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Picasso, Shadows and Mamluks: Louvre Abu Dhabi reveals upcoming programme

Louvre Abu Dhabi's upcoming season will present a splendidly varied slate of exhibitions. The newly revealed line-up includes a deep dive into the cultural legacy of the Mamluk dynasty, the return of the annual Art Here and Richart Mille Art Prize, and an exhibition showcasing the evolution and influence of a certain Cubist painter. This panoply of historical, modernist and contemporary shows was carefully devised to reflect Louvre Abu Dhabi's wide-ranging curatorial vision, according to Manuel Rabate, the museum's director. 'Louvre Abu Dhabi is the first universal museum of the Arab world, rooted in our territory. What we bring to the table is a capacity for cross-cultural exchange,' says Rabate, who adds that this is especially true for the upcoming line-up of exhibitions. 'The season is extremely structured and balanced. We have this first exhibition on the Mamluks, which is an exquisite gathering of beautiful artworks that make the most of our international connection. 'With Picasso, we talk about an icon of modernity, but we will get a twist to see how it's relevant here. With Art Here, it is our fifth edition and we are expanding it to Japan.' Here are the exhibitions coming up at Louvre Abu Dhabi. September 17 to January 25 The Mamluk dynasty is often hailed for their military prowess, having ruled over a large part of the Islamic world between 1250AD and 1517AD. Their territory sprawled across Egypt, modern-day Levant, a part of Eastern Anatolia in Turkey and the Hejaz of Saudi Arabia. Mamluks: Legacy of an Empire will show these aspects of the dynasty, but it will also delve into its cultural output. The exhibition is held in collaboration with Musee du Louvre and France Museums. It will be jointly curated by Souraya Noujaim, director of the Department of Islamic Arts at Musee du Louvre, and Carine Juvin, curator of the Medieval Near and Middle East collection at the same department. The curators are being supported by Fakhera Alkindi, senior curatorial assistant at Louvre Abu Dhabi. While the exhibition is inspired by the continuing Mamluk show at the Musee du Louvre, it will be reconfigured for the local context, Alkindi says. 'It will be viewed not from West to East but from within,' she says. 'We're including different collections, with regional collections. The Mamluks were a connected dynasty. They had connections to Africa, China and Europe as well.' This network of exchanges is especially apparent in the crafts and artworks of the dynasty. The materials they used, the development of techniques and the motifs they incorporated into their architecture. Highlights of the exhibition will include Reception of a Venetian Delegation by the Mamluk Governor of Damascus, a 16th century painting on loan from the Musee du Louvre. Another is the Baptistery of Saint Louis, created in Egypt or Syria in the 14th century. A notable piece from Louvre Abu Dhabi's collection will also be a centrepiece: Carpet Decorated with Three Medallions, which was produced in Egypt in the second half of the 15th century. 'What is stuck in public memory is the military elite and hierarchy that created the Mamluks,' Alkindi says. 'But the Mamluks were much more than that. They were a multifaceted society with developments across different fields, scientific, intellectual, and literary.' October 8 to December 28 The fifth Richard Mille Art Prize and Art Here exhibition will extend its reach beyond the GCC to include Japan. The prize is currently accepting proposals from artists living or connected to either region. Shortlisted works will be featured in Art Here. The exhibition, in partnership with the Swiss luxury watchmaker after whom the prize is named, has become a staple in Abu Dhabi's cultural calendar. 'We're opening up the prize to include Japan, and this is a back-and-forth between the two cultures,' says Guilhem Andre, director for scientific, curatorial and collections management. The exhibition will be overseen by Swiss Japanese curator Sophie Mayuko Arni. The theme of Shadows will examine the interplay between light and darkness, a motif prevalent in the artistic and architectural traditions of Japan as well as the Arabian Gulf. 'You take the example of mashrabiyas here and the shoji walls in Japan,' Andre says. 'They conceal and at the same time reveal and let air pass through. That's something common between cultures and it was a relevant pattern for us to put in place through Art Here.' The shortlisted works will be announced later this summer ahead of the exhibition's opening in October. January 19 to May 31 Pablo Picasso needs no introduction and though there have been countless exhibitions dedicated to the Spanish painter, Louvre Abu Dhabi's presentation will be curated with a distinct focus. The evolution of Picasso's practice will be charted based on his experimentations with the human form. The exhibition will feature several works from the early 1900s to his later years, encompassing painting, sculpture and drawing. 'The figure is something continuous in Picasso's career,' Andre says. 'Whether in the synthetic shape of his cubism, or in the 1920s and 1930s, which were more classical, or even with the more surrealist works, and the reinterpretation at the very end of his career.' Picasso, the Figure will be held in partnership with the Musee National Picasso-Paris and France Museums. It will be curated by Cecile Debray, president of the Musee National Picasso-Paris, and the museum's chief curator and head of sculpture, ceramics and giacometti furniture Virginie Perdrisot. Aisha AlAhmadi, senior curatorial assistant at Louvre Abu Dhabi, will also support the exhibition. The exhibition will have several strong works on loan, such as Woman Sitting in Front of Window, painted in 1937. It will also draw from Louvre Abu Dhabi's small but significant collection of works by Picasso. These include the 1911 work Woman with a Mandolin (Miss Leonie Seated), Portrait of a Seated Woman (Olga), painted in 1923. Louvre Abu Dhabi is also reflecting on Picasso's influence within the Arab world, bringing on board regional institutions such as the Barjeel Art Foundation and the Dalloul Art Foundation to see how the Spanish painter may have inspired a wave of modernist artists from the Middle East. 'These exhibitions are an opportunity for us to talk with important peers from the region,' Rabate says. 'It can be the Furusiyya Art Foundation for the Mamluk exhibition or the Barjeel Art Foundation for modern art. This is also the role of a universal museum, to be connected to private and public collections.'