NASO Interviews: The Barjeel Art Foundation
On Collecting as Knowledge-Making
Founded in 2010 by Sheikh Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, the Barjeel Art Foundation was established to formalize a collecting practice that had begun a few years earlier, when Al Qassemi first started acquiring works by his contemporaries. What began as a personal pursuit gradually evolved into an institutional endeavor grounded in education, preservation, and public access. At a time when art collections in the Gulf were still largely private, Barjeel represented a pioneering effort to make regional art visible and accessible to a broader public.
NASO sat down with Barjeel curator Rémi Homs to discuss how the foundation’s ethos of inclusivity, research, and cultural responsibility continues to guide its work. Through this conversation, Homs reflected on how Barjeel’s approach to collecting and display has helped shape new ways of understanding Arab art, both regionally and globally.
On the Ethos of Collecting
Barjeel’s approach to collecting is best described as organic yet deeply intentional. Rather than pursuing acquisitions through market-driven logic, the foundation builds a collection that seeks to survey the full spectrum of artistic creation across the Arab world. Its holdings trace the trajectory of modern and contemporary art from the early twentieth century to the present, with particular attention to the mid-century decades that marked decisive moments in cultural and political transformation.
“We try to collect works that make sense for the collection,” Homs notes. “We look at academic relevance and, of course, building a collection that can serve as a lasting heritage for the region.” This philosophy positions collecting as a form of knowledge production- an ongoing process of research, contextualization, and reinterpretation.
Barjeel’s acquisitions reflect a sustained commitment to intellectual value. The aim is not only to preserve but also to activate, ensuring that the works continue to generate dialogue. By encompassing artists from early modernist pioneers to contemporary practitioners, the collection creates a visual and historical continuum that resists fragmentation. It gestures toward an understanding of art history as a living archive-one that is constantly expanding, revising, and re-situating itself within broader cultural and political narratives.
On Responsibility & Reflexivity
For the Barjeel Art Foundation, collecting carries an inherent responsibility. Since 2019, the foundation has implemented a gender balance policy ensuring that no exhibition features fewer than half of its works by women artists. The decision emerged from a moment of self-examination during the research for Taking Shape, an exhibition exploring abstraction in the Arab world between the 1950s and 1980s. As Homs explained, “We found a gender imbalance in our collection-between men who had been well-represented, and women who were sidelined from canonical discourses.”
The gender balance policy, far from being a symbolic gesture, has reshaped Barjeel’s operations. It has required rediscovery, research, and dialogue with under-documented artists and estates, expanding the parameters of art historical inquiry. “This is just an example of the kind of responsibility we have,” Homs reflected.
On Global Dialogues and Collaborations
Barjeel’s international collaborations have become an essential extension of its mission, allowing the foundation to situate Arab art within a wider global discourse while remaining rooted in regional specificity. Through both loans and exhibitions, Barjeel’s works have traveled to institutions across Europe, the United States, and, increasingly, Asia. Each collaboration serves as a dialogue; an opportunity to recontextualize Arab modernism within broader narratives of twentieth-century art.
The foundation’s loan programs have played a vital role in reshaping institutional narratives abroad. When the Museum of Modern Art in Paris presented Arab Presences in 2024, examining the artistic exchanges between Arab artists and Paris from 1908 to 1988, Barjeel contributed works that illuminated the role of diaspora in the development of global modernism.
“Lending to these kinds of shows is very important to us,” Homs stated. “It helps to give a full picture of the development of global modernism, and presents creation from the Arab world internationally.”
On Looking Forward
Fifteen years after its founding, the Barjeel Art Foundation continues to evolve alongside the region it documents. The Gulf’s cultural landscape has expanded dramatically, with new museums, biennials, and art fairs reshaping local and international perceptions of Arab art. Yet Barjeel’s mission remains steady: to collect, research, and present works that build a fuller, more nuanced understanding of the region’s artistic legacy.
Looking ahead, the foundation’s upcoming collaboration with the CSMVS in Mumbai underscores a growing shift toward interregional dialogue. By tracing artistic exchanges between the Arab world and India from the 1950s to the 1990s, the exhibition opens new routes for understanding how cultural modernities in the Global South have long intersected.
Ultimately, Barjeel’s practice points toward a model of collecting as knowledge-making—one that privileges research, accessibility, and dialogue over accumulation. As the foundation continues to expand its scope, it also reshapes how Arab art is understood: not as a fixed category, but as an unfolding history written through collaboration, curiosity, and care.
Cover Image:
View of the exhibition “Parallel Histories”
Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, September 20th 2023 - ongoing
Courtesy of Cristina Dimitrova