Black and White, 1985. Collection of Barjeel Art Foundation.
Hassan Sharif included in Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s at New York University's Grey Art Gallery, New York, NY.
The institution's press release follows:
Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980s traces the emergence and development of abstraction in the Arab world through paintings, sculptures, and works on paper dating from the 1950s through the 1980s. Drawn from the collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation based in Sharjah, UAE, the exhibition features nearly 90 works by a diverse group of artists, including Etel Adnan, Shakir Hassan Al Said, Kamal Boullata, Huguette Caland, Ahmed Cherkaoui, Saloua Raouda Choucair, Rachid Koraïchi, and Hassan Sharif, among others. Taking Shape reveals how artists moved away from figuration toward a process of simplifying and schematizing reality—an approach initiated by both artist collectives as well as by individual practitioners in the region and the Arab diaspora. Accompanying the exhibition will be a fully illustrated publication featuring new scholarship.
Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s–1980
January 14 – April 4, 2019
Grey Art Gallery, New York University
New York, NY