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The Bahrain National Museum hosted an exhibition-opening event, on 1 October 2023. The distinguished Bahraini’s “ Retrospective” exhibition of the late Bahraini artist Hussein, at the Bahrain National Museum was attended by H.E Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, President of the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities, and a number of artists and art and culture lovers in Bahrain.

Indeed, this exhibition is considered the most inclusive exhibition of artist Al Sunni’s work to be ever displayed. It will include about 100 paintings, drawings, prints and sketches belonging to the artist dated from the mid-1970s until his passing in 1998. The retrospective exhibition also aims to offer a fresh perspective on his art, presenting alongside his best-known rare paintings.

Fine artist Hussein Qassim Al-Sunni was born in Manama in 1938, and one of the prominent pioneers of the plastic movement in the Kingdom of Bahrain. He studied at the College of Fine Arts in Baghdad, and his talent for drawing emerged when he was still six years old.

His older brother, Ahmed Qassim Al-Sunni, who was a drawing teacher in the same school, contributed to its refinement. He played a role in enhancing his creative imagination, which became more open, and he was then able to emulate some paintings by European artists from the Impressionist school. Artist Al-Sunni, after meditative study period, came up with a new painting style using different techniques, reflecting his creative discovering artistic journey. After a series of experiments and practices, Al-Sunni introduced Arabic calligraphy as an artistic means expressive of Islamic art. Indeed, artist Al- Sunni had a unique style of painting that was characterized by the quite calmness of his themes selected generally from the living popular environment and sea- related subjects, calligraphy and abstract impressionism.