry who he says benefited from working abroad.

“Huguette Caland, Gibran Khalil Gibran, Etel Adnan, Mona Hatoum, Walid Raad, Yvette Ashkar, Amin Maalouf, they are some of Lebanon’s most celebrated names. But what do they all have in common? They each spent the majority of their careers abroad, in environments that offered the right ecosystems … this is not a reflection of a lack of talent in Lebanon. On the contrary, it’s a reflection of what’s missing structurally; the institutional support, the infrastructure, the public funding, the museums, the cultural policies and the global exposure.

“At Em Sherif Art Foundation, we’re driven by a mission to help bridge that gap — to create opportunities within and beyond Lebanon so that our artists don’t need to leave home in order to rise,” Chakour said, noting that showcases by artists Christine Safa, Willy Aractengi, Ayman Baalbaki, Hussein Madi and Bibi Zogbe will be hosted in the coming months.