Safeya Binzagr, who laid the groundwork for women to enter Saudi Arabia’s artworld, has died. She took up art when there was very little cultural infrastructure in the kingdom, first documenting the traditional architecture and customs that were threatened by modernisation.
After studying abroad, first in Cairo and then at St Martin’s School of Art in London, she returned home and staged an exhibition of her rich figurative work at the Dar Al Tarbiya girls’ school in 1968, one of the first art shows by a woman in the country.
Binzagr contined to exhibit steadily, each time wondering if her efforts would be shut down by the authorities, until in 1995 she opened the Darat Safeya Binzagr, the first cultural centre in Saudi Arabia.
The artist’s career grew as Saudi Arabia embraced contemporary art, most recently with the recent second edition of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale.
