The Image Is a Public Menace

This greatly anticipated solo exhibition by Abdulnasser Gharem, one of the most influential contemporary artists in the Gulf region, features three new projects: _Aniconism_ 2026, _The Unscored Goal,_ 2026, and _The Image is a Public Menace (Neon)_, 2026. The term "Aniconism" (Anikonismus) was coined by the 19th-century German classical archaeologist Johannes Adolph Overbeck in 1864. It means the practice or belief of avoiding the visual representation of divine beings, sacred figures, or living creatures in art and worship. Often rooted in religious doctrine, it aims to prevent idolatry by substituting direct imagery with symbols, abstract shapes, calligraphy, or empty space. In 2015, Abdulnasser Gharem found an unusual way to transport a female mannequin sculpture to Riyadh, where the display of such figures was considered inappropriate. The mannequin was taken to a workshop in Dubai, where it was cut into small pieces, which were then reassembled in Riyadh. Gharem then invited his fellow artists to take part in an "art class" in which they re-enacted a famous work by Martin Ferdinand Quadal from 1787 titled "The Nude Drawing Room of the Vienna Academy." A large "tableau vivant" photograph captures this scene. An earlier version of Aniconism was presented at Sharjah Art Museum in a joint exhibition with Austrian artist Heimo Zobernig, *Subversive Forms of Social Sculpture*, 2018, curated by Amira Gad. We are most delighted that Heimo Zoberning has agreed to design the exhibition space for Gharem's exhibition in Berlin - with one of his signature curtains made of "Video Green Trevira", a material that was used in the film industry to create spatial effects long before the age of AI. After Gharem received the invitation to *The Great Michelangelo Is Dead!*—an exhibition that explores the fascinating tension and the possible correlations and processes of repulsion between the avant-garde and the academy—the artist added several crucial layers to the project. He asked a Vienna based copyist who was trained in the Vienna Academy to paint his photograph of the art class from 2015 in the same technique used by Martin Ferdinand Quadal in 1787. Gharem documented every step in video, in the copyist's studio as well as on site at the Academy, next to the original Quadal painting. In a second large-format painting, we see the scene in which the art class participants are assembling the mannequin. _Abdulnasser Gharem's Aniconism is a brilliant reworking of history painting. With a frontrow seat to profound changes in the role of art in daily life across the region, Gharem brings his artistic vision to bear on a historic moment. By moving a contemporary scene from a Riyadh studio through the visual language of European painting and into the hands of painters in Vienna, he asks how history is pictured, who possesses the authority to represent it, and what changes when an image moves between cultures. The work stands as a pivot point, deeply rooted in the transformations unfolding around him while claiming the scale and ambition of grand history painting. – Nato Thompson (excerpt from the essay _Abdulnasser Gharem: Aniconism_, 2026)