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Mohammed Rashid Al-Thani remembers walking through downtown Manhattan nearly a decade ago and coming to a realization: "There's really nothing that represents the Arab and Islamic world in terms of contemporary art. I said, 'I think I want to do something.'"
Now, he's leading the recently opened Institute of Arab and Islamic Art, an independent, non-profit in the West Village dedicated to advancing the artistic and cultural dialogue between NYC and the Arab and Islamic world. The gallery, which is open to the public, is presenting its second show, this one by Behjat Sadr (1924–2009).
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Al-Thani, who hails from one of the most prominent families in Qatar, came to this artistic awakening by chance. Though he's always loved Persian rugs and artistic practices, he didn't grow up visiting art museums. A chance encounter with a friend introduced him to contemporary art, then a trip to MOCA in Los Angeles sealed his fascination with art. He began voraciously studying art, focusing his dissertation on Cezanne and the advent of Fauvism and Cubism through Matisse and Picasso. He hosted his first show at the West Village space last fall.
Now as a curator, Al-Thani strives to highlight the legacies of early pioneers in contemporary art alongside younger more current artists. He also focuses on shifting the spotlight to artists who didn't get the attention they were due in their lifetime.
“For me, underrepresented artists, I think a big responsibility should be on curators in general because there’s so many contributions that those artists have on contemporary art in general and on history. And I think it’s important for them to be included in that conversation,” he tells us.
Iranian artist Behjat Sadr fits that mold exactly.
She worked in abstract expressionism in the ’40s and ’50s in parallel with more well-known painters in NYC, like Jackson Pollock and Joan Mitchell. Over the years, she worked in painting, photography, photomontage and kinetics, sometimes using her own body as a vehicle for painting. While Sadr broke through the male-dominated pre-Revolutionary Iranian art world, she eventually left a revolutionized Iran to exile in Paris during the 1980s. There, she battled cancer and faced rejection by the Parisian art world.
“She didn’t receive the respect and appreciation that she deserved during her lifetime, like a lot of female marginalized artists, I mean female artists in general if you think about it, let alone if you’re a person of color and even belong to a certain demographic,” Al-Thani says. “If we’re going to represent the region, it’s only fair to start from those that have worked so hard and were rejected so many times by many galleries.”
Al-Thani has heard stories of Sadr going from gallery to gallery in France with her daughter and being constantly met with rejection. With her daughter crying, Sadr is said to have shared, "I couldn't tell her what they told me. I just told her, we have to keep on working."
The Institute of Arab and Islamic Art show is the first institutional solo exhibition by Sadr in the United States. It's on view until August 27.
If we're going to represent the region, it's only fair to start from those that have worked so hard and were rejected so many times by many galleries.
This fall, the Institute is planning a show about the relationships between Islam and jazz in America. After starting in a different location and weathering the pandemic, the Institute is rooted in the West Village where neighbors have welcomed the organization with open arms, Al-Thani said.
As Al-Thani plans for future exhibitions, he's cognizant of the fact that the region he's representing is so vast. What contemporary artists are doing in Indonesia is very different from what artists are doing in Saudi Arabia, for example. He's excited about continuing to unfold these conversations.
“There is really nothing like this,” he says. “The conversation just gets more and more interesting.”
Find the Institute of Arab and Islamic Art at 22 Christopher Street in the West Village. It’s open Wednesday through Sunday, noon-6pm. In addition to artwork, there’s there’s a selection of books and kaftans.