About the Galleries

Tajreed, the Arabic term for abstraction, means to strip away and purify. It also refers to a process of revealing and clarifying. Modern artists from West Asia and North Africa recognised the inherent abstraction of the Arabic language. Being neither figurative nor pictorial, Arabic presented itself as a system of geometric shapes that transcends the common visual syntax found in other parts of the world. Equally, artists’ interest in abstraction, whether Arabs or fellow modernists elsewhere, inadvertently brought their attention to what is known as Islamic art – leading them to incorporate traditional aesthetics into their contemporary production.

This exhibition examines how specific experiments in abstraction, those informed by the rich heritage of the Arab-Muslim world, have yielded works that distinguish Arab modernism from its counterparts around the globe. It highlights the ways in which regional artists have drawn new ideas, visual elements, and techniques from calligraphy and ornamental patterns in particular, thus devising a unique approach to abstraction. Notwithstanding individual practices, collective tendencies become evident – facilitated by shared linguistic and cultural foundations that continue to influence the artists’ work, and an awareness of a history of abstraction in the region that stretches far beyond the West’s more recent aversion to realistic depictions.

Featuring works drawn from Mathaf’s collection, the exhibition raises critical questions about conventional understandings of abstraction. Aside from contesting its provenance, abstraction here is viewed neither as an end in itself, nor merely through the lens of simplification or reduction. Instead, it is a way of tapping into unrealized potential, of discovering new expressive possibilities within the familiar. Abstraction, in other words, may be seen as a journey of intellectual inquiry, a means of arriving at distilled lessons.

Calligraphic Abstraction

Calligraphy, like geometric patterns, constitutes an important distinguishing feature of the traditional arts of the Arab-Muslim world. This room brings together modern and contemporary artists whose works have been informed by the Arabic language: its sinuous, lyrical, and inherently abstract form; the meanings conveyed by recognizable words; and even the symbolic or emotive associations of the script, denoting this vast region’s shared cultural background and modes of communication. Arabic continues to captivate artists – not just those who ethnically identify as Arab –urging them to innovate aesthetically and conceptually. Despite the evident experimentation, many of these works maintain the legibility of the language.

Geometric Abstraction

Geometric patterns, like calligraphy, are another unique feature of Arab-Muslim traditional arts. Whether explicitly inspired by or indirectly evoking familiar patterns – owing to the use of elemental shapes, repetition, or grids –works in this space bring to mind the resplendent ornamentation that has adorned architectural surfaces, books, and other objects throughout the region. The patterns seen here, however, were produced for vastly different reasons: As depictions of landscapes and displays of optical illusions, or as a way of structuring space and creating charged symbolic planes. Some of the works suggest overlaps with various modern movements, such as Cubism, Suprematism, Color Field, and Op-Art.

Abstraction Between Letters and Patterns

This space showcases compositions that straddle an ambiguous zone between calligraphy and geometric abstraction. The works seen here push the boundaries of Arabic letters and ornamental patterns, exploring their potential for transformation. Some artists have interrogated the graphic possibilities of the Arabic script, while others employed geometric forms to suggest letters; most went as far as to create completely new and unfamiliar visual fields.

These groundbreaking experiments epitomise the most distinctive modern body of work that has emerged out of this region – unparalleled globally. While the emphasis here is on the common characteristics of these explorations, the constellation also points to a radical multiplicity, given the artists’ unique preoccupations, shaped by personal trajectories as well as the realities of the specific contexts within which their practices were moulded. Rather than considering the region’s heritage as restrictive or irrelevant, the works elucidate its vigour and generative potential, and demonstrate how history can become a site of breathtaking innovation.