01 Painting, Middle East Artists, THE ART OF WAR, Marwan Sahmarani's The War of August 22-28, with Footnotes #89

Marwan Sahmarani (Lebanon, born 1970)

The War of August 22-28, c. 2006

Mixed media, acrylic, fabric and collage on paper

203 x 149cm (79 15/16 x 58 11/16in).

Private collection

Sold for £10,687.50 in Jun 2019

On August 28, 1997, over 300 people were hacked to death in the village of Rais, about 30 miles south of Algiers, in Algeria. The attack was part of a wave of atrocities committed during fighting between Islamic fundamentalist guerrillas and the Algerian military regime, which had intensified late that summer. More on this painting

Marwan Sahmarani's epic, and monumental mixed media work recalls the murals and illuminated manuscripts of the Medieval Islamic world and their grand depictions of the bloody territorial conflicts that marred the history of the region. Painted while the artist was escaping the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

Amidst the melee a brown faced figure looks on perplexed, his neck lodged in the vice-like grip of another soldier. This figure is none other than the artist himself; by stepping into the composition, he not only ceases to be an observer, but by placing himself in the historical landscape of the battles that have scarred the Middle East, he reminds us that not only is he the present victim of conflict, but also the product of a society whose citizens perpetually bear the scars of a society tainted by centuries of war. More on this painting

Marwan Sahmarani (b. 1970) Born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1970, graduated from the Atelier Met de Penninghen in Paris, France in 1989. He derives his inspiration from the themes of art history, surging between his Western cultural education and his oriental identity. Islamic and Mesopotamian art with its iconography and history mixes in with Greco-Roman influences as well as the paintings of the great master including Uccello, Rubens and Picasso. 

Sahmarani has participated in a variety of solo exhibitions in London, Dubai, Canada and Beirut as well as group exhibitions in Munich, Washington D.C. and Mexico. His most recent group museum exhibitions are Told/Untold/Retold at the Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar in 2010 and The Feast of the Damned at the Museum of Art and Design, New York, USA in 2010. Sahmarani was also one of the three recipients of the prestigious Abraaj Capital Prize in 2010. More on Marwan Sahmarani

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

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