London exhibition makes the case for raising the visibility of Arab women artists

Growing up between Jordan and Lebanon in the 1980s and '90s, Dia Al Batal would often hear the repetitive "tick-tick-tick … tick-tick" of a hammer and chisel as her mother, Mona Saudi, worked for hours on her stone sculptures.

As an Arab female artist, the path for Saudi wasn't easy. Al Batal said her mother was turned down by exhibitors in Europe and the United States multiple times.

The Jordanian sculptor died in 2022, but one of her abstract sculptures, called "Continuity," was part of a recent exhibition at Christie's auction house in London called Kawkaba ("constellation" in Arabic).

"This is how my mom always wanted for her work to be displayed, in collections where the public would be able to access them, and not kind of hidden and tucked away," Al Batal said in an interview in London. 

The representation of Arab women in art has been a challenge worldwide, something the Christie's show tried to redress. Kawkaba featured more than 100 pieces — half of them by women from various religions and ethnicities across the Middle East and North Africa.

Lina Khatib, director of the SOAS Middle East Institute at the University of London, said the exhibition, which ended Aug. 23, is an important contribution to changing how the artistic history of the Arab world is imagined and understood. 

"A gender-balanced approach is hugely important, because it proves that the Arab world has no shortage of talented women artists," Khatib said. She said a key challenge women artists face in the region is adequate recognition. 

"There are many internationally renowned Arab women artists, but also many others whose great work is not as known as it deserves to be."

Dia Al Batal said her mother faced many challenges as a woman starting her career in art. Mona Saudi's father did not encourage her passion, and at the age of 17, she ran away from Amman, Jordan, and moved to Beirut to pursue art.

In 1963, Saudi had her first exhibition in Beirut, and collected enough money to take a ship to Paris to continue her studies in art the following year.

"She came from a generation who did everything by themselves," Al Batal said. "She built her own name and supported herself … the opportunities that were created, she created them for herself." 

Despite challenges, Saudi ended up having solo and group exhibitions around the world, and her work has been showcased and held in collections in galleries across the U.S., Europe and the Middle East.

An artist herself, Al Batal says she was influenced by her mother's use of calligraphy and the Arabic language in her work. 

Bahia Shehab, an artist, historian and professor at the American University in Cairo, said Arab women artists often struggle with a lack of funding and infrastructure.