DUBAI, 17 March 2008 — Widely known in art circles in the Gulf but also gaining a growing following internationally, a selection of the best worldwide modern art will go on sale in Art Dubai, the region’s first and biggest international contemporary art fair, tomorrow.
Art lovers and artists are expected to fill the vast show rooms of Art Dubai, which emerged earlier last year from the emirate ‘s turquoise waters and only a few meters off a coastline packed with expansive beach resorts.
“After the success we had last year and the applications we received from more than 400 galleries all over the world, having a second Art Dubai this year or rather making it an annual event was something out of question,” said Benedict Floyd, the co-founder and finance director of Art Dubai.
“It proved that Dubai could become an important and vital international platform for artists and art initiatives across the region, as well as providing a chance for international galleries to meet important collectors across the Middle East,” he told Arab News.
Despite an economic picture that muddied prospects for art sales in regions like North America and Europe, new buyers from countries not previously associated with art collecting have helped fuel the art market.
For both Floyd and his partner and fair director John Martin, Dubai had all what they were looking for in order to establish a global art icon. The city’s location near Africa, Iran and South Asia, and its multi-cultural population — over 80 percent of residents are expatriates — makes it convenient for both buyers, artists and exhibitors.
“Dubai is absolutely the commercial heart of the Middle East and culturally-speaking, Dubai is the place that everyone is talking about around the world. Can you imagine saying that two years ago?!,” asked Floyd. He said that collectors are proud of the wealth of talent in Dubai: Talent that has been neglected for too long.
“There is a growing sense of cultural and artistic self-confidence in Dubai. This is a city about tomorrow; a city that is dynamic, successful and offers a unique meeting point between east and west,” he said.
Soaring disposable incomes, triggered by booming oil prices have increased the region’s appetite for modern art, which blossomed in the Middle East during the second half of the 20th century in the post-colonial era following World War II.
Major auction houses such as Christie’s and rival Sotheby’s are upping their presence to meet the demand of wealthy collectors and homesick expatriates who are looking to add ‘soul’ to their shopping lists in a region long derided as a cultural desert.
The second annual Art Dubai will host galleries from cities as far-flung as Mexico and Tokyo. Martin urged both private collectors and institutional art investors to get on the contemporary art buying ladder sooner rather than later given the rising sticker prices for pieces from the Middle East including Iran, India, Pakistan, China, and Latin America. “Estimates from art funds, auction houses, galleries and other information sources indicate that the market for Arab and Iranian contemporary art could reach $30 million this year, compared to the Indian art market at about $130 million and Chinese art at more than $500 million in 2008,” Martin said.
Art Dubai is held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE, Ruler of Dubai. For more information please visit www.artdubai.ae.
