Following the thoughtful invitation by Dr. Rafia Ghubash, in collaboration with Emirates Fine Arts Society, and in the kind presence of a group of artists, media personnel, and interested guests, Dr. Noha Farran has presented a seminar at “house of Creativity” Museum, titled “Artistic and Cultural Movement in the UAE from Foundation to Contemporary Times”. The seminar follows the launch of “Memory & Art” book, published by Sharjah Institute for Heritage, which provides documentation and a recount of the nascent cultural movement, along with the different phases and fronts that accompanied and coincided with the emergence of the art movement in the UAE. The book signing event took place at Sharjah International Book Fair, which also organized an accompanying seminar, in which Dr. Noha Farran / the book author, and Dr. Najat Makki “One of the founders of the art movement in the UAE” participated. The seminar was led by Dr. Mini Abu Naama / Director of Content and Publication Department at the Sharjah Heritage Institute, on November 6, 2022.
As stated in the book’s introduction, by Dr. Abdulaziz Almusallam/ Chairman of Sharjah Institute for Heritage
“Dr. Noha Farran’s book is a comprehensive volume, and a valuable and integrated work. it explores, in detail and in an elaborative way, the different phases and aspects that accompanied the early emergence of the art movement. in addition to the most significant determinants and factors that contributed to its upliftment. right from the start, with the early signs of the visual artistic cognizance in the UAE, and the manifestations of the Emirati heritage reservoirs in the visual art landscape, then capturing the early signs of artistic experience development and its features, along with the Society, the groups, the centers, and art ateliers, in addition to the institutions and the role they played in igniting the flames of the artistic cognizance and its advancement, up until arriving to the art trends and movements that contributed to crystalizing the Emirati art schools which were affected by modernism and postmodernism after, with all of their effects and impacts on artworks and the Emirati visual art trends.
What’s admirable about this book is that it provides comprehensive documentation and abundant exploration of the visual art movement in the UAE over the course of decades, during which experiences have been formed, matured, and developed, to an extent where it crossed its local borders into more spacious and wide spaces, while carrying the cultural and artistic frameworks that formed them, the tributaries that impacted them, and the rivers that supplied them. the study encompassed many generations of Emirati artists, pioneers and founders, and those who followed their steps up to contemporary times. The author, Dr. Noha Farran, managed to combine the memory, the reflecting mirror, with all that it carries of images, shapes, and symbols, with art, in its most accurate definitions, objectives, topics, and tributaries. which makes the book not only a comprehensive recount of the Emirati art movement, but also a valuable study for the founding phase, and the course of development, in which we get to explore the world of the experience and its main features, while getting to know its relics, cultural landscapes, and art walks. the reader embarks upon a journey in a deep dive and articulate showcasing of art in the UAE in an original and genuine study of it, in every sense of the word. it is a study that seeks to encompass, however difficult, all the sides of the topic, with integration and comprehension whose likes are rare to find”.
