The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH), in conjunction with the Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC), will officially open Artparis-AbuDhabi, the Middle East’s most prolific art fair.

The three-day event, which takes place from November 27 to 29 at the Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi, is being held under the patronage of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Artparis-AbuDhabi is being organised in partnership with Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) and Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC).

“Artparis-AbuDhabi is the result of an exclusive partnership based on a strategic spirit of cultural development. Today, more than ever, we wish to make Abu Dhabi the cultural destination of the Middle East. The Cultural District of Saadiyat Island is the most emblematic of cultural and economic development in Abu Dhabi,” said chairman of Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority (ADTA), TDIC and ADACH Shaikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan.

Artparis-AbuDhabi is expected to attract art lovers from across the region and the fair aims to strengthen the cultural ties between Europe and the Middle East.

Simultaneously, the event is expected to energise the Middle Eastern art market and cultural industries through a dedicated programme of events and activities including exhibitions, networking events, educational workshops and courses and special tours of local art galleries and culture institutions.

“Infused with the desire to export the artparis spirit to other countries, and after an in-depth analysis of cultural evolution and the international market as it is developing at the present time, we decided to look toward the United Arab Emirates and more specifically its capital: Abu Dhabi,” said the fair director Caroline Clough-Lacoste.

Of the 46 participating galleries, 11 hail from the Middle East, with the UAE, Lebanon, Bahrain, Syria, Oman, Iran and Tunisia all represented. The Middle Eastern galleries will be offering a broad panorama of modern and contemporary Arab art.

Additionally, the Pundole Art Gallery from Mumbai will be showcasing the works of artistic legend Maqbool Fida Hussain as well as Sakti Burman and Ram Kumar.
Four galleries from the UAE will be bringing brilliant artists onto the international scene: Fereydoun Ave, Rokny Haerizadeh, or Jeffar Khaldi for B21 Progressive Art Gallery, Dia Azzawi, Ismail Fattah, or Abdul Qadir Al Rais for Green Art Gallery, Hassan Hajjaj, Farhad Moshiri, and Youssef Nabil for The Third Line.

The cccidental artworks that will be shown during the event include works by greats such as Karel Appel, Arman, Jean Arp, Jean Michel Basquiat, Daniel Buren, Christo, Constantin Brancusi, Alexander Calder, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Sam Francis, Alberto Giacometti, Keith Haring, Robert Indianna, Yves Klein, Fernand Léger, Man Ray, Kasimir Malewitsch, André Masson, Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, Pierre Soulages, Kees Van Dongen and Andy Warhol, among others.- TradeArabia News Service