(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Sotheby's auction of contemporary art tonight is expected to break world records with the exciting line-up of works by today's masters and rising stars from the Middle East and around the world.
'The Chase' by one of the most sought-after painters from the region, Ali Banisadr, is one of them. He has staged sold- out shows in New York, has an upcoming show in London and demand for his works around the world is staggering.
"There are many works we are excited about but one particular excitement is Banisadr we have on our cover. He's creating melodious abstract scenes which are a wonderful marriage between abstraction and figuration.
"He's an artist we are confident will be achieving a new world record as that is our goal to be in Doha," said Aileen Agopian, Sotheby's Senior Vice-President, International Contemporary Art Specialist.
At last year's Doha sale, Sotheby's achieved $15,199,750, the highest price for an auction of contemporary art in the Middle East. It attained nine auction records, including the highest price for a work 'Icons of the Nile' by Arab artist Chant Avedissian bought at $1.56m.
"The bar has been set very high this time around and we tried looking strategically to pinpoint those artists that would create the same momentum and excitement from bidders worldwide, not just from the Middle East," Agopian said.
She said some artists whose works are going under the hammer tonight like Banisadr have a strong following from Asia to Latin America to the US and Europe, "so it crosses many different countries and creates this excitement globally."
Among the 53 lots on sale tonight, a work expected to create excitement among bidders would be 'Tranquility' by renowned artist Damien Hirst whose Doha exhibition early this year generated a lot of interest here and worldwide.
"We felt it was important to choose a work by Damien, understanding that there was a major retrospective that happened in Doha last year which had a lot of controversial and positive news for the monumental exhibition.
"He challenged and exposed people to what contemporary art could be in different levels. We wanted to choose what we thought was the quintessential Hirst painting which is from the Kaleidoscope series," she explained.
While the auction's main goal, Agopian said, is to achieve a strong result based on pre-sale estimates and set some auction records, another important aim is to involve people worldwide in the bid in Doha.
"That's a big goal for us. Last year we had bidders from 21 countries," she said, adding they came from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon and other countries in the Middle East as well as Latin America, the US and Europe.
Asked why Sotheby's has chosen Doha to conduct auctions and exhibitions, she said: "There has always been a commitment in Doha to the arts, whether it's Islamic art or contemporary art. They are trying to encourage and enhance and open the eyes of people in the community and when you have such a tradition and passion to show contemporary art, it's a natural response for us to want to be here and build on that commitment. Inasmuch it's a goal to sell and make auction records, it's also a goal to expose as many people to what contemporary art can be."
There has been growing interest in Middle Eastern art, she observed. "Worldwide, there's a very strong market (for Middle Eastern art). It's only getting stronger. People are committing to artists from the region because they feel that this is a growing market and there's a huge demand for it, not just from the Middle East but from major collectors and museums around the world."
The auction will be held at Katara. A pre-sale exhibition, in partnership with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, opened to the public last Tuesday.
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