Shaikh Rashid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa

Shaikh Rashid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa 40 years of painting

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

cover a diverse range of artistic genres. Realism

Realism (visual arts)

Realism in the visual arts is a style that depicts the actuality of what the eyes can see. The term is used in different senses in art history; it may mean the same as illusionism, the representation of subjects with visual mimesis or verisimilitude, or may mean an emphasis on the actuality of...

developed to Impressionism, which gradually evolved to Individualism

Individualism

Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own...

, a notable prelude to his recent work, a dual concept of Abstract

Abstract art

Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century, underpinned by the logic of perspective and an...

and the Colour Field. Today, he is considered as one of the kingdom's important artist.

Biography

Shaikh Rashid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa was born in 1952 into Bahrain’s ruling family. Traditionally, families such as his have demonstrated their appreciation of art through patronage

Patronage

Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...

and little in creativity

Creativity

Creativity refers to the phenomenon whereby a person creates something new that has some kind of value. What counts as "new" may be in reference to the individual creator, or to the society or domain within which the novelty occurs...

. Exposed to literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

, philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

and music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, the would-be artist interest in painting was encouraged by the late Amir, His Highness Shaikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, followed by a pat on the shoulder by His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister

Prime minister

A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...

of Bahrain.

As a young student, he actively participated in interscholastic painting activities and attended exhibitions of visiting artists. His first painting recorded was in 1968 when he was 16 years old. His favourite subjects were landscapes and Arabian horses.

When he came of age, he took off for the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. He studied extensively and gained a thorough knowledge of Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an masters. Realism, impressionism and abstract all have a hand in Shaikh Rashid's early works. There can be no doubt that the paintings captured what he experienced in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. But it is also certain that he took liberties when producing such paintings. Upon his return in 1970, he had his first one-man show at Delmon Hotel. From pastoral landscapes to desert

Desert

A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...

scenes, once again, he has shifted his subjects and expanded the scope of his reference from the simply theoretical to the geographical as well.

He did much experimenting in the two decades between the '70s and '80s. His knowledge and comprehension of anatomy

Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...

, perspective

Perspective (visual)

Perspective, in context of vision and visual perception, is the way in which objects appear to the eye based on their spatial attributes; or their dimensions and the position of the eye relative to the objects...

and composition

Composition (visual arts)

In the visual arts – in particular painting, graphic design, photography and sculpture – composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art or a photograph, as distinct from the subject of a work...

were the foundations for his Figurative

Figurative art

Figurative art, sometimes written as figurativism, describes artwork—particularly paintings and sculptures—which are clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representational.-Definition:...

and Landscape

Landscape

Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...

paintings. His works in this period exhibits characteristics of Romanticism, Abstract Expressionism and Impressionism as well as to Realism.

In 1983, the Bahrain Arts Society was formed and Shaikh Rashid was named its first president. The society is a non-profit organisation for Bahrain

Bahrain

' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...

i artists to gather and hold their painting exhibitions. To date the Bahrain Art Society continues its active participation in art exhibitions in Europe, the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

and Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

with Shaikh Rashid as the honorary president.

At that time he also held a government post as the assistant undersecretary

Undersecretary

An under secretary is an executive government official in many countries, frequently a career public servant, who typically acts as a senior administrator or second-in-command to a politically-appointed Cabinet Minister or other government official...

for tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...

and archaeology

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

.

In the 90’s he started to merge the two subjects and came up with his Two-dimensional paintings, his period of Individualism

Individualism

. These works have evolved in a way that their configurations of space

Space

Space is the boundless, three-dimensional extent in which objects and events occur and have relative position and direction. Physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless four-dimensional continuum...

and colour, and their formal relations, are at once less severe and more gestural.

After the first Gulf War

Gulf War

The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...

, Shaikh Rashid was appointed undersecretary for immigration

Immigration

Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

, passports and nationality

Nationality

Nationality is membership of a nation or sovereign state, usually determined by their citizenship, but sometimes by ethnicity or place of residence, or based on their sense of national identity....

.

Ultimately, this period was less about art than the artistic process. Shaikh Rashid scoured his environment and accumulated ideas and inspiration.

In his new millennium

Millennium

A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....

paintings, landscape and figurative morphed resulting in Abstract and Colour Field. He maintained his focus on the aesthetics of what post-modernism's adherents might identify as a re-contextualisation of an art genre, but his works were never created as exercises in post-modernist theory.

A book entitled Rashid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, 40 years of painting, from himself, by himself, for himself (ISBN 978-99901-03-52-6) is a showcase of his 40-year œuvre.
The 160 page book concentrates on Shaikh Rashid's art critical biography and artistic identity analysed by Iraqi-born Swede Modhir Ahmed

Modhir Ahmed

The artistic journey of Iraqi-Swedish artist Modhir Ahmed coincided with the sweeping political changes of Iraq and Poland in the mid-1980s and concluded in Sweden, the country that has opened scores of new opportunities for the young determined artist....

Exhibitions

SOLO

2010 Convex: A New Perspective, Bahrain National Museum, Kingdom of Bahrain
1997 Art Department, Shuman Arts Organization Jordan
1996 De Caliet Gallery, Milan Italy
1996 El Kato Kayyel Gallery, Milan Italy
1982 Middle East Institute, Washington, D.C. USA
1982 Sheraton Hotel Bahrain
1970 Dilmun Hotel Bahrain

SELECTED INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS

2007 Bahrain Contemporary Art -Unesco Paris
2005 Modern Art Exhibition Organized by the Royal Ireland, College of Surgeons of Ireland in Dublin
2004 Duo show with Balqees Fakhro -Berlin Germany; Annual Art Exhibition 32- Bahrain National Museum Bahrain
2002 Bahraini Culture Week- Amman Jordan; Bahraini Culture Week -Peking China
1999 Taipei Art Exhibition Taiwan; Sharjah Intl. Art Biennial UAE; Bahrain – Delmun Exhibition Paris
1998 Bahrain Arts Society Exhibition, Gallery Alexander Leodoux France
1997 Art Expo Singapore; Art America Exhibition, Miami USA; Europe Art Festival, Geneva Switzerland; Bahrain Arts Society Exhibition, Cannes France
1996 Europe Art Festival, Geneva Switzerland; Bahrain Artists Exhibition Rome; Sharjah Biennial Exhibition UAE
1995 Joint Exhibition with Abbas Al-Mousawi, Hotel Du Switzerland, Rond, Geneva; Joint Exhibition at the UN Center, Lusanne Switzerland
1989 Bahrain art Society Exhibition Cairo
1988 Festival of Asian Artists Malaysia; New Art Center Iraq
1986 First GCC Art Exhibition Japan
1985 Cairo Biennial Exhibition Cairo; Alia Center Jordan
1984 Bahraini Artists, Leighton House England; Salon des Artists Francises, Grand Palais Paris
1981 Raffles Hotel Singapore
1978 Hilton Hotel Bahrain
1975 Gulf Hotel Bahrain
1973 Periodic GCC Youth Exhibition
1972 College of Arts Exhibition England
1969 First Art Exhibition held at the Gulf Hotel Bahrain

Family

With all his government affairs and involvement in the arts, Shaikh Rashid is a dedicated husband to Shaikha Lulwa bint Khalifa Al Khalifa and father to their six children – Abdulla, Aisha, Hessa, Khalifa, Mohammed and Noor.

External links

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