Hampstead School of Art principal Isabel Langtry in Riyadh working on her sculpture

• I WAS astonished to read John Gulliver’s piece documenting the visit of sculptor Isabel Langtry to Saudi Arabia, where, at the Saudi regime’s invitation, she was participating alongside 19 other sculptors in a symposium to create works in situ to be displayed around the capital Riyadh, (Sculpting a Saudi vision, February 20).

In it John Gulliver refers to Langtry as potentially having a “kind of love affair” with Saudi Arabia. Langtry is apparently happily surprised to find “she wasn’t expected to wear a scarf”!

According to Gulliver “Isabel said there is a lot of misunderstanding about Saudi Arabia… next year, she said, alcohol will be more available”. Hooray!

There is and can be no misunderstanding when it comes to Saudi Arabia. Its government has hacked the iPhone of one of the world’s richest men, tortured dissidents, murdered and dismembered a critical journalist and helped ignite a humanitarian disaster in Yemen.

It brutally oppresses its own Shia minority, controls women’s freedom of movement and what they can and cannot do without the permission of men.

Gulliver makes no mention of any of this, romantically depicting Langtry’s sculpting experience as if the politics of Saudi Arabia are irrelevant. They are not.

In the words of Los Angeles Times art critic, Christopher Knight, to collaborate artistically with the Saudi Arabian regime is “morally corrupt”and “merely putting lipstick on a pig”.

Contrary to what Langtry, and no doubt other artists enjoying their jollies in the desert, might argue to justify their participation with such a despicable regime – that such cultural projects may nudge the kingdom toward a more modern, freer society, that art in itself can change things – there is nothing in the case of Saudi Arabia that could be further from the truth.

While the kingdom is on the surface attempting to make basic reforms, create opportunities for its citizens and entice tourists to prepare for a future when the rule of fossil fuels is over, this is merely an attempt by the monarchy to ensure its own survival.

Saudi Arabia is a country governed by a deeply authoritarian regime whose tolerance for free speech and human rights is minimal. Just ask the children of Jamal Khashoggi.

To create art to portray the regime in a positive light is to help whitewash Saudi Arabia’s stained reputation. Let’s be clear. In Saudi Arabia free expression is forbidden.

Illegal. A criminal act. Creating art is all about freedom of expression. The annual report from Freedom House, the non-profit that ranks global states in democratic rights and civil liberties, lists Saudi Arabia as the eighth worst of 195 countries around the globe.

Langtry may be able to express herself freely but the average Saudi cannot. As Christopher Knight says: “Why any artist would want to participate in securing the longevity of a barbaric medieval idea of absolute monarchy remains a mystery.”

I am afraid when it comes to one of world’s cruelest, most oppressive and richest political regimes the argument that it is better to engage than to isolate just does not cut it.

RAMSAY SHORT
Chester Road, N19