Modern and Contemporary Arab Art from the Levant

Majida Mouasher was the owner of the 4 Walls Art gallery in Amman, Jordan between2000 and 2006. During that time, she worked with more than ninety artists, forty-fourof whom form the nucleus of her stunning and vital private collection comprised ofmodern and contemporary Arab art from the Middle East in general and the Levant inparticular, and spanning over sixty years of outstanding quality art.At the time, there were very few contemporary galleries to be found in Jordan andartists were largely dependent on their own personal efforts and contacts to promotetheir work. There was a vacuum that needed to be filled and a public demanding tosee contemporary art and get to know the artists. The aim of 4 Walls was to promotethe artists by exhibiting their works and helping to sell them. Throughout that period,Majida Mouasher consistently bought work from these artists.What makes this collection so unique is its astonishing diversity, despite the fact thatthe Levant is so heavily represented. The artists all have deep cultural roots in whateverthe source of their inspiration might be, whether that is China, Russia, the West, ortheir own country of origin. Though many of them are now living in the diaspora, theyall have in common an honest reaction to their environment, their cultural and socialor historical backgrounds, their ethnic origins or political upheavals.The wars and instabilities in the Middle East have forced people to move across continents and to the shorelines of Europe, bringing with them new and different culturalways. Now that the Middle East is so much in the spotlight, an urgency exists to showits contemporary art to the Western public. Art is able to bypass conflicts, to enhanceand promote understanding between cultures.