Riyadh’s New Black Gold Museum Tells the Story of Oil Through Art

The Black Gold Museum opened this week in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia as part of the country’s Vision 2030 initiative, the goals of which include diversifying the country’s economy and transforming its socioeconomic landscape.

As its name more than implies, the new museum, which was announced in September 2020, deals with the intersection of oil and contemporary art. (Saudia Arabia has the world’s second largest oil reserves, after Venezuela.) The Black Gold Museum takes a mostly positive spin on petroleum, telling the story of life before and after the discovery of oil “in a creative and innovative way,” according to a publicity video about the museum.

The Black Gold Museum’s permanent collection is drawn from the Saudia Arabian Ministry of Culture, which is run by Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Farhan. The collection includes some 350 artworks by 170 artists from around the globe, among them Manal AlDowayan, Ayman Zedani, Muhannad Shono, Doug Aitken, Jimmie Durham, and Wim Delvoye.

The museum is part of the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, a five-building complex that opened in 2017 and was designed by the late Zaha Hadid, who won the commission in 2009. The interior of one of the five buildings was transformed from a research library into the Black Gold Museum by the London-based firm DaeWha Kang Design. There are four floors of permanent collection galleries, rotating exhibition galleries, space of events, and an outdoor garden.

Jack Persekian, a long-time supporter of Arab art, was appointed director in 2022. Persekian was the founding director of the Sharjah Art Foundation in the UAE and the Al Ma‘mal Foundation for Contemporary Art in Jerusalem, and has organized exhibitions and biennials around the world.

Photos of the Black Gold Museum are below, showcasing the museum’s four distinct sections—Encounter, Dreams, Doubts, and Visions—which will collectively “pay tribute to this material [oil] that has profoundly shaped our lives.” The “Doubt” section, at least, will offer “a critical reflection on oil’s impact and the complexities of global reliance on it,” according to a press statement.