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To mark the museum’s fifth anniversary, Louvre Abu Dhabi has collaborated with Swiss watchmaking brand for the second edition of the Richard Mille Art Prize. The award invites GCC nationals and residents to propose new or existing artworks that engage with the concept of "the icon".

In an increasingly digitised world, the terms ‘icon’ and ‘iconic’ often connect and separate — an icon is at once an object, an image and a symbol. It’s material qualities are as important as what it represents. To be ‘iconic’ is to represent and embody something unique and undefinable that delivers an immediate effect. It involves a physical encounter with an art object, a sublime experience which is often heightened by media representation.

How does contemporary art help us rethink the notion of an artistic icon in the 21st century? What is the role of the museum in both addressing and conferring the iconic status of art? These are questions Louvre Abu Dhabi seeks to answer five years after opening its doors to the world, with its second Art Here exhibition and art prize, centred on the notion of “The Icon”.

For Louvre Abu Dhabi Art Here 2022, artists will be encouraged to re-engage with the icon to revitalise this iconic effect.

Images courtesy of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi Photo: Augustine Paredes – Seeing Things