The record-breaking artist based in Dubai who’s making a big impact
October’s – ‘The Bravery Issue’ – Download Now
Eton-educated Sacha Jafri is an art-collectors dream. Barack Obama, Bill Gates, George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio and Madonna are collectors of his work. Jafri follows in the successful footsteps of his great-great-grandfather, a maharaja of India and his father, the first Muslim ambassador to the Vatican.
Since March, Jafri has been working on ‘The Journey of Humanity’ a now world-renowned painting that will be auctioned in Dubai in December. The painting is expected to raise $30 million to help tackle the devastating impact of COVID-19 on children and youth globally. Emirates Woman caught up with Jafri to find out what makes an artistic mastermind tick.
How does your morning routine help set your creativity each day?
A cup of coffee, a hug from my daughter, my painting clothes on and I am ready to go.
Tell us about the world’s largest painting you are creating?
After a conversation with UNICEF earlier in the year, my eyes were opened to the fact that an estimated 385 million children live in extreme poverty around the world and are twice as likely to die in childhood. These numbers have almost doubled in the last four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic has affected every community across the globe and taken the lives of thousands, but it has also changed our mindset, and this means we have a window of opportunity for change. I would like my initiative ‘Humanity Inspired’ to be a catalyst for true societal change bringing us to a better future through the hearts, minds and souls of the children of our world. I hope to do this through shape, form, colour, and narrative – always with the purest of energy and intentions. My painting, ‘The Journey of Humanity’ will support the delivery of improved education, healthcare and connectivity, as well as create vital funds to support the poorest and most desperately in need in various areas and regions of our planet.
Who are some of the most interesting people to have visited this project since you began?
His Excellency Mohammed Ibrahim Al Shaibani, His Excellency Helal Saeed Al Marri, His Highness Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Huda Kattan, Layla Kardan, Aida Al Busaidy, Virat Kohli, and the kids from Dubai Performing Arts.
Who are your biggest influences?
I have been influenced by people like Nelson Mandela, Richard Branson, Prince William and artists like Vincent Van Gogh, Arshile Gorky, Willem De Kooning, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Edgar Degas, Gabriel Garcia Márquez and Franz Kafka.
What do you think draws people to the pieces you create?
I want my work to act as an electric shock, to electrify our senses, and awaken something that is often asleep inside. I feel the most important thing we can do as adults is keep the child alive within us all. Making the mundane and over-familiar magical again.
Which is the most memorable piece of art in your personal collection?
A painting I created in 2000 which is part of my 18-year respective collection and is entitled ‘Kafka’s Waiting Room’. One of my most important and treasured works.
You have many celebrity and ruling family clients. Do you ever create bespoke pieces for them?
Yes, but I only take on two commissions a year.
This year has brought with it challenges, how do you approach these and overcome such?
Stay focused on the painting I am creating and our target of raising USD30 million to help the poorest children of our world who are most desperately in need of our help.
Do you have any pre-bedtime rituals?
At the moment I am painting until around 6am or 7am in the morning so I pretty much pass out as soon as my head hits the pillow.
This is ‘The Bravery Issue’ – what is bravery to you?
Disconnecting ourselves from our ego. Reconnecting to the soul of the earth, believing in ourselves beyond the voices of doubt and leaving fear behind whenever possible.
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