Hassan Sharif

Hassan Sharif (1951–2016) made a vital contribution to conceptual art and experimental practice in the Middle East through 40 years of performance, installation, drawing, painting and assemblage. Before leaving the United Arab Emirates to study in London, United Kingdom, in 1979, Sharif had gained attention for his cartoons published in the Emirati press — ironic, outspoken critiques of the rapid industrialisation of the emirates and the political deadlock of 1970s Arab Nationalism. As an artist, he rejected calligraphic abstraction, which was becoming the dominant discourse in the Middle East at that time, and pursued instead a pointedly contemporary vocabulary, drawing on the non-elitism and intermedia of Fluxus and the potential in British Constructionism’s systemic processes of making.

In addition to his own practice, Sharif also encouraged and supported several generations of artists in the United Arab Emirates. Sharif was a founding member of the Emirates Fine Arts Society (founded in 1980) and the Art Atelier in the Youth Theatre and Arts in Dubai. In 2007, he was one of the four artists to establish The Flying House, a Dubai institution for promoting contemporary Emirati artists. His works are held in the collections of the Sharjah Art Foundation; MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Tate Modern, London; Guggenheim New York and Abu Dhabi; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; M+ Museum, Hong Kong and Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Yinchuan, China; and The Jameel Center, Dubai, among others. In 2017, a major retrospective of his works, entitled ‘Hassan Sharif: I Am The Single Work Artist’, curated by Hoor Al Qasimi was held at Sharjah Art Foundation. This retrospective has travelled to the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, Germany, Malmö Konsthall, Malmö, Sweden (2020) and MAMC+, Saint-Étienne, France.