Abstract expressionist Samia Halaby will have a retrospective of more than 200 works in Sharjah Art Museum this autumn. The artist takes us inside her studio and her practice.
Samia Halaby is a towering figure in art, collected by major museums around the world. She is also a tireless activist and historian for Palestine, the homeland she was forced to flee in 1948, when she was 11. She not only broke barriers in the male-dominated domain of abstract expressionism, but also in academia, becoming the first female associate professor at the Yale School of Art in 1972. And she is a pioneer of digital art.
“Samia Halaby occupies an important position in the realm of transnational abstraction—one that is not bounded by geography or a single influence. Hers is a unique voice in global modernism that combines a distinctive technique with an awareness of international art movements, Islamic geometry, as well as an astute sensitivity to the environment around her,” says Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah. Its collection includes two paintings from the 1960s, a silkscreen print from the 1980s, and a set of her kinetic works from the 1980s and 1990s.
