Abbas Al Mosawi

I met up with Abbas Al Mosawi at his gallery in the Al Ali Mall. It’s hard to miss as it’s on the first floor underneath the dome; and as you turn the corner after the escalator, you are met with what appears to be an explosion of colour through his work displayed in the window. His unique artistic style is even obvious to my untrained eye and has helped turn him into a household name throughout the Arab world.

Abbas greeted me with a big smile and firm handshake. As we sat down to conduct our interview, he explained that he would prefer to speak in Arabic and have his personal assistant, Tariq, translate as he felt he could express himself better, although he frequently spoke to me in English during our talk. Abbas is animated when talking and his eyes reflect humour. He appears content with his life.

He tells me he was born to be an artist, and if it hadn’t been painting it would have been photography or maybe even acting as a child he would perform plays for his 14 siblings and sing in the family band.

The gallery is a testimony to his work. It’s rich in colour and varied in style, which he informs me is due to a need to appeal to a mass market and not limit his audience. It has also allowed him to experiment with both subjects and materials. Depending on what he is painting he prefers acrylic for larger work rather than his trademark oils. Although it has the same characteristics and effects of oil, the consistency is not as thick, therefore making it easier and quicker to paint larger pieces of art such as those that hang on the walls of the Saad hospital in Saudi Arabia. He’s currently working with calligraphy and finds it a fascinating subject as he uses the fonts as the main theme on rich backgrounds. The combination of the two has led to some very dramatic and popular pieces. When asked about how he got into painting, he tells me it was his father’s influence. He say’s his father is multi-talented – a poet, a writer and, incidentally, the first person to ride a motorbike in Bahrain! His father introduced and encouraged all his family to have an awareness of art, travel, and an appreciation of nature and the world around them. Abbas views this as a gift he wishes to pass onto his children.

It was only when he was at college as a language major that his art teacher, Dr Ammed Bagaer, recognised his talent and encouraged him to change his course to art. Initially the college objected to the change, so Abbas left his college in protest until they reinstated him within the art course from which he graduated sooner than expected; and he was the only student to receive a scholarship to Cairo to study art.

As we begin to talk about Cairo, Abbas’s best friend, Ali K’Adum, strolls into the gallery. He has just returned from Oman and wants to take Abbas for lunch. But instead he’s invited to sit down and join us. Their friendship goes back many years and is closer than most brothers. They both humorously tell me about their lives in Cairo as students. Abbas went to Cairo to study interior design because he was advised against art (it wasn’t considered to be a reliable career). Interior design and art are related, and through his course he learnt to combine colours, participated in free art workshops, and learnt from other artists. Ali points out that during their free time, when most students would go to the cinema and coffee shops, Abbas would be locked away in his room until 3 am painting. Listening to them talk and laugh through their memories, it’s obvious it was a good period in Abbas’s life.
 

On his return to Bahrain in the late 70’s, he opened an interior design business but felt very frustrated at the thought that his work would never be permanent because office designs and interiors change with trends and new tenants. He felt his work would never be truly appreciated and so 4 years later closed the business to concentrate on his art. Abbas tells me that a good artist is like a historian because they scrutinize their surroundings and are able to recapture what they have seen on canvas, therefore documenting that moment in time; he sees his early work of the souq in the 70’s as this. Today he is influenced through his travel, and he spends a great deal of time at a friend’s villa in the South of France.

Abbas tries to leave his signature whenever there is an event whether it is good or bad, and September 11 affected him profoundly. He wanted to create a message of peace. The result was two very large paintings, one of which he presented to the American Embassy which hangs there to this day. He is involved in lots of charity organisations and believes that if he targets children, influencing them about the importance of having an appreciation of nature and caring for the environment, they will grow up with these principles and apply them to everyday life. Such a project was Peace 2000.When asked about the art industry in Bahrain,  Abbas tells me that although it is respected more here than in most of the Arab world, it is still "just art", and unlike Europe where a painting can sell for "thousands if not millions of dollars", a respected artist in Bahrain is more likely to sell his work for "hundreds".

As we are talking the owner of the Al Ali Mall’s daughter enters and enquires about a painting.  I am told she is a collector of his work.

Throughout our interview, Abbas took his time in answering each of my questions. Ali told him off at one point for talking too much about his private life.
(Ali felt it was personal, but Abbas laughed and told him to be quiet). His greatest lesson in life has changed with age but overall he will always treat his family, his friendships, and art, with a serious respect that he hopes to never abuse. He is grateful to his wife who has been a positive and encouraging influence in his life. Although he doesn’t tell his children how to lead their lives, he is not ashamed to talk about his failures in the hope that they can learn from them.

He also realises that to a great degree he has no control over what will happen. This was taught to him through his daughter’s illness with diabetes. For a while he was angry and couldn’t understand why it happened to her. Now he accepts that it is just another lesson of life.
 

Even when relaxing, he has to keep busy. He tells me that to sit around and do nothing is for him boring and stressful. He finds his work pleasurable and relaxing and delights that it enables him to travel, which results in new inspiration for his art. Without fail on any trip abroad he will get his paints and easel out and begin to put all these surrounding influences down on canvass.

As he talks about his travels, he describes the beauty of the Swiss mountains and how the Maldives, South of France and Sharm El sheik are some of his favourite places. He neither smokes nor drinks, and he’s an active member of the anti smoking and diabetes.