The Bold Brush of Fatma Lootah: Bridging Cultures through Art

Fatma Lootah is one of the UAE’s most celebrated artists. She spent her life weaving the rich cultural tapestry of her homeland into her work even as she lived abroad. From those early days at the Art Academy of Baghdad to her present studio in Verona, Italy, Lootah’s art emotionally pays homage to its roots in Dubai. Be it through abstract paintings or recent figurative works, her works bring together stories, landscapes, and people in the UAE into a mix of traditions and modernity that has gone to enthral audiences worldwide.

Fatma Lootah is the synonym for Emirati art, though she has spent most of her life abroad. Dubai-born and raised, Lootah began her artistic sojourn on the lively UAE streets, with her skills later taking her for training at the prestigious Art Academy in Baghdad. She would later move to Washington, D.C. in search of wider inspiration, where she continued her education and fine-tuned her skills. In 1984, Lootah made the defining move to Verona in Italy, where she established her studio and raised her three daughters. She never returned to the UAE to stay, but her ties with her homeland are as strong as ever. Through her career, her works have been showcased from Italy and France to Morocco and Austria, representations of her unique ability to marry her Emirati heritage with modern techniques and styles. In 2009, Lootah returned to Dubai with the first solo exhibition entitled “Desert and The People of the Reddish Dune,” an honest tribute to her homeland.

Even though Fatma Lootah actually lives in Italy, her relationship with the UAE has never been at stake. This is reflected in 2010 when HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai, visited one of her exhibitions. He was impressed with her work and granted her a traditional house in the Al Fahidi historical neighbourhood, giving her creative space in which to work every time she returned to Dubai. Since then, Lootah has worked often in this house situated at the heart of Dubai’s cultural district, where she constantly merges her love for art with the spirit of her homeland. All these combine to make this ideal mix of cultures that is reflected in the work of Lootah, which has evolved over time, from performance art in the 1980s to abstract painting, a style that still is very much out there in her collection. Yet, more recently, she has developed a much more figurative style that uses digital media combined with acrylics to produce works that are or have been about the people of the UAE: realist and imagined.

Fatma Lootah’s art has always represented not only her experiences but also the wide variety of emotions that relate to her homeland. Early abstract works are characterized by bold, sweeping brushstrokes, which too often can evoke expansive desert landscapes and radiant colors of the UAE. These are abstract pieces loaded with personal emotion in the relationship between the artist and her culture, bridging tradition and modernity.

During the past ten years, Lootah has moved more into a figurative style, exploiting both digital techniques and acrylics to fill out her subject matter. Many of these compositions feature imagined and real figures from the UAE, therefore continuing to reveal the spirit and essence of the Emirati people. With such works, she projects a very strong sense of identity and belonging that has always been at the core of the work.

The highest point in Lootah’s career was being commissioned by the Abu Dhabi Festival in 2015 to present her works among these prestige alignments. This UAE festival of art and culture gave another platform for Lootah to share her artistic vision with the world and connect with a wider audience.

Fatma Lootah’s influence far exceeds the confines of a canvas. Over the years, she emerged as the representative of the UAE’s endowed artistic heritage and started showcasing Emirati art to the world. Whether exhibiting in Europe or the Middle East, she is like a connecting bridge between cultures; with her artwork, she shows the world the beauty of her native place. Her art acts as a witness to life between two worlds, and her ability to blend tradition with modernity has positioned her as one of the most respected and admired Emirati artists today.

Her work in the Al Fahidi neighborhood in Dubai gives evidence of her continued growth as an artist, looking more into new styles and pushing her own boundaries with the use of art. Indeed, by effort and passion, Fatma Lootah has become more than an artist; she is an ambassador for the UAE through the stories of her homeland.