Wednesday, December 14, 2022

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Safwan Dahoul's UNTITLED with Footnotes, #58

 

Safwan Dahoul, B. 1961, SYRIAN
UNTITLED, c. 1992
Oil and gold leaf on wood 
25 by 20cm.; 9 7/8 by 7 7/8 in
Private collection

Safwan Dahoul was born in 1961 in Hama, Syria, Dahoul was initially trained by leading modernists at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Damascus before travelling to Belgium, where he earned a doctorate from the Higher Institute of Plastic Arts in Mons. Upon returning to Syria, he began teaching at the Faculty of Fine Arts and was a prominent member of the Damascus art scene. In the span of a decade, Dahoul nurtured a new generation of artists as an active mentor whose evolving aesthetic often ignited new directions in painting. Given the trajectory and status of his painting style, Dahoul’s career is regarded as a crucial link between modern and contemporary Arab art. More on Safwan Dahoul




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Monday, December 5, 2022

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Hussein Bikar's THE LANDLORD with Footnotes, #57

 

Hussein Bikar, 1912 - 2002, EGYPTIAN
THE LANDLORD, c. 1984
Oil on paper 
46 by 27cm.; 18 1/8 by 10 1/2 in
Private collection

Hussein Amin Bicar (2 January 1913 in Alexandria – 16 November 2003) was one of Egypt’s most prominent artists of the 20th century, after graduating from the Cairo higher school of fine arts in 1934, he spent more than 60 years of his life teaching art at schools and universities and then through the press, he is credited for initiating a style of journalistic art that elevated illustrating for news papers to a level close to that of the fine art, he is known for his simple and clear style reflecting the influence of Pharaonic art with its harmony, serenity and mystic. Bicar’s journalistic contributions go beyond illustrations to include art criticism and narrative poetry. Being the first Egyptian artist to illustrate Arabic children’s books, Bicar has played a major role in establishing and promoting this field.

Furthermore, his portraits and oil paintings depicting graceful Egyptian peasants, Nubian scenes, Alexandria and Pharaonic themes as well as his elegant, gracious nature has earned him great recognition and honors. In the words of late journalist Mustafa Amin:"he is not a single artist, he is a master of several arts…he is a painter, photographer, poet, musician and philosopher".

He was of Turkish Cypriot extraction and a member of the Bahá'í Faith. More on Hussein Bikar




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Thursday, November 24, 2022

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Shakir Hassan Al-Said's Untitled (Town), with Footnotes, #55

 Shakir Hassan Al-Said, 1925-2004, IRAQI
Untitled (Town), c. 1951
Watercolour and pencil on paper
24 by 20cm.; 9 1/2 by 7 7/8 in.
Private collection

Shakir Hassan Al Said (1925–2004), an Iraqi painter, sculptor and writer, is considered one of Iraq's most innovative and influential artists.

Born in Samawa, Al Said lived, worked and died in Bagdad. In 1948 he received a degree in social science from the Higher Institute of Teachers in Baghdad and in 1954 a diploma in painting from the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad. He continued his studies at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris until 1959. During his stay in Paris, he discovered Western modern art in galleries and Sumerian art at the Louvre. He returned to Baghdad in 1959.

He co-founded in 1951 with Jawad Saleem Jama'et Baghdad lil Fann al-Hadith (Baghdad Modern Art Group), one of the most unusual arts movements in the Middle East in the post–World War II, itwas called Istilham al-turath (Seeking inspiration from tradition), considered as "the basic point of departure, to achieve through modern styles, a cultural vision". He headed the group after the death of Saleem in 1961.

In 1971, he founded Al Bu'd al Wahad (the One-dimension Group)", which promoted the modern calligraphic school in Arab art.

His work is collected by major museums, such as Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, the Guggenheim in New York, and Sharjah Art Museum. More on Shakir Hassan Al Said





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Saturday, November 5, 2022

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Abdelaziz Gorgi's CHKOBA PLAYERS; EVE OF RAMADAN, with Footnotes, #52

Abdelaziz Gorgi, 1928-2008
JOUEURS DE CHKOBA; VEILLÉE DU RAMADAN (CHKOBA PLAYERS; EVE OF RAMADAN), circa 1960-1969
Acrylic, gold leaf, ink and pen on paper
76 by 55cm.; 29 7/8 by 21 3/4 in.
Private collection

The chkobba is a card game drawn from the scopa and brought to Tunisia by Italian migrants.

It is played with traditional cards . The game is between two players or two teams of two players most often but it is possible, although infrequent, to play three or four independent players. 

