Pollock, Rothko, Warhol and Basquiat: First details of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection

For the first time, Abu Dhabi has begun to set out what visitors will encounter inside Guggenheim Abu Dhabi – the long-awaited cultural landmark designed by Frank Gehry on Saadiyat Island.

At a briefing, Mohamed Al Mubarak, chairman of Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism, described a museum that will look far beyond the familiar western canon, expanding the story of contemporary art to include regions and movements often left in the margins.

Although the institution will include works by figures such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, he said they will appear in a very different context to what audiences may expect.

“That does not mean that we're not going to have the likes of Pollock or Rothko or Warhol or Basquiat – they're going to be within that collection,” he said. "But right next to them, you'll have amazing contemporary artists that maybe, unfortunately, the vast public don't know much about – artists from South-East Asia, artists from Asia, artists from North Africa, Central Africa and the Arab world.”

The ambition, Mr Al Mubarak said, is to create a museum that is genuinely global, in its collection and its worldview.

“At the Guggenheim … it's going to be a lot more than a museum. It's really a civic space. It's a place that brings people together, where it's music, it's food, it's dance and, of course, it's contemporary art.”

Mohamed Al Mubarak, chairman of Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism. Photo: DCT Abu Dhabi

The collection will focus on work from the 1960s to the present day, with contemporary art from an international perspective rather than through a Euro-American lens.

“It will focus specifically on contemporary art from the 1960s to today. And the collection itself is a truly global collection,” Mr Al Mubarak said. “It was imperative for us when we were assembling that collection that it really focuses on contemporary artists that have not been given sort of the light they deserve, whether it's because of their geographical location, their gender. We really want to be unbiased in that."

He added that indigenous art will be “highly, highly focused” within the museum’s holdings, placing it in