The art of collecting is a timeless pursuit driven by passion, historical appreciation, and an enduring desire to preserve and celebrate cultural and artistic heritage. Arina Drobina, Art Ambassador of World Arabia Magazine, dives into the fascinating world of art collecting — exploring the language of jewellery in art and the depiction of Eastern women through the Orientalist tradition. Since the times of cave paintings, humans have strived to convey their highest conception of themselves and the world around them through art.
The Medici, Rockefellers, Rothschilds, Romanovs, Sergey Ivanovich Shchukin and the Morozov brothers, Savva Mamontov, Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge, Karl Lagerfeld, the Roman Popes and the Vatican Pinacotheca — all collectors. What unites these names? The great endeavour, dedication, passion, love, and obsession with art objects has forever etched them in history.
A connoisseur in the old sense of the word was not so much a buyer as a historian. To collect meant becoming acquainted with many civilisations that preceded your own — taking temporary possession of something that once belonged to someone else and after you will still belong to someone else. The joy of the connoisseur was in their confidentiality and, equally important, their rigour.
The opening of the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island — the only private art foundation in the Cultural District — with the support of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, presented a unique collection titled Echoes of the Orient. The collection explores femininity as envisioned in the Orientalist art movement, the complex interplay of reality and fantasy that historically defined Western perceptions of the East. The woman depicted in these paintings is so closely linked with her jewellery that the two are inseparable.
Massive bracelets emphasising delicate wrists and ankles, layered necklaces, strings of beads, chains worn around the neck, brooches enchanting with emeralds, rubies, and sapphires. Most of these works were created by male artists who decisively endowed their Eastern heroines with jewellery and attire, placing them as if for personal aesthetic pleasure. But two works stand out: created by female artists who, at the time, had to defend their right to creativity in the Western world. These women artists created a harmonious space with their heroines — a space of abundance, prosperity, and bliss, where everything is subject to The Woman.