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Lot Essay
Painted in 1982, Mandala Bleu Nuit (Midnight Blue Mandala) belongs to a mature and important phase in Nadia Saikali’s oeuvre, when her abstraction became increasingly meditative, spiritual, and inward-looking. The painting reflects Saikali’s sustained investigation of colour and perception, using a reduced visual language to explore the relationship between structure, light, and sensation. Broad horizontal bands of deep blue and black are contained within a roughly rectangular field, structured by a central vertical line and faint horizontal and vertical marks that suggest an underlying grid. Subtle variations in pigment and a brighter blue band across the centre introduce a quiet tension between darkness and light, while the restrained palette and carefully layered surfaces create a dynamic interplay of form, hue and luminosity. Saikali’s embrace of minimal means during this period closely aligns with her interest in Zen philosophy.
Saikali’s work developed in response to the Lebanese Civil War, during which her practice expanded into kinetic and multidisciplinary forms, incorporating movement and light as a response to the turmoil of the period. Her relocation to Paris in 1979 marked a further shift towards introspective and gestural forms, with fragmented motifs addressing displacement and spirituality while maintaining an abstract visual language. From the 1980s onwards, Saikali became increasingly immersed in an investigation of being, existence and the earth’s magnetic forces, with colour emerging as a central element of her meditative oil paintings. Yet this inward turn remained deeply connected to her Lebanese identity, with the landscape and light of her homeland becoming increasingly internalised within her abstraction. In Mandala Bleu Nuit (Midnight Blue Mandala), the luminous blues evoke the Mediterranean light, while the variations of black suggest the interplay of sea, sky, shoreline and horizon. These references are never represented literally, but absorbed into the structure and atmosphere of the composition.
Mandala Bleu Nuit (Midnight Blue Mandala) was exhibited at the Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, in Nadia Saikali and Her Contemporaries (2025). The work originates from the prestigious Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, one of the Gulf’s leading institutions dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Arab art. Its presentation alongside four works by pioneering female artists in Christie’s anniversary auction reflects the Foundation’s longstanding commitment to a gender-balanced and historically inclusive approach to collecting and championing Arab artistic practice.
Born in Beirut in 1936, Nadia Saikali is regarded as a pioneering figure in post-war Lebanese abstraction. She studied at the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts, graduating in 1956, before continuing her training in Paris. Returning to Beirut, she developed her practice through the 1960s and 1970s, before relocating permanently to Paris in 1979. There, she continued to develop a highly personal visual language shaped by her sensitivity to colour, rhythm and material, and by a desire to move beyond representation towards a more intuitive and atmospheric form of image-making. From an early stage, Saikali’s work resisted simple categorisation. Rather than aligning herself too rigidly with any one school, she pursued an increasingly individual approach to abstraction.
Her work is held in leading public and private collections, including Chase Manhattan Bank, New York; National Fund of Contemporary Art, Paris; Royal Institute Galleries, London; Sursock Museum, Beirut and the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah.
Saikali’s work developed in response to the Lebanese Civil War, during which her practice expanded into kinetic and multidisciplinary forms, incorporating movement and light as a response to the turmoil of the period. Her relocation to Paris in 1979 marked a further shift towards introspective and gestural forms, with fragmented motifs addressing displacement and spirituality while maintaining an abstract visual language. From the 1980s onwards, Saikali became increasingly immersed in an investigation of being, existence and the earth’s magnetic forces, with colour emerging as a central element of her meditative oil paintings. Yet this inward turn remained deeply connected to her Lebanese identity, with the landscape and light of her homeland becoming increasingly internalised within her abstraction. In Mandala Bleu Nuit (Midnight Blue Mandala), the luminous blues evoke the Mediterranean light, while the variations of black suggest the interplay of sea, sky, shoreline and horizon. These references are never represented literally, but absorbed into the structure and atmosphere of the composition.
Mandala Bleu Nuit (Midnight Blue Mandala) was exhibited at the Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah, in Nadia Saikali and Her Contemporaries (2025). The work originates from the prestigious Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, one of the Gulf’s leading institutions dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Arab art. Its presentation alongside four works by pioneering female artists in Christie’s anniversary auction reflects the Foundation’s longstanding commitment to a gender-balanced and historically inclusive approach to collecting and championing Arab artistic practice.
Born in Beirut in 1936, Nadia Saikali is regarded as a pioneering figure in post-war Lebanese abstraction. She studied at the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts, graduating in 1956, before continuing her training in Paris. Returning to Beirut, she developed her practice through the 1960s and 1970s, before relocating permanently to Paris in 1979. There, she continued to develop a highly personal visual language shaped by her sensitivity to colour, rhythm and material, and by a desire to move beyond representation towards a more intuitive and atmospheric form of image-making. From an early stage, Saikali’s work resisted simple categorisation. Rather than aligning herself too rigidly with any one school, she pursued an increasingly individual approach to abstraction.
Her work is held in leading public and private collections, including Chase Manhattan Bank, New York; National Fund of Contemporary Art, Paris; Royal Institute Galleries, London; Sursock Museum, Beirut and the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah.