In the past, the typical Saudi woman lived a ‘half life’, unable to enjoy herself, tied down by customs, traditions, and strict social norms, while also being robbed from her rights. She had to abide by wearing the black abaya and she lived in her father’s house, not allowed to leave until she was married.
This changed a little in 1955, when the all-girls school, Dar Al Hanan School, was founded. From then on out began the Saudi woman’s attempt to change her reality and enable herself personally and socially.
Saudi women have gone through a lot of painful experiences to simply live, and there is no better space to depict the history of such challenges and suffering than in the space of the fine arts. How have the Saudi fine arts expressed and described the case of women in the kingdom? And how have female Saudi artists spoken up about their causes, reality, and future?
The Fine Arts are a type of art that utilize different aspects of form such as space, color, line, and mass to express an emotion or subject, defined through vision or touch.
The story of the fine arts in Saudi Arabia began in 1928, when art education was adopted within the teaching curriculum. Saudi Arabians drew using charcoal, pastels, and pencil. Since then, the fine arts slowly grew in popularity among amateur artists.
In 1929, Saudi Arabian schools began holding art expositions. The newfound trend of art education received support from King Saud Bin Abd El Aziz Al Saud, who inaugurated the first art exposition in Riyadh, marking art education as an important part of the education of all ages.
The Saudi woman entered the world of fine arts in the year 1968, when the efforts of the women’s fine arts movement in the kingdom were expressed by artist Safiya Binzagr. The latter received her education in Egypt, and she was the first Saudi woman to study art, as well as the first to showcase her work in her own exposition.
In a study published in Academy Journal Number 99 by researcher Hanan Bint Saud Al Hozaa titled “The Participation of the Saudi Arabian Women in Fine Arts Expositions”, the story of artists Badriya Al Nasser, Khadija Moukaddem, and Fa’iza Fayraq are told.
The three women were active in the feminist fine arts movement in the Eastern district of Saudi Arabia, which pushed many fine artists in the Western part of the kingdom to participate in art expositions as competition. One of the most prominent expositions was the Exposition of Saudi Arabian Contemporary Art, which saw its beginnings in 1979.
Despite such a rich history, the artistic participation of Saudi woman in the fine arts remained quite limited, “but with Saudi Vision 2030, there was a massive jump on the ideological and awareness level, as well as an expansion of the artistic and expressive vision, which opened the door for many female artists to express their own thoughts and ideas in a way that is fulfilling”, says Mohammed Al Subaih, President of the Saudi Arabian Society for Culture and Arts in Jeddah, in a statement to Muwatin.
“In April of 2016, the Kingdom announced Saudi Vision 2030, which aims to execute up to eighty government projects with an economic budget of 3.7 billion rials. It also aims to support the Saudi Arabian woman in her endeavors to achieve equality between her and her male counterpart in the Saudi community across all sectors, also guaranteeing her receiving all her rights”.
Saudi Women as a Symbol of Beauty in the Works of the Saudi Artist
The current hope for the fine arts scene is for women’s work to be more prominent in exhibitions for fine artists in general. Usually, women used to show up in such expositions as being a subject matter, where male artists would express their views on women as a symbol of beauty in their art.
Subaih confirms that the presence of women in the fine arts as a result of male fine artists’ pieces remained unable to properly portray the depths of a woman’s unruly spirit.
When a man uses women as a subject matter to express beauty in his fine artworks, it usually remains unmatched to when a woman expresses her essence in her own artwork.
This was apparent in the “Diyaa Aziz” competition that was organized by the Saudi Arabian Society for Culture and Arts, under the title of “The Saudi Arabian Woman: The Creative Presence of the Artistic Woman”. Through this competition, female artists were given the space to express themselves, their emotions, and their feelings with paint brushes and colors.
“The Diyaa Aziz competition counts as one of the most prominent competitions on a national level in Saudi Arabia, and on a regional level in general. It was inaugurated in honor of the Saudi Arabian fine artist Diyaa Aziz, one of the pioneers of the fine arts in the kingdom. The competition aims to support the rising artistic movement in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”.
With the up-and-coming modernization plan in the kingdom, Saudi artistic associations have begun targeting the work of both male and female artists. As the head of one of these associations, Subaih proclaimed that they “believe that a true artist must have all opportunities open for him or her , whether it be a man or a woman”.
Saudi Female Clothing in Fine Arts Artwork
In his renowned painting, fine artist Saad Bin Merhi, the head of the Saudi Art Club for Visual Arts, showcases a group of women in all-black garments with none of their faces showing, which points to the overemphasis of modesty and struggle that Saudi women have faced.
Commenting on the inclusion of Saudi women’s causes in his work, Merhi tells Muwatin: “I made the woman one of the symbols in my work because she is both inspiring and successful in this age, and she will push us to excel and achieve the Saudi 2030 Vision peacefully. A lot of my work discusses the concerns of the Saudi woman, and the story of her success”.
If black abayas have limited the freedom of Saudi women to wear colors in the past; then the fine arts now express the new ‘look’ of the Saudi woman. “Women have started to show up wearing modern black abayas with Al-Qitt Al-Aseeri and Al-Sadu prints, no longer settling for the dimmed, plain black abayas with no artistic decorations”.
Indeed, the Saudi community previously limited the freedom of the Saudi woman to choose her clothing through the Commission of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which was suspended not too long ago.
Bin Merhi affirms that clothing is the primary cause for Saudi women, and now she has become free to choose her clothing, able to walk around and participate in local and international art exhibitions without being excluded or looked down upon
How Have the Fine Arts Expressed the Saudi Arabian Women's Causes in the Past and in the Present?
