Radial Histories, a six-part audio miniseries produced by Sharjah Art Foundation, weaves together oral histories, archival sound and scholarly commentary to narrate untold stories about visual art in Sharjah and the wider UAE from the early 1960s to the early 1990s, just before the inception of the Sharjah Biennial.

In this episode, we enter the 1970s—an era of radio waves, revolutions and artistic departures. Through the voices of Fatma Lootah, Najat Makki, Mona Al Khaja and others, we trace how some of the first Emirati artists pursued formal training abroad, navigating the cultural currents of Baghdad and Cairo. In Baghdad, Lootah encountered a vibrant modernist scene shaped by figures like Faiq Hassan and Soviet-era exchange. In Cairo, students formed the Emirates Students Association and exhibited their work while studying at Cairo University, even visiting the Alexandria Biennale. Set against the ideological backdrop of Nasserism and Ba’athism as well as Pan-Arabism exemplified by the Pan Arab Biennial, these journeys reveal a generation building artistic language across borders.  

Credits

Host: May Alqaydi

Guests: Abdulraheem Salim, Abdulraheem Sharif, Ali Al Abdan, Fatma Lootah, Mohamed Yousif, Mona Al Khaja, Nada Shabout and Najat Makki

Music and Sound:

Balfaqih, Abu Bakr Salem, singer. ‘Kamalreeshah [Like a Feather]’, 1974. Electric Oasis: 1001 Volts of Maghreb & Arab Remixes (RIAFC 113). Duckfood & Rebel Up. Radio is a Foreign Country. 

Robinson, Dan, contributor. Broadcast from Radio Cairo, 1973 Yom Kippur War. ‘Radio Cairo: 1973 Yom Kippur War’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. 

Laskowski, Tom, contributor. Excerpt from BBC broadcast,1979. ‘Shortwave Radio Recordings: RCI, BBC, VOA circa 1979 & 1981’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. 

Batiesha, Omar, presenter. ‘Monawat Dramiyah [Drama Variety Segments]’. Cairo Public Radio Programmes (from 1975). Internet Archive. 

Gavaras, Tom, contributor. ‘The Voice of Peace Radio Ship Inaugural Broadcast with Abie Nathan: May 19, 1973’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. 

Greenall, Dan, contributor. ‘Radio Cairo: Circa 1971’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. 

Nazhat, Maeda, singer. ‘Kal Al Amr [All the Life]’, c.1960s–c.1970s. Transmissions from the Eastern Mediterranean (RIAFC 019). Radio is a Foreign Country. 

Kamel, Moshira, compiler. ‘Tasgeelat [Recordings] Sep 25 2011’. Cairo Public Radio Programmes (from 1973). Internet Archive. 

Kamel, Moshira, compiler. ‘Tasgeelat [Recordings] Apr 23 2011’. Cairo Public Radio Programmes (from 1977). Internet Archive. 

Greenall, Dan, contributor. Broadcast about the bulbul, a type of songbird. ‘Radio Baghdad: Circa 1971 (Cleaned Audio)’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. 

Hakim, Nasser, singer. ‘Aboudieh: Ya nahi (Dashty) [My Beloved]’, 1931. British Library Sound and Moving Image Archive. 

Greenall, Dan, contributor. ‘USSR Shortwave Broadcasters: Circa 1970’s’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. 

Anderton, Colin, contributor. ‘Radio Moscow – Soyuz 26 Launch: December 10, 1977’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. 

Anderton, Colin, contributor. ‘Radio Moscow – Soyuz 26, Day 09: December 17, 1977’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. 

Irmler, Gert, contributor. ‘Voice of the People (Aleppo, Syria): October 14, 1978’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

CB interlude from 23 July 1979 (track 18). ‘1970s Radio Broadcasts - Shortwave - International News and Programming - Iran – etc’. Loren and Roger Cox Radio Recordings. Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications. Internet Archive. 

Messiter, Ian, creator. ‘Modern Art’ (series 5, episode 20), 1971. Just A Minute: 1st to 5th Series (1967–1971). Internet Archive. 

Gavaras, Tom, contributor. ‘Radio Moscow: December 3, 1978’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

Bonfanti, Franco, singer. ‘Ambiente Elegance [Elegant Ambiance]’, 1970s. Italian Film Soundtracks (RIAFC 049). Collection of Dan McMahon. Radio is a Foreign Country. 

‘Radio Kuwait (1970’s recording)’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. 

Ahwak, Solomon Mahmoud, singer. East African Mixtape (RIAFC 008), c.1960s–c.1980s. Radio is a Foreign Country. 

References:

Al Qassemi, Sultan Sooud, and Todd Reisz, eds. Building Sharjah. Birkhäuser, 2021.

Al-Sayed, Abdulkarim. Pioneers of Art in the United Arab Emirates [Ruwwād al-Tashkīl fī Dawlat al-Imārāt al-ʿArabīyah al-Muttaḥidah]. Sharjah Department of Culture and Information, 2013.

Al Tashkeel, 1984–1992. Emirates Fine Arts Society, Sharjah. https://altashkeel.ae/media/

Nefedova, Olga. ‘Art and Artists Crossing Borders: Untold Stories of the First Iraqi Art Exhibition in the USSR’. Stedelijk Studies Journal 9 (2019). https://doi.org/10.54533/StedStud.vol009.art09.

Mohamedou, Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould. ‘The Rise and Fall of Pan-Arabism’. In The Handbook of South-South Relations, edited by Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh and Patricia Daley. Routledge, 2018. 

Ramadan, Dina A. ‘The Alexandria Biennale and Egypt’s Shifting Mediterranean’. In Mediterranean Modernism: Intercultural Exchange and Aesthetic Development, edited by Adam J. Goldwyn and Renée M. Silverman, 343–62. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

Shabout, Nada. Modern Arab Art. University Press of Florida, 2007.

Shabout, Nada. ‘Transregional Solidarity: The Arab Biennial in Retrospect’. Mezosfera 5: Refractions of Socialist Solidarity (2018). https://mezosfera.org/transregional-solidarity/.

Takesh, Suheyla. ‘A Communist Mourning Icon: Mahmoud Sabri, Iraqi Art Student, in Moscow (1960)’. In Russian-Arab Worlds: A Documentary History, edited by Eileen Kane, Masha Kirasirova and Margaret Litvin, 255–65. Oxford University Press, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197605769.003.0026.

Editorial and Content Support: Kate Sutton, Kathleen Butti, Natalia Ulloa, Rajwant Sandhu and Rosalyn D’Mello

Research Associate: May Rashed

 

Sound Engineer and Designer: Riya Raagini 

Podcast Producer and Writer: Kamayani Sharma 

Executive Producer and Writer: Jyoti Dhar

Special Thanks: Hoor Al Qasimi, Nawar Al Qasimi, Dima Bittard, Hasan Hujairi, Alyazeyah Al Marri, Mahshid Rafiei, Ghaith Khoury, Salwa Mikdadi, Sheikh Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, Abdullah Al Saadi, Talal Moualla, Nasir Nasrallah, Abdelaziz Mohamed AlMulla, Yalda Bidshahri, Joseph De la Cerna, Unnikrishnan Suresh Babu, Magdi Emad, Ismail Al-Rifai, Ziad Abdullah, Abdullah Hussein, Mohamad Al Saadei, Jiwon Lee, Tima Ouzden, Noora Al Mualla, Ahmad Makia, Heba Hosny and Jawed Ali Mohammed

This episode features interviews recorded in February 2024, June 2024, January 2025 and October 2025.

© Sharjah Art Foundation, 2026