Travel The Gulf ’s new oil paintings
The Middle East has turned petrodollars into art. By Justin Doherty
IONEL SORIN / DELPHOTOS / DPA PICTURE ALLIANCE / ALAMY
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any people think of the Arab Gulf states as something of a cultural wasteland, with glitzy Dubai at its centre, full of spivs, grifters, deposed despots and bored housewives. In fact, for some years, a revival of the arts has been underway, as societies are shedding old-fashioned ways and embracing a new kind of modernity. I’ve spent the past 20 years travelling around the ‘new’ Middle East and have observed the cultural shifts in real time. I’ve listened to Arabic opera in the desert, watched taboo-shattering movies in Saudi, and met ultra-violent, basketweaving flower men on the Yemen border. This is a region full of drama and change, with a cultural scene on steroids. Of course there have been noteworthy cultural artefacts produced across the Arabian Gulf for thousands of years. Nabati poetry, recited by the Bedouin, has been a dominant literary tradition for centuries. Instruments such as the oud (lute), qanun (zither), and ney (flute) produce the authentic sound of the Middle East maqam music. Gulf Arabs have painted for ever – Saudi’s rock-art petroglyphs were 80 The Oldie August 2022
carved into desert sandstone in Hail 10,000 years ago. Fast forward to the 21st century and, with the Bedouin firmly settled in palaces and villas, cultural activity raced to keep pace. Today’s Nabati poets compete on TV in a reality show similar to The X Factor, namely Million’s Poet. It all kicked off in the first few years of the new millennium. The generation of rulers who had seen their societies transformed by oil dollars gave way to a young, globally minded gang of modernisers. Unlike their illiterate Bedouin parents, many of these young men and women had been schooled at the best universities in America and Europe. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the new President of the UAE, spent time at Gordonstoun and Sandhurst. The Saudi Ambassador to the UK was at Eton and Oxford. The modernisers were the first generation to benefit from the vast oil riches their ancestors could not have dreamed of. But they also realised the dangers posed by the tsunami of cash. Oil will run out one day and, before then, oil may cease to be relevant as we pivot to
carbon-free energy. Unearned wealth breeds indolence. And so, starting in around 2005, the Gulf monarchies started to shake themselves out of their torpor and got serious about the post-oil future: big, bold visions for society, management consultants, plans for opening up their countries and the economies. Investment agencies were tasked with looking after the trillions of dollars and transforming economies into new sectors fit for the globalised economy.
