01 Paintings, Middle East Artists, Hosni Radwan's City of Paradoxes 6, with Footnotes, #76

Hosni Radwan

City of Paradoxes 6, 2022

Charcoal, gold leaf and acrylic on canvas

29 1/10 × 20 9/10 in | 74 × 53 cm

Private collection

The city of Jerusalem is the focus of Hosni Radwan’s latest series of artworks. Using charcoal, acrylic, and gold leaf on canvas, he attempts to express his fascination with a city haunted by shades of paradoxes.

The minute Radwan saw Jerusalem, after living in the diaspora most of his life, he fell in love with it. He was fascinated with the place, its beauty, and contradictions; the little arches, the oriental style of architecture, the smells, the colors, the noises, and the unique way of living. Jerusalem brought the artist closer to safety and belonging as it carried him back to his childhood in the old city of Baghdad (the place where his family was displaced in 1948). The two places have many things in common, which appear on the surface of his paintings as childish sparkles, cold grey corners, little ancient white domes, golden holy places as well as pink stones. More on this painting

Hosni Radwan was born in Baghdad in 1955. He studied fine arts at the University of Baghdad, specializing in graphics. He held a number of solo exhibitions in Iraq, Lebanon, Cyprus, Japan, and Palestine. Radwan took part in international biennales, including those of Berlin, Cairo, and Sharjah. He left Baghdad in 1979 and headed to Beirut, where he worked in graphic design and journalism while continuing to draw and paint, using his talents to express his position vis-à-vis the cause of his people. Radwan’s works have special characteristics as they do not include realistic or political imitations. Hosni Radwan seeks to photograph the external world in all of its spaces and its various states and situations, using techniques that go beyond colour and different materials, thus forming a world of his own. Details of the scenes in Baghdad have played a major role in his artistic experience, inspiring his work that has spanned over 25 years of ongoing production. He mixes acrylics with sand, wood and paper, and other visible and tangible objects, creating mounds surrounding his works and their special, abstract world. More on Hosni Radwan

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