Saudi women have struggled to get their rights. They did not have the right to vote, they only recently were allowed to begin driving, the law did not allow them to have control of their money on their own, and they were not allowed to file official judicial complaints nor travel without a guardian.
Saudi women were finally rid of all these struggles only because they deserve to live equally like their male counterparts in their country.
The Saudi fine arts reflected this massive change in the reality of women between the past and present, according to Bin Merhi. “The contemporary Saudi artists have full creative freedom to exhibit what they wish to, and they choose to express women’s rights causes. In their paintings, they embody the Saudi woman as a pioneer in her community through her modern Saudi outfit, and through her presence in artistic centers as a professional artist who is visible to the world”.
“Today is quite different from the past, when female Saudi artists struggled a lot in not being portrayed publicly as an artist in the fine arts. Today’s art tells the story of these women breaking away from these norms and traditions that do not comply with fair Islamic wisdoms”.
The renaissance of any society can only happen in the presence of social justice and equality between male and female citizens in both their rights and duties. This has pushed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to move towards enabling women on a societal level.
Such actions have given Saudi artist Aliaa Al-Aliani hope for the future of the Saudi Arabian woman. The freedom of women has been the primary cause that Al-Aliani has showcased in her artwork.
In her statement to Muwatin, she says: “A cause that concerns me greatly is violence against women, wedding women without their permission, and not giving them the freedom to express their opinions in many tribal spaces. This freedom is portrayed in my artwork through the freedom of clothing, where women are dressed in outfits that are considered out of the ordinary in terms of tribal wear”.
Living in a society that imposes strict customary laws that curb women’s freedom has a massive negative mental impact on women. This has been expressed by artist Areej Obeid, who uses the Saudi Arabian woman as a symbol of both inner peace and fear in her work.
In a conversation with Muwatin, she says: “In one of my artworks, I portray a woman listening to a bird who is chirping at her and giving her the strength to face life’s difficulties”. Specialized in psychology, Obeid taps into her practical knowledge and embodies fear in all its forms in her works.
Saudi Women’s Traditional Outfits in Artwork
Saudi women’s traditional wear has taken up a special place in the world of artists in the kingdom. In a painting by Saudi artist Asmaa Al-Omari, one finds a woman sitting on the windowsill of an old stonehouse, dressed in the traditional wear that is specific to the Southern province of Aseer, which is also still worn today on special occasions.
The various qualities of Aseeri traditional dress are shown in the painting: first, the dress is embroidered using colorful threads and a yellow handkerchief is worn on the head. “Gheraz”, a plant from the basil family, is fashioned in a perfume and worn for its ravishing scent, and henna is applied to one’s hands and feet.
“In my paintings, I focused on the traditional clothing of Saudi women, such as the old outfits brides wore in the Southern region, which is basically the Aseeri dress, silver jewelry, the yellow handkerchief, and I added Al Qutt Al Aseeri prints on the back”, explains Al-Omari.
In one of her paintings, she includes the Najdi burqa which used to be worn a while back, and which is still worn by some tribal communities. She also added the Al Sadu Al Najdi print in purple after the color purple was adopted as a color that welcomes the Kingdom’s guests. Coincidentally, it also symbolizes the lavender plant that is widespread in the Najd area.
The Saudi Women in Social Occasions
During Saudi weddings, as the sounds of the “tar” (an instrument similar to the tambourine) fill the area, women are motivated to begin dancing by moving their heads from side to side and whipping their hair with strength and vigor. The thicker and longer the hair is, the more cheers and claps the girl receives from the crowd, especially if the singer is chanting the girl’s name and her family is enthusiastically riling up the entire tribe. The ground shakes due to crowds of dancing girls who have prepared themselves for the event, having painted their face with makeup and having worn beautiful garments to highlight their features and enchant onlookers.
For this reason, artist Asmaa Al Suleiman has used social gatherings in Saudi Arabia as the subject matter in many of her artwork, showing how Saudi women look and participate in such events. She tries to communicate a realistic image of how the typical Saudi woman prepares herself to participate in such events, like when a bride gets ready for her wedding.
“In one of my paintings, the bride is getting ready and preparing herself for the groom’s entrance. Incense must permeate everywhere around her and on her: whoever is helping her places the incense under her legs, lifting the tips of her dress, then closing it around the incense between the bride’s legs for the incense to stick to every part of the bride’s body. Tears might fall down in the midst of the drum sounds and the chants of happiness”. She tells Muwatin.
In much of her artwork, Al Suleiman includes the traditions and social norms that a woman does in a traditional Saudi household. For example, she paints a picture of a woman putting on perfume from a golden, bejeweled bottle, which diffuses perfume from the little pipe from the top of the bottle. Then, the perfume’s scent travels through the household, greeting guests as they enter.
Female and male artists specializing in fine art have focused plenty on the causes and struggles of the Saudi Arabian women. Their artwork has shown the psychological effects that women have been left with after enduring social burdens and pressures. And yet, despite this harsh past, there are so many things to look forward to in the future of the kingdom’s women.
The Saudi fine arts and artists have presented the life of the Saudi woman and her cultural heritage; the ways in which she welcomes guests and the ways in which gets ready during wedding preparations; the mixed feelings of freedom and fear.
Yet most importantly, they have shown two important phases in the Saudi woman’s life and in Saudi Arabia’s history: in the first phase, the woman wore black; and in the second, she wore colors.