Rashid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa

German artist Sebastian Bieniek talking to Rashid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa at the Views Bahrain exhibition in 2016.

Sheikh Rashid was born in Manama in 1952.[4][5] He is the second son of Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Khalifa, sometime President of Majlis al Tijara, and the eight son of Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, ruler of Bahrain from 1932 until his death in 1942.[4] Traditionally, families such as his have demonstrated their appreciation of art through patronage and little in creativity. Exposed to literature, philosophy and music in high school, Rashid's interest in painting was encouraged by the late Amir, Sheikh Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, followed and Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister of Bahrain, when both showed genuine interest in Rashid's works at a local art exhibition at his high school.[2]

As a young student, he actively participated in interscholastic painting activities and attended exhibitions of visiting artists. His first painting recorded was in 1966 when he was 14 years old when he had painted an oil painting of the Khamis mosque.[2] His favourite artworks were landscapes.[2]

When he came of age, he traveled to the United Kingdom where he studied extensively and gained a thorough knowledge of European masters.[6] There, he was educated at the Hasting College. Realism, impressionism and abstract all have a hand in Sheikh Rashid's early works.[6] But, it is also certain that he took liberties when producing such paintings. Upon his return in 1970, he had his first art exhibition at the Dilmun Hotel in Manama, then considered to be the prime location for Bahrain's recreational activities.[2] From pastoral landscapes to desert scenes, once again, he has shifted his subjects and expanded the scope of his reference from the simply theoretical to the geographical as well.[2]

He did much experimenting in the two decades between the 1970s and 1980s. His knowledge and comprehension of anatomy, perspective and composition were the foundations for his figurative and landscape paintings.[6] His works in this period exhibits characteristics of Romanticism, Abstract Expressionism and Impressionism as well as to Realism.[6]

In 1983, the Bahrain Arts Society was formed, and Sheikh Rashid was named its first president. The society is a non-profit organisation for Bahraini artists to gather and hold their painting exhibitions.[7] To date the Bahrain Art Society continues its active participation in art exhibitions in Europe, the Middle East and Asia with Sheikh Rashid as the honorary president.[1][7]

He also held a government post as the undersecretary for tourism and archaeology for the Ministry of Culture of Bahrain until June 2011.[8] In the 90’s, he started to merge the two subjects and came up with his Two-dimensional paintings, his period of Individualism.[6] After the first Gulf War, Sheikh Rashid was appointed undersecretary for immigration, passports and nationality.[2]

In his new millennium paintings, landscape and figurative morphed resulting in Abstract and Colour Field. He maintained his focus on the aesthetics of what post-modernism's adherents might identify as a re-contextualisation of an art genre, but his works were never created as exercises in post-modernist theory.

A book entitled Rashid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, 40 years of painting, from himself, by himself, for himself (ISBN 978-99901-03-52-6) is a showcase of his 40-year œuvre.[4] The 160 page book concentrates on Sheikh Rashid's art critical biography and artistic identity analysed by Iraqi-born Swede Modhir Ahmed.[3]

Sheikh Rashid is married to Lulwa bint Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, only daughter of Khalifa bin Salman, former Prime Minister of Bahrain.[4] They have six children, three daughters and three sons.[4]

• Official website