Bassam Freiha Art Foundation (BFAF), a non-profit institution and private art foundation, will open its doors on 4 March 2024 in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Cultural District.
Founded by philanthropist and art collector His Excellency Bassan Freiha, BFAF is the first and only private art foundation in the Cultural District. The institution will highlight rarely seen works drawn from private collections locally, regionally and internationally through an exhibition programme as well as cultural and educational initiatives.
Bassam Freiha said: “I aim for the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation to become a flagship space inspiring other collectors to share their masterpieces with the public and contribute to the thriving cultural scene in the region. I hope the foundation will inspire the next generation of art patrons and foster a culture of patronage, a critical element in the arts ecosystem.”
BFAF’s inaugural exhibition, entitled Echoes of the Orient, explores the historical dialogue between East and West through Orientalist works from Bassan Freiha’s private collection juxtaposed with 19th-century photography and works by contemporary and modern Arab artists.
In a reclamation of the Orientalist narrative, the exhibition presents works by the movement’s major figures including Rudolphe Ernst, Léon Comerre, Paul Leroy, Jan-Baptist Huysmans and Fabio Fabbi alongside those by Arab modernists Habib Srour, Moustafa Faroukh, Cesar Gemayel, Tawfik Tarek and Abdul Qader Al Rais. Photography by Gabriel Lékégian, Jean Pascal Sébah, Tancrede Dumas and Hippolyte Arnoux will also be on view.
Curated by Michaela Watrelot, curator and director of exhibitions at BFAF, the show highlights the theme of femininity, and the attendant interplay of reality and fantasy, in Orientalist art.
Watrelot said that the exhibition aims to “promote critical thinking about the existing narrative ascribed to the orientalist art, and foster a deeper understanding of cultural exchange which transcends time and geography.”
The foundation’s annex gallery will host a parallel exhibition entitled Reclaiming Visions, which will feature photographic works by Sama Alshaibi from her Carry Over series (2019) and Azza Al Qubaisi’s sculptures reinterpreting the symbolism of the veil, placed in conversation with 19th-century portrait photography by Orientalists Alexandre Leroux and Aram Alban. Reclaiming Visions explores the exoticisation of Arab women in Orientalist imagery and seeks to reclaim their representation.