Depending on the regions, provinces and even villages, the rules of the game and the counting of points vary. More on The chkobba

Abdelaziz Gorgi's oeuvre is a testament to a strong attachment to Tunisia, both in its form and practice.  As one of the founders and last president of the Ecole de Tunis, of whom he remained an active practicing artist alongside Jallal Ben Abdallah and Hedi Turki, Gorgi's paintings and tapestries are colourful, repeatedly featuring tokens such as 'chechias', the traditional Tunisian headgear or Chkoba, the traditional Tunisian card game, which both act to symbolize his personal background. Gorgi was also very active in encouraging the arts within his community, designing the first Tunisian postage stamp in 1956 and establishing the Tunis School of painting which he presided over until 1983. In 2000 his efforts were repaid when the Tunisian ministry of Culture announced that the country to be celebrating a ‘Gorgi Year’ of culture. More on Abdelaziz Gorgi





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Wednesday, November 2, 2022

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Adham Wanly's Le monastère copte, désert de Mariut/ The Coptic Monastery, Mariut Desert, with Footnotes, #56

Adham Wanly, 1908-1959, EGYPTIAN
Le monastère copte, désert de Mariut/ The Coptic Monastery, Mariut Desert, c. 1953
Oil on paper
28,5 x 33,5 cm
Private collection

The late Pope Kyrillos VI established this Coptic Orthodox monastery in 1959 in commemoration of Saint Mina (Menas), his patron saint, in an isolated desert area very close to the archaeological site and historical city of Abu Mena in Mariut, near Alexandria, Egypt.

Abu Mena is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and was once an important Christian pilgrimage site during the 4th to 7th cent. A.D. Numerous little clay bottles (ampullae), on which Saint Mina's name and picture are engraved, were discovered by archeologists in diverse countries around the world, such as Heidelberg, Germany; Milan, Italy; Dalmatia, Croatia; Marseille, France; Dengla, Sudan; and Jerusalem. These pottery ampullae (small holy water and oil flasks brought from pilgrimage places as a souvenir, and mass-produced in Early Byzantine times) come from Abu Mena, near Alexandria in Egypt.

Countless miracles have happened and continue to happen until this day there through the intercessions of Saint Mina the Martyr, Pope Kyrillos VI and the late Abba Mina Ava-Mina (late abbot of the new monastery), whose relics (all three) are preserved in the monastery. More on the Coptic Monastery, Mariut Desert

Adham Wanly (1908 in Alexandria, Egypt – 1959) was a painter who learnt in the atelier of the Italian Otorino Becchi 1932, then set up his own atelier with his brother Seif Wanly (above), and participated in many local and international exhibition specially Venice, São Paulo (Brasil), Alexandria Biennale.

The Museum of Modern Art in Alexandria displays many of his paintings. The artist is mostly famous for recording the life of the theater and circus. He specialized in the ballet and opera that is featured in the Cairo Opera House and the Theatre Mohamed Ali in Alexandria. The paintings render the stage lights and movements of the people involved and he is able to express the light and agility in various ways. He had a talent in caricature in which he used in mockery of himself and the people of his time. There is now a museum in his memory. More on Adham Wanly




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Sunday, October 30, 2022

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Ibrahim El Dessouki's The Seventh Day, with Footnotes, #51

Ibrahim El Dessouki, Egyptian, b. 1969
The Seventh Day
Oil and oil bars on canvas
98 2/5 × 220 9/10 in, 250 × 561 cm
Private collection

El Dessouki’s triptych of seven majestic, goddess-like women are incarnations of the Egyptian goddess of motherhood, Hathor, in her human, as opposed to bovine form. The painting derives its name from Egyptian tradition, inherited from ancient times, ‘El Sebou’ or ‘The Seventh Day’. The ritual is a seven-day celebration upon the birth of a child; the seventh day is when the child is believed to gain their hearing. The goddess appears in her seven iterations until the final day, upon which she whispers the baby’s faith. The pure-white of their garments highlights their dark features and olive skin to produce a striking image of a woman, captured candidly in the midst of various tasks, who epitomises Eastern ideals of beauty. More on this painting

Ibrahim El Dessouki (b. 1969, Cairo, Egypt) lives and works in Cairo as a painter of a highly condensed style in portraiture as well as in still life painting and landscape. His unique elaborate and highly meticulous treatment of shades & his refined textures that echo his feelings through an extraordinary & notable use of paint kneaded carefully to result in simultaneously dreamy & epic tones of color. Not to mention his immense sized shapes of women who pose at times to inspire awe and bewilderment showing off in the meantime details and mutations of degrees-of dimness, shades and light, to evoke the sense of tenderness and delicacy out of so many thick layers of rich and varied tints of paint which make the painting so vital and poetic.

