Unveiling the Tragic Loss of Saudi Arabia’s Artistic Icon: The Mastermind Behind the Kingdom’s Most Treasured Masterpiece
Safia Bin Zakhar: A Pioneering Saudi Artist
Saudi Arabia and its senior intellectuals, led by the Minister of Culture, Prince Badr bin Farhan, have mourned plastic artist Safia bin Zakhar, who has died at the age of 84 after a long career in which she contributed to the founding of the Plastic Movement in the country.
After expressing condolences to her family, the Culture Minister wrote, “Our condolences to culture on the death of Safia Binjagar.” Other intellectuals participated in the hashtag that bears his name and filled the “X” platform with expressions of grief and condolence.
Wasfia Binjagar, who traveled the world with her brush, went out of sight in her last years, with the results of more than six decades of art, drawing, and giving she would repeat in her life, says, “Art is always for people, and people are past, present, and future.” It was a phrase that inspired him to pursue his dream of building an empire of art and memory.
The Saudi artist was born in 1940 in Haret al-Sham, in the western city of Jeddah. When he reached the age of seven, he moved with his family to Cairo, where he studied middle and high school until 1960.
He then continued to develop and shape his talent by studying in Britain, where he stayed for three years before joining a two-year study program at St. Martin’s College of Arts in London, where he earned a degree in drawing and graphics.
He was the first Saudi artist to receive an academic education in the art of drawing and the first Saudi artist to exhibit his artwork.
In the sixties of the last century, the era in which he began to set sail for his events, there were no galleries in the country specializing in drawing and painting, but this was no obstacle for him, as he held his first solo exhibition in 1968 at the Modern Education House in Jeddah. At that time, she began traveling around the world with her exhibitions, which she set up in Paris, Geneva, and London, and one of her famous paintings even earned the title “Mona Lisa of the Hijaz” after an exhibition held near the Seine River in France.
He teaches his talent to children
Safia Binjagar used her talent to teach children how to paint in front of the angry Red Sea on the coast of Jeddah when she set up an outdoor studio to bring together boys, girls, and boys in 2001.
It is clear that Binjagar was influenced by the city of Jeddah and its ancient neighbors in some of his paintings, as they show multiple folklore aspects of the city’s social and cultural life, its environment, its clothing, its archeological architecture, its decoration, windows, and its heritage, was classified by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as one of the tangible heritage lists for which he wrote.
The Dead Man in His Studio
Some of his artworks were acquired in America, England, Japan, Sweden, Spain, and Lebanon. The deceased continues to support UNESCO and charities by continuing his work in the form of cards to sell them for charitable causes.
Saudi writer Abdullah Al-Ghadami wrote a few hours after his death: “He passed on to his innocence after living in our culture with his brilliant art and pioneering products and embroidering the memory of the brush of creativity, color poetry, and culture. The aesthetics of imagination.” He added, “His paintings continue to convey the meaning of gift and genius to successive generations.”
The ancient painter was admired by the country’s leaders and rulers, as Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz honored him with the King Abdulaziz Medal in 2016, adding the medal to other high-level honors and awards, including the “Cup and Diploma d’Excellence” Award from Grulladora in Italy in 1982.
Binjagar has participated in mediating many art exhibitions for youth and children and has a Literary and Cultural Arts Council which is held monthly.
This painting represents marriage customs in the western region in an era spanning from 70 to 100 years ago
Influenced by the Impressionists
Critics believe that Binzagr was influenced by the style of the great impressionists, such as Fra Angelico and Cézanne. The influence of East Asian art appeared in the colors of his paintings, such as the “Bedouin Woman” painting, but they say that after he matured, he succeeded in getting rid of these influences until he developed his own distinct style.
His own style
In a brief biography of the deceased published on her website, she responded to how much she was influenced by the styles of others, saying, “The art created by the fingers of Safia bin Jagar is not reminiscent of a particular artist or a particular school. Although he was influenced by other artists, his style used academic and research data and then he used it for a specific purpose, which was to give credibility and vitality to his country and preserve their individuality. Magnificence.”
Safia varies her artistic tools according to the diversity of her subjects. She usually makes quick preliminary drawings from photographs and uses references, books, and ancestral stories.
It is noteworthy that the British Museum in London has many works by the visual artist Etching, including 38 photographic “etchings”, as he has documented the “Costume Tradition” of Saudi Arabia through this work, and this is the first time international museums showcase such heritage.
Safia Binjagar passed away, leaving her home to the next generation, which documents, along with its paintings, rare pieces of heritage, some of which are over 100 years old.