Farewell, Sami Muhammad... Farewell, "Al-Riyadh"!

A few days ago, news arrived of the passing of Sami Mohammed Al-Saleh, the pioneer of Kuwaiti sculpture. This man’s talent emerged in childhood; as a boy in his neighborhood, he would sculpt birds out of clay and distribute them among his peers, even though he did not yet know the art of sculpture. He devoted his entire life to this art form, until his works began fetching astronomical prices at international auctions.

In 2021, I recorded an hour-long audio interview with him, during which he recounted his childhood and how he became attached to sculpture, noting that he never ventured into any other field throughout his life. I published this interview in my book, “Kuwait in the 1940s and 1950s.” May God have mercy on our great artist, and we hope the state will establish a museum for his works, just as the Yemeni government in Aden did by creating a large museum to immortalize the great musician and poet Hussein Abubakr Al-Mahdar. May God have mercy on them all.

Additionally, news has reached us that the Saudi newspaper “Al-Riyadh” will cease its print edition after sixty years of publication, transitioning to an online-only format. This is undoubtedly painful news for the newspaper’s readers, who will wake up one day to find it no longer available in their hands as usual. Those least familiar with the internet will be the most affected, missing the pleasure of browsing its pages as they once did. I believe this trend is approaching all newspapers, and I hope our newspapers in Kuwait do not follow this path.