Dessouki paints animals, still nature, landscape & women all in a soft, incredible & divine contemporary style. He is famous for his paintings of women; some of those paintings express his nostalgia for the women who strolled in his neighborhood when he was a child with their ample bodies hardly covered with a graceful shawl. His paintings of women are simple yet rich with grace and softness; his style is as pleasing to the eye and elegant as his subject matters.

Dessouki participated in exhibitions in Egypt and abroad. In 2003, he was part of the Panorama of 20th Century Egyptian Art in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria. In 2006 & 2008, he was an invited artist to the 10th and 11th Cairo International Biennale. More on Ibrahim El Dessouki




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Thursday, October 13, 2022

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Ibrahim El Dessouki's Doors and False Doors 5,, with Footnotes, #50

Ibrahim El Dessouki, Egyptian, b. 1969
Doors and False Doors 5, c. 2021
Oil on canvas
72 4/5 × 47 1/5 in, 185 × 120 cm
Private collection

“False doors”, also known as “Ka doors”, as they allowed the Ka (an element of the “soul”) to pass through them, were common in the mortuary temples and tombs of ancient Egypt from around the Third Dynasty and temples of the New Kingdom. The false door was thought to be a threshold between the world of mortals and the world of deities and spirits. The deity or the deceased could interact with the world of the living either by passing through the door or receiving offerings though it. As a result it was not uncommon to find false doors depicted on the sides of coffins as well as on the cabinets of “shawabti”.

From the middle of the Fifth Dynasty, the decorations often included torus moulding (convex moulding resembling a semicircle in cross section) and a “cavetto cornice” (a concave bracket around the top of a wall or gate with a cross section that resembles a quarter circle in cross section). It is thought that these decorations represented the plants originally used to build predynastic buildings. Images of the deceased were also fairly common. Usually, the decoration was undertaken in such a manner that the deceased appeared to emerge from the false door itself. More on False doors

Ibrahim El Dessouki’s painting style is defined by his unique treatment of paint, accentuated by his ability to create subtle changes in its texture; his unusual use of negative space; and his deft manipulation of shadow and light. While the artist’s genres encompass portraiture, landscape and still life, El Dessouki’s subject matter is very much Egypt-centric, and captures his own unique and hypnotic perspective of the soul and essence of Egypt. More on this painting

Ibrahim El Dessouki (b. 1969, Cairo, Egypt) lives and works in Cairo as a painter of a highly condensed style in portraiture as well as in still life painting and landscape. His unique elaborate and highly meticulous treatment of shades & his refined textures that echo his feelings through an extraordinary & notable use of paint kneaded carefully to result in simultaneously dreamy & epic tones of color. Not to mention his immense sized shapes of women who pose at times to inspire awe and bewilderment showing off in the meantime details and mutations of degrees-of dimness, shades and light, to evoke the sense of tenderness and delicacy out of so many thick layers of rich and varied tints of paint which make the painting so vital and poetic.

Dessouki paints animals, still nature, landscape & women all in a soft, incredible & divine contemporary style. He is famous for his paintings of women; some of those paintings express his nostalgia for the women who strolled in his neighborhood when he was a child with their ample bodies hardly covered with a graceful shawl. His paintings of women are simple yet rich with grace and softness; his style is as pleasing to the eye and elegant as his subject matters.

Dessouki participated in exhibitions in Egypt and abroad. In 2003, he was part of the Panorama of 20th Century Egyptian Art in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria. In 2006 & 2008, he was an invited artist to the 10th and 11th Cairo International Biennale. More on Ibrahim El Dessouki




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Monday, October 10, 2022

03 Paintings, Middle East Artists, Paul Guiragossian's Femmes en Conversation, with Footnotes, #49

Paul Guiragossian (Lebanese, 1926-1993)
Femmes en Conversation (Women in Conversation), c. 1970
Oil on canvas
28 3/8 x 39 1/8in. (72 x 99.5cm.)
Private collection

Paul Guiragossian (1926 – November 20, 1993) was an Armenian Lebanese painter. Born to Armenian parents, Paul Guiragossian experienced the consequences of exile from a very tender age. Raised in boarding schools, he grew up away from his mother who had to work to make sure her two sons got an education.

