The museum has also prepared a special event for National Day. As a new cultural season begins this autumn, Louvre Abu Dhabi is presenting three new international exhibitions and public programming to coincide with the UAE’s 50th anniversary.
The first show is the outcome of the Richard Mille Art Prize, the museum’s first contemporary art prize which launched an open call earlier this year. The inaugural exhibition Louvre Abu Dhabi Art Here 2021 will feature the proposals by the seven artists shortlisted for the prize: Emirati artists Latifa Saeed and Mohammed Kazem; Lebanese-Italian artist and writer Cristiana de Marchi; Palestinian artist Mays Albaik; Bahraini artist Nasser Alzayani; Palestinian-Kuwaiti visual artist Tarek Al-Ghoussein; and Russian visual artist Taus Makhacheva.
Beginning November 18, their proposals will be showcased in the Forum, a space for interaction and exchange. The museum has not yet announced when it will decide on the winner, who will receive a prize of $50,000.
November also marks the museum’s anniversary, for which it will unveil 59 new loans and 56 new acquisitions in its galleries. Among the works on view is Ghada Amer’s The Words I Love Most sculpture, which has been repositioned next to the new acquisition, Jacob de Backer’s series of eight allegories. The Flemish painter’s work builds a dialogue with Amer’s as they both explore how word and image can be used to express universal human values.
Louvre Abu Dhabi’s first exhibition of 2022 focuses on the story of Versailles, a significant and historical area for France that houses the former royal residences of French nobility. Titled Versailles and the World, the show will open on January 26 and explore Versailles as a symbol of the French royal court’s power and its enduring appeal in today’s world. READ MORE
