National Public Radio (NPR) – For Arab Artists With Something To Say, This Sheikh Is A Loudspeaker

I don’t buy artworks that I think are pretty and aesthetically appealing. But I buy art that is politically meaningful.

… We are taking the narrative away from these extremists. We are building bridges of communications with the Western world and the Eastern world. And I think that art is a global language, much like music, and that people would identify with artwork even if they don’t understand the history of the Middle East. So it’s very, very important.

– Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi

Wealthy art collectors often spend millions of dollars on trophy pieces by European masters, then keep them hidden from view. Not Sheikh Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi: He spends his fortune on artworks by living, Arab artists, then shows them to as many people as possible.

Qassemi is a bit of a paradox. He’s a member of an Arab royal family, but he recently showed up at NPR’s New York bureau by himself and casually dressed, looking more like a grad student than a sheikh. While clicking through the artworks on his Barjeel Art Foundation’s website, he emphasizes his collection’s diversity. “These [artists] are from all over the Arab world: Syrian, Iraqi, Kuwaiti, Egyptian, Jordanian, from the [United Arab Emirates] and Lebanon,” he says.

… Another work in Qassemi’s collection is Memorial, a haunting black and white video installation by Iraqi artist Adel Abidin, now on display at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto as part of the exhibition “Home Ground: Contemporary Art From The Barjeel Art Foundation.”

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