Abdullah Al Mutairi: Between the Brush and the Stroke

Between the Brush and the Archive is an experimental publication that looks at Kuwaiti artist Khalifa Al-Qattan’s personal archive from the 1950s till the late 1970s. His practice exemplifies the experimental and counter-cultural energy prevalent in Kuwait at the onset of modernisation. Al-Qattan was a prolific artist, theorist and institution builder who is widely recognised for his role in shaping Kuwait’s early art scene. His subsequent frustration with the growing bureaucratisation of local cultural production gave rise to a reactionary body of work that Kuwait-based artist and writer Abdullah Al-Mutairi argues should be viewed in tandem with his celebrated public legacy. Throughout the publication, Al-Mutairi weaves academic and historical analysis of Al-Qattan’s archive and career with observations on his idiosyncratic archival methodologies and reflexive material choices, uncovering an almost DIY or ‘punk’ aesthetic. The culmination of several years of personal engagement with Al-Qattan’s work, Between the Brush and the Archive joins a growing body of scholarship on the GCC’s founding modern art movements.