Paul Guiragossian (Lebanese, 1926-1993)
Automne (Autumn), c. 1989
Oil on canvas
53 1/8 x 55 1/8in. (135 x 140cm.)
Private collection

In the 1950s, Guiragossian started teaching art in several Armenian schools and worked as an illustrator. He later started his own business with his brother Antoine, painting cinema banners, posters and drawing illustrations for books. Soon after he was discovered for his art and introduced to his contemporaries after which he began exhibiting his works in Beirut and eventually all over the world.

Paul Guiragossian (Lebanese, 1926-1993)
L'Ete (The Summer), c. 1995
signed 'PAUL.G.' (lower centre)
Acrylic on paper
39 3/8 x 27½in. (100 x 70cm.)
Private collection

In 1956, Guiragossian won the first prize in a painting competition, which landed him a scholarship by the Italian government to study at The Academy of Fine Arts of Florence.

In 1962, Guiragossian was granted another scholarship, this time by the French Government, to study and paint in Paris at Les Atelier Des Maîtres De L'Ecole De Paris.

By the mid 1960s Guiragossian had grown to become one of the most celebrated artists in Lebanon and eventually of the Arab world and even though war broke out in the early 1970s, his attachment to Lebanon grew bigger and his works became more colorful with messages of hope for his people.

In 1989, Guiragossian went to Paris to exhibit his works in La Salle Des Pas Perdus in UNESCO and lived in the city with part of his family until 1991. In that year, he had a solo exhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe. This exhibition was extended and marked the first solo show at the IMA for any artist. More on Guiragossian




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Wednesday, September 7, 2022

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Nabil Nahas's COLOR BLIND, with Footnotes, #53

Nabil Nahas, B. 1949
COLOR BLIND, c. 1998
Acrylic on canvas
121.9 by 121.9 by 8.9 cm.; 48 by 48 by 3 1/2 in.
Private collection

Lebanese artist Nabil Nahas has firmly established himself as a pioneer of abstraction through his unique use of color, texture and complex composition to create spellbinding canvases. Nahas received his MFA from Yale University in 1973, and although formally trained in Western painting, his work is inspired by a multiplicity of sources including nature and the geometric patterns like those that can be found in the decorative Islamic art of his birth city, Beirut. His most famous and innovative works are created by dense layers of acrylic paint, texturized with powered pumice and pigmented with vibrant colors. This technique creates a splendid visual effect as the works appear otherworldly but also organic—as if they had been extracted from coral or a meteorMore on Nabil Nahas




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Sunday, September 4, 2022

02 Paintings, Middle East Artists, Paul Guiragossian's Mother and Child in Mandorla, with Footnotes, #48

Paul Guiragossian (Lebanese, 1926-1993)
Mother and Child in Mandorla, c. 1982
Oil on canvas
39 3/8 x 31½in. (100 x 80cm.)
Private collection

Child in Mandorla by Modern master Paul Guiragossian represents the artist's quest to find harmony in both his works and his life. Seeking a balance between an expressionist touch that references reality and chromatic elements that express emotional movement and a new reality, the present work shows a deep precision in his brushstroke and composition, serving to highlight the underlying theme of childhood and maternity.

From the 1970s onwards, Guiragossian applied thick brushstrokes to depict elongated abstract figures and multiple layers of paint of vibrant hues that are reminiscent of the tones used by the Fauves artists. In the present work from the early 1980s, Guiragossian combines figurative depictions with broad and flat brushstrokes that highlight his transition into what was to become completely reduced abstract vertical lines. More on this painting
 
Paul Guiragossian (1926 – November 20, 1993) was an Armenian Lebanese painter. Born to Armenian parents, Paul Guiragossian experienced the consequences of exile from a very tender age. Raised in boarding schools, he grew up away from his mother who had to work to make sure her two sons got an education.

Paul Guiragossian (Lebanese, 1926-1993)
Famille autour de l'Enfant (Family around the Child), c. 1985
Watercolour on paper
27 5/8 x 19¾in. (70 x 50cm.)
Private collection

From an early stage in his career, Paul Guiragossian explored the theme of motherhood, often depicting the maternal figure in the centre of his compositions. Separated from his mother at a young age, his portrayal of the female figure reflected on his personal struggles and longing for maternal love. In his works, Guiragossian reveals his reverence for the role of women as virtuous caretakers impersonating love, hope, childhood, suffering, peace and freedom.

In the present enchanting watercolour, Guiragossian's own interpretation of the Mother and Child with saints standing by their side, the mother carries her child with affection, her hands are caressing the new born as if to embrace him and the abstracted figures on her side stand as protectors. All eyes seem to be on the child, whose features and attire, in lighter hues of white and blue, hint at his innocence and purity. More on this painting

In the 1950s, Guiragossian started teaching art in several Armenian schools and worked as an illustrator. He later started his own business with his brother Antoine, painting cinema banners, posters and drawing illustrations for books. Soon after he was discovered for his art and introduced to his contemporaries after which he began exhibiting his works in Beirut and eventually all over the world.

