Cultural Foundation Abu Dhabi

A Guide to Abu Dhabi's World-class Museums and Galleries

"To find out where Abu Dhabi’s cultural story began, I headed to the Cultural Foundation, a landmark completed in 1981 after Sheikh Zayed set aside a block for a park and cultural center; the building’s Brutalist concrete columns are offset with geometric tiles in a mid-century palette of mustard and cerulean blue, a Bauhaus-meets–Middle East style produced by the Architects Collaborative (one of whose co-founders was Walter Gropius). Rabi Georges and Zuhoor Al Sayegh, the foundation’s curators, welcomed me and introduced me to the work of Farah Al Qasimi in the central hall — provocative portraits that unsettle expectations (Arab men made to appear quite feminine, retouched images such as a woman with one blue eye and one brown) and that will feature in the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection." - John Arlidge