A life dedicated to the mare: Saudi Arabian artist Kamal al-Mualim speaks

Amultidisciplinary artist, Kamal al-Mualim is a painter, a sculptor, a laud musician and a lover of calligraphy. Born in Saudi Arabia, he studied Fine Arts in Florence, Italy, and has worked as Fine Arts director and Head of Cultural Affairs at the Youth Welfare Headquarters in Damman, Saudi Arabia. Al-Mualim has also a long and prolific career always related to the arts as approached from different points of view: he has been a consultant calligrapher and illustrator for the Arabic World Encyclopedia, founding member of the Saudi Art Association, and designer of decoration and clothes for theatre plays. Always experimenting, he has also been coordinator of several diverse activities such as art courses, the Saudi Cultural Festival, numerous exhibitions in the region, and a youth theater. His paintings and sculptures have been exhibited in countries as diverse as Libya, Florence, Kuwait, Austria, China and Tunisia among others. Al-Mualim’s works, always dedicated to the theme of the horses and what he calls “his mare,” have been rewarded with several prizes locally and internationally.

YO: -How did your interest in art start? 
Kamal al-Mualem (KAM): -When I was a child I was interested in calligraphy. Then, I finished high school and moved to Italy. I already loved Italy before going and I wanted to be in Florence, a cradle of art: the academia is there, museums, everything. I went directly there, to Florence, by myself, and I studied there. That brought me here now. I lived there for five years and then I came back to Saudi Arabia. 

YO: -When did you start being interested in horses and why? 
KAM: -My work revolves around mare, female horses. My first exhibition was about what I call “my mare,” back in 1995 in Saudi Arabia. The reason why goes back to my childhood, when my dad used to carry me on the back of his horse. There is a long explanation for my adoration of horses. As it is explained in the catalog of my 1994-1995 exhibition “I obtained my own horses later on, which strengthened my adoration to this being. While I was studying fine art in Italy, I registered my name in Tuscany’s Horse-Riding Club in Florence. This brought me before new secrets, which generated in me through bitter struggle, the singularity of the horse. But this was not enough and my excitement to fulfill my project did not escalate until I had actually dealt with him from inside. If I had dealt with this being through observation and description from outside, without trying to penetrate deep into him, I would have betrayed him. That moment was, therefore, a serious one, full of details that the study of dissection from books and the body of a horse had been offered to me by circumstances.” 

YO: -Your interest in horses has taken you to even take anatomy classes, is that right? 
KAM: -Yes, I have dissected horses to learn what was inside. I studied the anatomy of horses, which helped me to draw in a better way.  

YO: -Have you ever stopped painting horses? 
KAM: -No, never. I have always painted horses. During my entire career. Now I started to introduce the idea of the “bread” in my work, of how bread, the earth, people, fire are connected. The bread is the earth, what enables you to continue living. 

YO: -There are also love stories in your work? 
KAM: -Yes, one of my paintings talks about the story of Antarah and Ablah, which is the Arab version of Romeo and Juliet to whom I have also dedicated a painting. In the painting dedicated to Antarah and Ablah there is a sword separating the two horses, and there is written that when he uses the sword he will remember her. “I will want to kiss the sword because I will remember you,” is a very strong idea. “I remember you when I see the sword shinning and I remember your lips,” this is the poetry written on the painting that talks about the story of these two lovers. It is a beautiful story. 

YO: -All your work is characterized by very strong colors, is there any idea behind that? 
KAM: -That is something that depends on the person that looks at the painting. Is something the painting can provoke on you but I don’t have anything to say about it.  

YO: -Your artistic work focuses on painting only? 
KAM: -No, I also work on sculptures and I write poetry. Some of the poetry accompanies my paintings in the catalog. I am a small poet. I also play the laud, so there is a mix of disciplines in my artistic work. 

YO: -What do you try to express through your paintings? 
KAM: -Basically what I feel, but it depends on how people perceive it. Maybe people get it in a positive way, maybe not, it depends on people. Of course there is a message, the horse, the mare…for instance, sometimes when people are in love they interpret that my horses, my mare, are explaining a love story. People think sometimes that my horses represent my own love for someone, which sometimes is true and sometimes is not. People are the ones interpreting art.  

Antarah amd Ablah

YO: -How do you see your own work? 
KAM: -I consider myself a small artist. People know me in Saudi Arabia and they know I work in my studio, which is the place where many artistic experiments happen. I make different things, I don’t like normal art. I want to have a different style, something that make people say ‘that is Kamal al-Mualem.’ I want people to be able to recognize my style, my work.   

YO: -Have you faced any challenges in your work? 
KAM: -Sometimes people don’t understand what I do, what are my sculptures about. But I really don’t care about that, I work because I love it. This is me, I don’t care about what others say. I haven’t faced any challenge or obstacles. The only thing I can say is that is very important to read. I read everything, not only art, in order to get something because I think that in order to make something you need to put things inside. For any type of work, you as a journalist need the same. 

YO: -You have been recently to China, how was that experience and how people received your work there? 
KAM: -I just came back from China. I was there for fifteen days working on a sculpture and on a project called “The silk of the steed.” I am very, very, very glad I went to China. I would like to come back right now. I loved the people, the places, everything. I had the chance to work with very different materials there like steel, fiberglass, wood, acrylic, copper, and ornamental stones. 

YO: -How do people receive you when you travel around the world, are they surprised to see your artistic work as part of the Saudi artistic movement? 
KAM: -Actually, no one believes that I come from Saudi Arabia. There are many interesting things happening at the artistic level in my country. Artists there are strong.   

YO: -How is the situation of art and artists in Saudi Arabia? 
KAM: -We have many and good artists. Is not difficult to be an artist there. There is a market for art, people are used to art although you find everything: sometimes people don’t understand, sometimes they do, so is like here in Yemen. Also in Saudi Arabia sometimes is difficult in terms of the lack of a strong art market. My work for instance is better accepted outside. I prefer to work outside because people understand better what I do. 

Showing-off

YO: -What about Saudi female artists? 
KAM: -There are many but the problem is that they are not taken seriously. The reason is our culture, look at the difference between European countries and here: women are humans and not only women in Europe. The problem is also that women artists don’t take their work seriously either. Art is like a hobby for them. Your work needs to be serious if you want others to take you seriously. 

YO: -Having traveled as much as you do, how do you see the artistic scene in the Arab peninsula? 
KAM: -Many people in the region prefer realism, like here in Yemen. I think in terms of art we are still at the beginning. From the region perhaps Bahrain is at the top of the artistic movement, a lot of people are improving the artistic scene of that country, also there is culture, people like art… small country but nice people. 

YO: -How do you see Yemen? 
KAM: -So far I haven’t had the chance to see that much of Sana’a, but I really like the culture here. I brought with me a book by Abdulaziz al-Muqalah about Sana’a, to accompany me in this trip. Yemen has a good culture although the situation is difficult.   

YO: -What are your future projects? 
KAM: -To continue my artistic work, to keep meeting people. I am preparing a project where I mix sculptures and painting. I hope God will give me time to do all the things I want to do, because for me this is still the beginning.

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