DUBAI: The first in this year’s series highlighting pioneering female artists from the Arab world in honor of Women’s History Month.
The life of Saudi artist, teacher, traveler and gallery owner Nabila Al-Bassam is as multilayered as her detailed textile collage works. Al-Bassam was born in India, where her family had previously established business ties. She lived there for 17 years and was educated in Mumbai before going on to the American University of Beirut, one of the Arab world’s top learning institutions.
Al-Bassam, who is now based in Alkhobar, graduated with a Master’s degree in education in 1968. She then headed to the US, where she learned how to work with paper, textiles, silkscreen printing and ceramics. Returning to her home country in the late Seventies, Al-Bassam established the Arab Heritage Gallery, reportedly one of the first gallery spaces to open in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia.
One of Nabila Al-Bassam's textile works on show at the Diriyah Biennale. (Courtesy of the Diriyah Biennale Foundation)
A selection of her colorful pieces from the Nineties are now being shown for the first time at the Diriyah Biennale in Riyadh, where co-curator Wejdan Reda told Arab News: “She realized that she wanted to create a space dedicated to art. She was very interested in preserving the crafts and knowledge behind textile making.” That led Al-Bassam to travel around the country for many years, which was uncommon for a woman at the time.
On her travels, Al-Bassam was inspired by both the scenery and the people. She met local craftswomen and collected a variety of materials, including silver beads, traditional dress cloths and old fabrics, which she later incorporated into her textile canvases. She was also inspired by the traditional sadu weaving technique, which features symmetrical patterns of triangles and diamonds, often colored in red, black, brown and white.
Many of Al-Bassam’s woven pieces, some of which have been showcased in international auction houses including Sotheby’s and Phillips, are an homage to the mountainous, palm-tree-lined Saudi landscape. Rows of cloth are stacked on top of one another, forming a colorful orchestra of hills or dunes that accommodate little houses and imposing, patterned towers.
