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“Each photograph I take is like a part of my soul, and I’d like that to outlive me.” - Manal Al-Dowayan

Working Women
Manal Al-Dowayan was born in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia and has spent most of her time in a semi-enclosed camp in Dhahran working for an oil company. Here, women have been employed since the 1940s, making the culture slightly different to that in the rest of the country. Without a studio, Al-Dowayan photographs women in their homes, creating makeshift sets using props which symbolize male professions. The women remain, however, highly 'feminine', heavily made up, wearing jewellery and traditional dress. As we see in The Choice, the female subject is beautiful. She is partially obscured by the steering wheel, although her hand rises up in front of it in a possible act of defiance. The tensions and disparities between men and women and the worlds they inhabit are further emphasized by the strong tonal contrast of shadow and light.

A Mother’s Love
Whilst Manal Al-Dowayan explores women in the context of the world of work, Paul Guiragossian explores women as mothers and motherhood itself. He explains why: “I lived my childhood deprived from the affection of a woman. I have spent my childhood in private convents, without knowing my mother that I looked for so long to find in my paintings.” For Guiragossian the mother is “the greatest hero of the world” and he celebrates throughout his artistic oeuvre, especially in Mother & Child. Here, we see a group of women clutching their children, which fit snugly onto their hips. This work is of exceptional size and quality, broadly executed using thick strokes with darker colours over a brighter ground. The subject matter and style of the work have led to comparisons with icon paintings, whilst the luminous finish gives the work a stained glass appearance. Women are also the subject of Selma Gurbuz’s paintings. See lot 65 on Christies.com to discover a work by this exciting Turkish artist.