Between loyalty and breaking free: the transformations of the artistic style of Najla Mohammed Al-Saleem

Abstract

Currently, visual artists are influenced by many factors that contribute to their intellectual and stylistic orientations. Artists may get influenced by those styles, especially if there is an emotional connection that drives the artist to extend loyalty; as happened with Najla, influenced by her father Muhammed Al-Saleem the founder of "The Horizonism" in Saudi painting. She faced challenges to establish her own style as a requirement for the contemporary artist. The research problem is tracking the transformations of the artistic style in Najla’s paintings throughout her artistic career to establish her own artistic style. Analyzing the intellectual aspects and artistic style in her collections in the period 2008 -2020, the research investigates the transformations of Najla’s artistic style being the daughter of an artist and her endeavors to establish her own style and revealing the role of such attempts in the creative process. This research participates to the scientific documentation supported by analysis of the career path of a contemporary Saudi artist, and sheds light on some of the local artistic methods in visual arts being an influential factor passing down to generations. The research adopted the descriptive analytical approach, utilizing research tools, namely observation and unstructured interviews. The findings confirmed the existence of stylistic shifts in Najla’s artworks ranging from loyalty to freedom, which was a creativity motive, reflecting interplay of the intellectual approaches and technical handlings. The research recommends further study of the models to reveal stylistic influences in the Saudi visual arts.Key words: Saudi visual arts, painting, artistic style, contemporary Saudi art.

Keywords

• saudi visual arts
• painting
• artistic style
• contemporary saudi art