A morning marked by a crisp wind and a sharp blue sky echoed the mood of a large crowd of art lovers as they gathered at the National Museum to celebrate the opening of the 39th Annual Bahrain Fine Arts Exhibition.

At precisely 10am on the morning of January 16th the air was filled with excitement as attendees chatted in the Museum’s vast, sunlit exhibition gallery waiting for the arrival of His Royal Highness, the Prime Minister — who was due any moment to open the annual showcase for the best work done by Bahraini artists over the past year.

When His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa’s motorcade pulled across the marble courtyard — with the azure sea in the distance — and entered via a red carpet, the large assembly of local and foreign dignitaries lined up politely, hoping for the honor of shaking His Highnesses’ hand and offering their congratulations.

Rashid Al Khalifa’s chrome convex paintings

Patron of the arts and Bahraini artist, H. E. Shaikh Rashid bin Khalifa al Khalifa, exhibited two striking monochromatic works from his “Reflection” series.  Executed in black and white enamel drip painting on convex chrome, the works looked elegant and contemporary in the glass and white marble hall.

This year over two hundred artists submitted work to the exhibition and after entries were winnowed down to a select fifty, the show was a veritable feast of differing styles of art including painting, sculpture, photography and collage.

In a departure from previous years, when a specific theme was assigned to the artists, this year’s show was left open with regard to subject matter, and the result was an exhibition in which work with themes as traditional as Arabic calligraphy –reinterpreted with a Modern twist — hung side by side with photography, collage –paintings redolent with symbolic imagery –and both abstract and representational paintings and sculpture.

This year’s winner of the Al Dana Prize, a coveted honor that carries a BD 2000 award, was Waheda Malullah. Ms Malullah’s entry comprising a series of nine photographs chronicling the progression of pregnancy impressed the judges both for its technical expertise and its haunting beauty.   ”The exhibition tends to include mostly sculpture and paintings, so I’m thrilled that my photographs won,” said Ms Malullah.

Runners-up, who received BD 1,000 each were Ali Khamis, Kamal Abdullah, Fuad Albinfalah and Balkees Fakhro.

Fuad Albinfalah’s winning entry was a pair of expertly carved grey marble sculptures in curved, circular, abstract forms. Fakhro wowed the judges with large abstract canvases in subtle greys, browns and beige tones, and in a sharply contrasting style, the intensely-colored and exceedingly complex composition of fragmented images and shapes by the young artist, Kamal Abdulla was evocative of geometric paintings by Paul Klee with an Arabic twist.

Long-time member of the Bahrain Arts Society, Ali Kamees was honored for a large rectangular abstract painting worked to resemble the craqulare found in ceramics and old master paintings in black and grey acrylic paint.

Other beloved Bahraini artists were also hung in pride of place including co-founder of the Bahrain Arts Society (with H.E. Rashid Khalifa) Ali Mahmeed, who exhibited an instantly recognizable piece of his marble, Brancusi-esque abstract sculpture; and Abdulelah Al Arab, who took top honors in the art of calligraphy at University in Egypt, and who was entrusted with writing the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bahrain. Al Arab exhibited a beautiful, swirling piece of calligraphic forms in tones of turquoise, black, orange and gold.

In addition to His Royal Highness the Prime Minister, the culture of Bahrain was celebrated by the dynamic Minister of Culture, Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, who received Ambassadors from a host of foreign nations in addition to a distinguished group of international Museum Directors and Curators — who flew in from Paris, Istanbul and Moscow in order to serve as jurors for the selection of the prize winners.

The visitors from abroad: Dr. Nazan Olcer, the distinguished Director of the Sakip Sabanci Museum in Istanbul; Dr. Galina Andreeva, a UNESCO cultural heritage expert, and visiting professor at Yale and Cambridge Universities; and the elegant, Dr. Mona Khazindar, Directrice Generale of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, were treated to a whirlwind tour including visits to artist’s studios and leading art galleries

Dr. Andreeva, a pixie-ish Muscovite with a twinkle in her eye, and a razor-sharp intellect, commented that she was honored to have been chosen to come to a country where it was obvious that the Government was in full support of both important cultural heritage as well as a vibrant contemporary art scene.

The calibre of the judges, and their enthusiasm for both the level of work produced for the exhibition, was a testament to the ever-growing importance of the Kingdom as an important center for art and culture in the Gulf — and to a Country devoted to nurturing the arts through educational and financial support.

In addition to judging the exhibition, the visiting trio of art historians were persuaded to extend their stay in order to attend the premier of the opera, Rigoletto at the National Theatre.

After a triumphant evening, in which Verdi’s immortal score soared through the exquisitely designed and newly minted National Theatre, and after the numerous curtain calls for the flushed and beaming performers, the group of visitors walked away under a waxing, crescent Bahraini moon, utterly enchanted.