Safeya Binzagr

(Saudi Arabia, 1940-2024)

Traditional Attire

Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from a private collection, Jeddah

Please note that the correct measurements for this lot are the ones stated in this catalogue entry which differ slightly from those in the printed catalogue.

A full set of rare and important hand coloured lithographs by Safeya Binzagr, the first appearance of a work by the artist at auction.

Bonhams is honoured to present, for the first time at auction, a complete and exceptionally rare set of thirty hand-coloured lithographs by Safeya Binzagr (Saudi Arabia, 1940–2024) — a foundational figure in Saudi modern art and one of the most pioneering women in the Kingdom's cultural history. Full sets of this series are almost never seen, making this offering a landmark moment in the recognition of Binzagr's extraordinary legacy.

The series presents an astonishing visual record of Saudi Arabia's traditional dress, revealing an unexpected richness and diversity that defies the reductive stereotype of the dark abaya. Each composition celebrates colour, embroidery, texture and regional individuality. Through painstaking field research conducted over many years, Binzagr documented the traditional garments of women and men from every part of the country, from the Asir highlands to the Hejaz coast, from Bedouin tribes to urban centres. The result is not only an ethnographic survey, but a deeply artistic one: a tapestry of the Kingdom's geography, identity and imagination.

Binzagr's project was both archival and personal. Many of the dresses she depicted were once worn only in women's gatherings or private ceremonies, unseen by the public eye. In revealing these forms, she illuminated the inner life of Saudi women: their creativity, self-expression, and sense of beauty, while preserving a cultural memory that might otherwise have vanished. Her images of patterned fabrics, jewellery and ornament are not just studies of costume, but portraits of heritage, community and feminine experience.

Born in Jeddah in 1940 and educated in Egypt and the United Kingdom, Safeya Binzagr emerged as one of the first Saudi women to achieve international recognition as an artist. Over six decades she dedicated her career to chronicling the Kingdom's intangible heritage, culminating in the establishment of Darat Safeya Binzagr, the first privately founded museum in Saudi Arabia created by a woman and devoted to a single artist's work.
With this complete set of lithographs, Binzagr's lifelong mission comes vividly to life: a tribute to the beauty, diversity and endurance of Saudi tradition, and a testament to her own role as both artist and cultural historian.