By Nina Burleigh 2/20 4:11pm

The Bombshell

Abu Dhabi illustration

Louvre, Guggenheim and NYU Accept Millions From Abu Dhabi but Remain Silent on Human Rights

Three of the Western world’s premier cultural institutions—New York University, the Guggenheim and the Louvre—are in various stages of setting up shop on Sa’adiyat (“Happiness”) Island in Abu Dhabi, forming what has been described as a “highbrow cultural theme park” in the desert city-state. The deals that the Guggenheim and NYU cut with the emir are not news. Petro-potentates started collecting liberal institutions as the latest Western must-have a decade ago.  Read More

By Matt Chaban 2/03/12 1:53pm

Planes Trains & Automobiles

4 Photos

Abu Dhabi International Airport

This Is What a Nice, New Airport Looks Like

Last week, The Observer looked at the sorry state of New York City’s three major airports. Once the exemplars in the world, JFK, LaGuardia and Newark have fallen behind the times. The Port Authority is working to improve them all—plans for a new terminal at LaGuardia are coming along quite nicely, in fact—but still, these will be ho-hum operations, beholden to the challenges of modern American infrastructure, with our limited funds and ambition.

For a look at a truly grand airport, then, consider the work of local firm KPF, which just won the commission to design a new terminal for that mecca of Middle Eastern mega-development, Abu Dhabi. Read More

By Foster Kamer 2/01/12 3:00pm

Exclusive

YEEZY OF ARABIA

Yeezy of Arabia: Kanye West to Make Film in Middle East

The Observer has learned that Kanye West, the multi-platinum rapper and Twitter super-user recently sent representatives to the Persian Gulf region to scout locations for a short film. The project, which will take a form much like his 30-minute “Runaway”—a hybrid art film and music video starring model Selita E. Banks that premiered on MTV in October, 2010—is to be filmed in March. Read More

By Julia Halperin 8/12/10 8:08pm

Art Snapshot

Art Snapshot: Movin' On Up

Two influential art dealers leave their posts for higher-profile gigs, museum directors settle down in plush, tax-free homes, and artists cash in on lucrative sneaker design deals. This week in art news: When opportunity knocks…

1. Lehman Brothers to Auction Off More Art
In an effort to repay creditors, Lehman Brothers Read More

By Peter C. Baker 5/25/10 2:08pm

Sex and the City-State: Abu Dhabi Syndrome

Sex and the City 2 is set mostly in Abu Dhabi, where Carrie and Co. fly for an all-expenses-paid romp and much in the way of Scooby-Doo-like hijinks ensue. It’s all in good fun, if not the most culturally sensitive artifact Hollywood ever turned out. The thing is, I lived for the past two years Read More

By Katherine Zoepf 10/10/07 7:39pm

The Abu Dhabi Experiment

ABU DHABI—By 8 a.m. on a September morning in Abu Dhabi, the sun is already so strong that if you forget to put on your sunglasses before you step outside, your eyes start to tear up and you sneeze from the sheer burnt whiteness of the light. By midday, the flat landscape is bright beyond Read More