Munira Al-Kazi

Munira Al-Kazi
Born1939 (1939)
Pune, India
DiedMarch 20, 2023(2023-03-20) (aged 83–84)
Kuwait
EducationCentral School of Art and Design
Relatives
Notable work
StyleAbstract art, Geometric art, Landscape painting
MovementIndo-Arab Art

Munira Al-Kazi (1939–2023) was a Saudi-Kuwaiti printmaker, drawer, and painter.[1][2] Her work has been included in the collections of international art museums, including Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Victoria and Albert Museum, Sharjah Art Museum, and The Sultan Gallery.[3]

Biography

Born in Puna, India, Al-Kazi was one of six siblings. As a result of the Partition of India, Al-Kazi, at age 8, and her family moved to Karachi, Pakistan.

Al-Kazi's brother, Ebrahim Alkazi, was an acclaimed theatre and film director.[3][4] Faiza Alkazi was a jewellery designer and Lulwa Alkazi was an embroidery artist.

As a young adult, Al-Kazi and her family moved to London. She completed her education at London Central School of Art and Design. She would continue to live in London after graduating.[5]

Al-Kazi briefly moved to Ibiza in the early 1970s.[5][1] By the mid-1970s, she moved to Beirut, living with her mother and near other family. She was in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War and would stay there permanently.[3]

Career

Al-Kazi began printmaking while at the Central School of Art and Design.[5] Her prints were abstract, with "intricate mark-making endures, manifesting in squiggly lines, dots, blurs, and hatchings."[3] She often used geometric motifs.[6]

In 1969, Al-Kazi and Issam Al-Said held the inaugural exhibition at The Sultan Gallery, with her becoming the first female artist to have an exhibition in a Kuwaiti gallery.[3][7]

In the 1970s, after moving to Ibiza, Al-Kazi began painting landscapes and pigeon motifs. Al-Kazi also had exhibitions at the Art Heritage Gallery in New Delhi, co-founded by her brother Ebrahim Alkazi, and his wife Roshan Alkazi.

After moving to Beirut, according to Kuwaiti artist Aseel AlYaqoub, Al-Kazi's art style developed "eclectic mix of influences, including her fascination with Sufi dervishes" and used a "delicate interplay of semi-impressionistic nuances and subtle surrealism."[3] Al-Kazi began including digital elements into her works in the early 2000s.[1]

Al-Kazi's mezzotint dry-point ink print Mother is kept in the collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum[8] and her oil painting Conception is at MOMA.[9]

Selected exhibitions and projects

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Munira Al Kazi". Barjeel Art Foundation. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  2. ↑ "Munira Al-Kazi". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 AlYaqoub, Aseel (February 2024). On Munira Al Kazi: Fragments of Legacy (PDF). Fiker Institute. pp. 1–14.
  4. 1 2 Das, Ela (2025-11-28). "'And on the back, she simply wrote Santiniketan…'". Condé Nast Traveller India. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Munira Alkazi - Biography". Meem Gallery. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  6. ↑ "Munira Al-Kazi | Blue Moonlight Procession | 20th Century Art /". Sotheby's. Retrieved 2026-08-04.
  7. ↑ "Munira Al Kazi & Issam Al Said 1969". The Sultan Gallery. Retrieved 2026-08-04.
  8. ↑ Al-Kazi, Munira (1963), Mother, retrieved 2026-08-03
  9. ↑ "Munira Al-Kazi. Conception. 1962". The Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 2023-10-01. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  10. ↑ "Memory Sews Together Events That Hadn't Previously Met". Barjeel Art Foundation. 2021-05-26. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  11. ↑ "A Century in Flux: Highlights from the Barjeel art Foundation". Artsy. Retrieved 2026-08-04.
  12. ↑ "Arab Print | 4 July - 30 September 2017 - Overview". Meem Gallery. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  13. ↑ "The Short Century". Barjeel Art Foundation. 2016-05-02. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  14. ↑ "Munira Al-kazi | | 20th Century Art / Middle East | 2020". Sotheby's. Retrieved 2026-08-04.
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