The Hussain Sharif Collection
Artist Biography
Hussain Sharif (Dubai, UAE, b. 1961) is a Dubai-based pioneering Emirati artist who was central to the development of conceptual arts in the United Arab Emirates. While still a student in high school, Sharif began drawing caricatures and, between 1975 and 1988, published them daily or weekly in local newspapers such as Al Wahda and Al Fajr newspapers in Abu Dhabi, and Al Khaleej published in Sharjah. Sharif held his first solo exhibition in 1981 at the Sharjah Cultural Club, where he displayed his original caricature drawings. In 1980, Sharif was a founding member of the UAE’s first art association, the Emirates Fine Arts Society (EFAS) in Sharjah, which established an important infrastructure that continues to foster collaborative communities of emerging artists. Four years after the Emirates Fine Arts Society was established, they published the first issue of the art journal Al Tashkeel, with Sharif editing and designing numerous issues. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Sharif was part of a collective of five artists known informally as “the Five” after the 2002 exhibition titled 5 UAE held at the Ludwig Forum for International Art in Aachen, Germany. In 2007, Sharif participated in establishing the Flying House, a studio, gallery space, and documentation center for the contemporary art movement in the UAE.
Hussain Sharif has spent his artistic career reimagining and adapting techniques to reflect and embody his knowledge of his environment, giving new life to industrial materials such as recycled metal wire, cardboard, and paper scraps. Sharif created works in diverse mediums including paintings, installations, collages, and other multimedia art, which have been widely exhibited in the UAE and internationally.
The Archival Collection
The Hussain Sharif Collection in the Arab Art Archive consists of over 800 items, including exhibition materials, press clippings, photographic materials, and related items that provide a comprehensive overview of Sharif's artistic practice and the development of the fine art scene in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from the 1980s to early 2000s. The exhibition materials include a significant collection of rare and valuable catalogs from some of the earliest fine art exhibitions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Highlights include several catalogs from the annual exhibitions organized by the Emirates Fine Arts Society (EFAS). Additionally, the collection features materials from art exhibitions that took place in the UAE from the 1980s through the 2000s. The collection also contains press clippings from local and international newspapers and magazines, covering exhibitions and art events related to Hussain Sharif's work.
In addition to the exhibition materials and press clippings, the collection contains a comprehensive section of photographic materials, most of which were taken by Hussain Sharif. These materials include prints of the Al Khor area in Dubai from the 1980s and 1990s, captured by the artist, as well as prints and photographic slides of his artwork and travels. The collection also includes strips of 35 mm negatives depicting various outdoor scenes in Dubai taken by Hussain Sharif between the 1980s and 1990s. Other items in the collection comprise a design for an art magazine created by Hussain Sharif, greeting cards featuring his artwork, and a brochure for a documentary project on Hassan Sharif.
The collection finding aid and digitized content is available to the public through the NYU Archival Collections repository here.