In 1956, Guiragossian won the first prize in a painting competition, which landed him a scholarship by the Italian government to study at The Academy of Fine Arts of Florence.

In 1962, Guiragossian was granted another scholarship, this time by the French Government, to study and paint in Paris at Les Atelier Des Maîtres De L'Ecole De Paris.

By the mid 1960s Guiragossian had grown to become one of the most celebrated artists in Lebanon and eventually of the Arab world and even though war broke out in the early 1970s, his attachment to Lebanon grew bigger and his works became more colorful with messages of hope for his people.

In 1989, Guiragossian went to Paris to exhibit his works in La Salle Des Pas Perdus in UNESCO and lived in the city with part of his family until 1991. In that year, he had a solo exhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe. This exhibition was extended and marked the first solo show at the IMA for any artist. More on Guiragossian





Please visit my other blogs: Art CollectorMythologyMarine ArtPortrait of a Lady, The OrientalistArt of the Nude and The Canals of VeniceMiddle East Artists365 Saints and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

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Wednesday, August 31, 2022

02 Paintings, Middle East Artists, Nasser Ovissi's Thorses, with Footnotes, #47

NASSER OVISSI (IRAN, B. 1934)
POLO PLAYER AND EAGLE
Oil on canvas
140 x 75 cm.
Private collection

NASSER OVISSI (IRAN, B.1934)
TWO SEATED HORSES
Acrylic, gold paint and gold leaf on canvas, c. 1972/73
84 x 65.5 cm
Private collection

Nasser Ovissi is an American-Iranian painter whose work is characterized by stylized figures of Arabic women and horses. Set amidst geometric patterns and decorative elements, his figures seem to merge into and out of the space behind them. “My work is dedicated to the beauty of life and I hope those who experience my work will walk away with an experience of beauty.” Born in Tehran, Iran in 1934, Ovissi studied Law and Political Sciences at the University of Tehran before studying fine art at Beaux Fine Art in Rome. The artist has achieved numerous awards and honors, including being exhibited at the 1959 Paris Biennial and a Grand Prize at the 1962 Biennale of Fine Arts of Tehran. Ovissi lives and works in Reston, VA. His works are included in the collections of the Contemporary Art Museum in Madrid and the National Art Gallery of Greece in Athens. More on Nasser Ovissi




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Saturday, August 27, 2022

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Hossein Kazemi's Tar Player, with Footnotes, #46

Hossein Kazemi (Iranian, 1924-1996)
Tar Player, c. 1955
Oil on canvas
25 5/8 x 19¾in. (65 x 50cm.)
Private collection

A Tar is an Iranian long-necked string instrument, waisted lute family instrument, used by many cultures. This is in accordance with a practice common in Persian-speaking areas of distinguishing lutes on the basis of the number of strings originally employed. More on a Tar

A leading and pioneer Iranian Modern artist, Hossein Kazemi moved away from the academic style of Kamal Al-Molk following his studies at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The present work, a charming portrait from Kazemi's beginnings, reveals his experimentation with Cubism and his fascination by Western Modernist painting while hinting at his Persian heritage, notably with the traditional Iranian instrument held by the figure and the abstracted background. A rare and charming composition from his celebrated Cubist period, this work was gifted to a prominent and well-respected artist of his generation. Kazemi himself loved it so much, that he started another version of the same painting to keep in his personal collection, a work that unfortunately was left unfinished when the artist passed away in 1996. More on this painting

One of the most prominent Iranian artists, Hossein Kazemi began his career in 1940s by focusing on figurative art. Portraits of popular figures such as Sadegh Hedayat drew attention. However, Kazemi's artistic style began evolving as he started experimenting with Cubism and became fascinated by Western Modernism.

In 1953, Kazemi moved to Paris and entered the 'Ecole des Beaux Arts'. Aware of his Iranian heritage, Kazemi was eager to search for a style that would incorporate Persian elements and also be modern. As the artist's work became more abstract, his inspiration by certain elements from Persian art remained evident. His interest in stylized forms from Ancient Persia, miniature paintings, ceramic tiles and manuscript illuminations are reflected on his canvases. Kazemi arrived at his desired composition and form, with its harmonious colours: a wide range of blues and violets, variations of semi-abstract objects such as stones and flowers and thick layers of pigment, which became his signature style. More on Hossein Kazemi




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