Yousef Ahmad is a Qatari artist, educator, writer, collector, and art adviser. Yousef Ahmad is a pioneer of modern Arabic contemporary art forms. Inspired by the flat desert of Qatar’s landscape, Ahmed creates textured abstractions overlaid with Arabic calligraphy.
Background
Yousef Ahmad was born on January 1, 1955, in Doha, Qatar, to Maryam Al Baker, and Ahmad Mohammed al-Homaid who worked initially as a pearl diver prior to joining Qatar Petroleum Company. Ahmad has three sisters and two brothers, as well as three half-brothers, via his father's second marriage.
Ahmed grew up surrounded by art. A child of the pre-digital era, he drew inspiration from the scenery in the glossy calendars his father brought home. He recalled, that as a child he drew on the outside walls with coal leftover from the stove and has since dedicated his practice to forging a local aesthetic.
His house was located in an area that was home to budding poets, artists, craftsmen, and art patrons - the Al Jasra neighborhood in downtown Doha, which currently houses Souq Waqif, Doha’s iconic heritage market. All these factors gave the young Ahmed the confidence to hold his first exhibition at the entrance to his home in 1962, at the age of 10.
Education
Yousef Ahmad developed his initial interest in art in his school years, traveling to Egypt after graduation to study art education at Cairo (now Helwan) University. Ahmad graduated from the Faculty of Art Education, Helwan University, Cairo with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Arts and Education in 1976. He studied under Gazbia Sirry, Youssef Siedeh, Hamdi Khamis, and Dr. Mahmoud al-Bassyouni.
In 1982, Ahmad traveled to the United States where he earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from Mills College in Oakland, California.
On his return to his country from Egypt, Ahmad worked as an art education orientation officer in the Ministry of Education, and then headed the Department of Fine Arts in the Ministry of Information, organizing his first exhibition at the Qatar National Museum Hall in 1977. Ahmad's articles about art schools, art criticism and art in Qatar, as well as critiques of exhibitions of Qatari artists, began to appear in the daily newspaper Gulf Times, and the Ministry of Information's monthly Doha Magazine.
With a keen interest in conveying art to the public, Ahmad and his colleagues Mohammed Ali Abdulla and Hassan al-Mulla from the Ministry of Information established in the mid-1970s a group called The Three Friends. The art scene in Qatar during the 1970s and 1980s was flourishing thanks to the active involvement of schools, governmental and non-governmental institutions, as well as the establishment of cultural departments such as that in al-Jasrah Cultural and Social Club in 1972, and the Cultural Center in 1976.
In 1979, he traveled to the United States to complete a master’s degree, specializing in painting. It was at this time that he was introduced to printmaking techniques including silkscreen and etching. Around the same time, there was a significant shift in his approach: a new inclination for larger-scale works and uniquely personal use of color, material, and technique.
Returning to Qatar, Yousef taught art appreciation at Qatar University, a post he held for more than 20 years. His work entered a new stage where his use of Arabic letters became independent of embellishment, sometimes forming an Islamic architectural component and at others a purely abstract until reaching the next phase where the character became an absolute abstract. His latest creation is using the palm tree leaves as the canvas for his paintings, thus embracing his environment in his work.
With Mohammed Ali Abdulla and Hassan al-Mulla, he formed the art group The Three Friends. During his teaching career, Yousef met Sheikh Hassan bin Mohamed bin Ali Al Thani and the two formed a strong bond through their shared love of art. He was instrumental in working with Sheikh Hassan to collect significant works of Arab art from Qatar and abroad, which led to the foundation collections for the Orientalist Museum and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, both of which were privately owned institutions at the time.
In his large-scale artwork, Ahmad depicts Arabic letters in their variety of shapes with a particular focus on the construction of his composition. Ahmad's constant experimentation with a variety of media, starting with oil, acrylic, and mixed media on canvas or panel, and later silkscreen paint on board and watercolor on paper, led him to create his unique palm leaf paper made from locally grown Qatari palm trees. In his works, The Letter Eco (2011) and The Third Dimension Mosaic, artwork 21 (2014), Ahmad engages freely and spontaneously with the surface and large space within his black wooden frame by means of this locally created medium and hurufiyya. In fact, his recent work in Full Moon Love Letters (2013), The Dancing Letters (2013), and The Third - Dimension Mosaic (2014) reflects Ahmad's complete mastery in his deployment of both of elements together, the handmade Qatari palm leaf paper and the aesthetically shaped letters.
Ahmad has served as an Art Advisor for many art galleries in the Arab World. He is a member of the Qatar Award Jury and Hand Papermaking International Board of Advisors; currently serves as Senior Advisor at the Cultural Advisor Office, Qatar Foundation, in Doha, Qatar.
Yousef Ahmad's work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions around the world and he has been widely recognized with awards, prizes, and general acclaim. His works are owned by some of the most renowned international museums, including the Metropolitan and the British Museum, as well as displayed by prestigious galleries, auction houses, and international art companies throughout the world.
Yousef Ahmad’s keen interest in recording and archiving the development of Qatari art, as well as the fact that he has regularly represented his country at international biennials and events globally, has given him a special standing as an artist, art advisor, and writer.
Inspired by the forms and the hues of the flat desert landscape of his native Qatar and by Arabic calligraphy, Yousef’s paintings are often collages of mixed-media works, colors, and textures. Lines are elongated across the canvas or wood, and letters and patterns are layered with architectural shapes. He searched within these materials for what can best express his feelings represented in the sea, sky, and land of Qatar.
Upon visiting Japan, Yousef became fascinated with Japanese handmade paper and began incorporating this into his work. His most recent paintings have been produced on paper hand-made from Qatari palm fronds that he creates himself, adding a unique, loved, three-dimensional brilliance to his work.
Ahmad believes that an Arab artist should never lose sight of three themes in the creation of his work. The first is to relate to the forces of influence and interaction of the popular environment. The second is to foster the heritage and traditions of his forbears and civilization. The third is to confront in his work the realities of life and events in the world no matter how shocking or unpleasant.
Connections
Ahmad is married to Nihad al-Sayed since 1982. They have three children together.
