Jassim Zaini

Jassim Zaini (; 1943 – 1 October 2012) was a Qatari artist who was widely regarded as a leading figure in the development of Qatari art, and often referred to as "the father of modern Qatari art". He described his style as "advanced realism". Renowned for his ability to incorporate expressive realism with elements of Cubism, Impressionism, and Surrealism, his works, deeply rooted in the local environment, reflect the people, traditions, and transformations of Qatar from the 1950s through the 1970s.

In 1971, as the art movement in Qatar began to mature, the Al Jasra Cultural Club took on the responsibility of uniting talented artists. Zaini, in addition to his role as an art education supervisor at the Ministry of Education, was a member of the club's administrative committee. Through his position and involvement in Al Jasra Club, Zaini gathered many emerging talents, providing them with guidance in aspects such as color, line, and space. Among his students were several who went on to become prominent artists in the industry, such as Yousef Ahmad, Salman Al Malik and Hassan Al Mulla. This painting is currently on display at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art.

Throughout his career, Zaini took part in numerous local exhibitions and regional biennales. These included the second Arab Biennial in Rabat in 1976, the Cairo Biennial in 1984 and 1986, the Bangladesh Biennale in 1986, and the Ankara International Biennale in 1986 and 1988. He also served as the first Director of the Museums and Antiquities Department at the Ministry of Culture.

He received the State Appreciation Award from the government of Qatar in 2007 for his contributions to the field of visual arts.

Death and legacy Zaini died on 1 October 2012 at the age of 70. His funeral was held the next day at Mesaimeer Cemetery and was attended by many high-ranking officials, fellow artists, and other members of the community.

Style Zaini's art, which he defined as 'advanced realism', was largely based on his local environment and included themes of social bonds, rapid modernization, and Qatar's cultural heritage. His work captures a specific era in Qatar, from the 1950s to the 1970s, during which the nation transitioned from a pearling and fishing backwater to a rapidly developing and thriving country. Various mediums were used by him, including plastic arts, oil paintings, pencil drawings, and engravings. From the 1990s, Zaini produced works incorporating collage techniques that combined realistic and expressive elements with everyday objects like boxes, wood, bottles, nails, fishing nets, and old tools. Additionally, Zaini used paper pulp to create textured, geometric circular shapes arranged in equal intervals, adding depth to his artworks.

Zaini's works reveal a deep sensibility in his lines and color preferences. Despite his diversity in form and style, each painting bears an unmistakable signature of the artist, using color to elicit the intended moods and emotions. One of his works, Knights of Poetry – a compilation of portraits for over 60 local and regional poets – was shown at an exhibition in Doha as part of the city's selection as the 2010 Arab Capital of Culture.

Expressive realism works Zaini's paintings Qatari Features (1972) and Discovery (1975) exemplify expressive realism, a style he employed in many works. These works mainly depict the Qatari people engaged in their daily lives and activities. Zaini rendered each scene with technical precision, employing appropriate colors, designs, shapes, and backgrounds to convey the intended meaning. Qatari Features (1972) is considered a masterpiece of Zaini's and portrays a girl sewing buttons on her brother's shirt while he wears a ghutra and agal, while she herself wears a bukhnuq. He continued in this vein with For Women Only (1979), adding literary, social, and psychological dimensions to his expressive approach.

Cubism works Zaini's experience with Cubism dates back to a series of early artworks he produced as a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad. An example is the painting The Hookah Smoker (1974), where he blended expressionism and cubism within a context that incorporates decorative elements and the human figure. In this painting, Zaini introduced geometric and decorative rhythms, using flattened ovals, semi-circles, triangles, and rectangles for the figure, while incorporating decorations in the background. Despite using a cubist style, the painting retained its expressive and realistic suggestions.

Zaini continued his exploration of Cubism, creating works that combine cubist elements with abstraction and composition, such as Fish Seller (1977), Medal of Arts (1984), and Generation Conflict (1987).

Zaini's use of Cubism was more expressive than symbolic. For instance, in his painting Fish Seller, he did not distort the proportions of forms as Picasso, who believed that every natural object could be reduced to basic geometric structures such as squares, rectangles, circles, prisms, or cubes. By contrast, Zaini's Fish Seller is built around the unity of the triangle and diamond shapes, with arching or circular rhythms in the background, maintaining harmony and balance between the figure and its surroundings. He did not abandon realism but expressed it through a cubist style, utilizing geometric shapes without distracting from the subject.

Abstract works In the 1970s, Zaini also created abstract works featuring colorful areas and decorative calligraphic elements, such as Al-Hayir (1972), Modern Qatar (1973), Decoration (1974), and Remnants of Influence and Symmetry (1977). Despite the aesthetic nature of these works, Zaini's technique attempted to make them appear more meaningful through his choice of color, composition, and materials.