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Lot Essay
A pioneering figure in the development of the United Arab Emirates’ contemporary art scene, Najat Makki has, over the course of more than four decades, developed a distinctive visual language rooted in colour, abstraction and the natural environment of her homeland. In Emirates of Love, these concerns converge in a meditation on belonging, in which the landscape of the UAE becomes both subject and symbol. Through bands of luminous colour and horizontal lines extending across the canvas, Makki evokes a terrain in which desert and sea are become interconnected markers of place, memory and national identity.
The horizontal line forms the principal structural element of the composition. Repeated across the canvas, it recalls the uninterrupted expanse of the horizon and, for Makki, serves as a metaphor for the boundless extension of love and loyalty towards one’s homeland. Within this framework, colour assumes a distinctly symbolic role. Fields of yellow evoke the Emirati desert and its shifting sands, while passages of blue summon the waters that have historically shaped life along the country’s coastline. The meeting of these two chromatic registers brings together land and sea, creating a visual expression of the geographic diversity defining the Emirates.
Makki’s sensitivity to the natural world is deeply rooted in her early experiences. Born in Dubai in 1956 and raised close to the sea, she has recalled observing its continually shifting colours and moods from an early age: the transition from pale to deep blue, from stillness to turbulence, and the changing quality of light across its surface. Her childhood also exposed her to a rich vocabulary of colour and texture. Her father owned a herbal medicine shop, where the colours and material qualities of spices and natural substances fascinated her, while the patterned fabrics used by her mother provided another formative visual reference. These impressions would become enduring elements of her practice, informing an approach in which colour, material and memory remain closely intertwined.
Makki occupies an important position within the pioneering generation that established the foundations of the UAE’s contemporary art scene. In 1977, she became the first Emirati woman to receive a government scholarship to study art abroad, travelling to Cairo, where she completed her undergraduate and master’s studies in relief sculpture and metal before later earning a doctorate in the philosophy of art. Although initially trained as a sculptor, she subsequently developed a wide-ranging practice encompassing painting, mixed media, collage and experimental materials. Across these media, she has consistently returned to the landscapes, traditions and visual culture of the Emirates, translating local experience through an increasingly abstract vocabulary.
Her significance extends beyond her artistic production to her contribution to the UAE’s cultural landscape. Following her return from Cairo, she worked with the Ministry of Education, conducting workshops and training art teachers, and became an important mentor to subsequent generations of Emirati artists. Her longstanding relationship with Abu Dhabi’s Cultural Foundation was recognised in 2019 with Luminescence, an extensive survey of her practice, while more recently her Daily Diaries series entered the collection of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
Within this broader trajectory, Emirates of Love brings together the enduring concerns of Najat Makki’s practice. Desert and sea are distilled into colour, line and texture, transforming familiar elements of the Emirati landscape into an abstract meditation on belonging, memory and identity. The work thus reflects both her personal connection to the Emirates and her formative role in the development of its artistic culture.
The horizontal line forms the principal structural element of the composition. Repeated across the canvas, it recalls the uninterrupted expanse of the horizon and, for Makki, serves as a metaphor for the boundless extension of love and loyalty towards one’s homeland. Within this framework, colour assumes a distinctly symbolic role. Fields of yellow evoke the Emirati desert and its shifting sands, while passages of blue summon the waters that have historically shaped life along the country’s coastline. The meeting of these two chromatic registers brings together land and sea, creating a visual expression of the geographic diversity defining the Emirates.
Makki’s sensitivity to the natural world is deeply rooted in her early experiences. Born in Dubai in 1956 and raised close to the sea, she has recalled observing its continually shifting colours and moods from an early age: the transition from pale to deep blue, from stillness to turbulence, and the changing quality of light across its surface. Her childhood also exposed her to a rich vocabulary of colour and texture. Her father owned a herbal medicine shop, where the colours and material qualities of spices and natural substances fascinated her, while the patterned fabrics used by her mother provided another formative visual reference. These impressions would become enduring elements of her practice, informing an approach in which colour, material and memory remain closely intertwined.
Makki occupies an important position within the pioneering generation that established the foundations of the UAE’s contemporary art scene. In 1977, she became the first Emirati woman to receive a government scholarship to study art abroad, travelling to Cairo, where she completed her undergraduate and master’s studies in relief sculpture and metal before later earning a doctorate in the philosophy of art. Although initially trained as a sculptor, she subsequently developed a wide-ranging practice encompassing painting, mixed media, collage and experimental materials. Across these media, she has consistently returned to the landscapes, traditions and visual culture of the Emirates, translating local experience through an increasingly abstract vocabulary.
Her significance extends beyond her artistic production to her contribution to the UAE’s cultural landscape. Following her return from Cairo, she worked with the Ministry of Education, conducting workshops and training art teachers, and became an important mentor to subsequent generations of Emirati artists. Her longstanding relationship with Abu Dhabi’s Cultural Foundation was recognised in 2019 with Luminescence, an extensive survey of her practice, while more recently her Daily Diaries series entered the collection of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
Within this broader trajectory, Emirates of Love brings together the enduring concerns of Najat Makki’s practice. Desert and sea are distilled into colour, line and texture, transforming familiar elements of the Emirati landscape into an abstract meditation on belonging, memory and identity. The work thus reflects both her personal connection to the Emirates and her formative role in the development of its artistic culture.