BVA312 Art History Middle Eastern Art 16/9/19

BVA312 Art History Middle Eastern Art   16/9/19

Christies - You tube video

War and politics influence art - calligraphy and script - lost identity and a good story in art
well documented art for overseas collectors - value plus enjoyment

Iranian art

Dubai - ArtTatic
many more art collectors today than 10 years ago - expensive art works - art market driven by a smaller number of wealthy collectors.  This has happened since the city was developed in 2000.

Sothebys


Farhad Moshiri

Annotation:  I really like the fresh approach this artist has - embellished to the maximum and so colorful - the textures are gorgeous - rightfully placed int he Andy Warhol Museum as a form of contemporary pop art for a  new generation.  




Farhad Moshiri's solo exhibition at the Andy Warhol Museum blends popular culture imagery with traditional Iranian handicraft techniques.

https://www.wesa.fm/post/first-us-solo-show-iranian-farhad-moshiri-sparkles-warhol#stream/0

Dubai



Daivd Kim Whittaker - Pearls to the Peachy Fire

https://www.operagallery.com/dkw-monaco/
British Artist exhibiting in Monaco

Abdulaziz Ashour

Below is an interesting collage technique - I am not really sure if I like it but the use of found pages from old discarded books and altering is appealing and something that is akin to my practice of recycling objects.  2D is an option for a poster to promote my practice and creations.

papers and mixed media - 57 X 35
#11 2013

at the Elmasa Gallery

http://www.galerielmarsa.com/artists/item/emna-masmoudi.html


Biography

Born in 1964 in Mahdia, Tunisia, Emna Masmoudi belongs to that generation of women artists who emerged on the Tunisian scene in the 90’s. A graduate of Fine Arts in Paris and holding a Master of Visual Arts, she pursues her training as an artist in residence at the Cité des Arts of Paris. Swiftly, her work reached a wide audience. Her very first exhibitions in Tunisia moved her from a local success to a presence abroad. She has been participating in exhibitions in Europe, the United States, the Middle East ... She won the first prize of painting from the Tunisian Ministry of Culture in 2003. With Elmarsa gallery, she has been represented in many international contemporary art fairs and her paintings have been included to prestigious public and private collections worldwide.

Hovering between abstraction and figuration, her pictorial work mirrors a unique look that rubs out the stylistic boundaries to open a new dimension. Her figures emerge from the matter in levity. The creative impulse in Emna Masmoudi’s is autobiographical. It is a life story, a feeling to an event that she transcribes into her art. Her carved characters are a reminiscence of Giacometti, especially coming to threadlike characters, small expressive heads on never-ending legs. Further, her interest about Germaine Richier reads in the way to assume the metal structure of the sculpture so that it becomes an integral part thereof. She does not try to hide the skeleton, but rather uses the plastic and graphic dimensions of the wiring to play on materials.

Through her paintings, drawings and sculptures, we immerse into the plastic realm of Emna Masmoudi. Her artistic approach appeals to time, to reminiscence. Softly, every gesture graphs the imprint of the moment on canvas. In her sculptures, everyday driftwood or iron objects are collected and assembled. Under the hands of the artist, they adopt a new identity and tale a novel story. Rust witnesses the crossing time, both its color and texture endow it with a plastic interest. She works in cycles, within series whose recurring themes loop back like a refrain and spread out.

The wire is the structure to her sculptures, feathery and spirited, while echoing the line of her drawings, vibrant and intense. This wire is a boundary in space, one that delimits the here and the elsewhere. It further embodies the time being ceased at that moment according to which there will be a before and an after - An impalpable widespread border that escapes to reach. In a hint, Emna Masmoudi gives records of her feelings regarding her country in transition.

The prime sealed Grenades suddenly explode in a burst of juice soaked seeds. The thick peel blows out under the power of inner turmoil. A new freedom is coming.

Follows the overflow of joy and trance, Stambali narrates the after instant through this cathartic state that frees the body and the mind - The frenzy of a timeless moment, in levity. Of a great musicality, this series rhymes the incantatory rhythm of mystical rituals and purifiers.

And time slips slowly. Fading jasmine, a long way medina, or even marabous, all positioned behind the barbed wire. The need to protect those cherished places while recalling the frailty of a moment where anything can still tumble.

This Funambule, naked and vulnerable, struggles to remain staid over this wire. A parlous equilibrium, but an opposing force to gravity. It is never a matter of falling, he resists, he is there.

Ultimately, the woman, A la croisée des chemins, who wonders which way to go by now. The Vélocipède, this yesteryear bicycle whispers to her to be wary of a return to the past.

On the wire ... recounts all these stories, like this Œil witness to the passing of time. As an incentive to learn from yesterday to better apprehend tomorrow. This very personal exhibition of Emna Masmoudi tells us, primarily, about herself with a tremendous love for her characters. They do not fall down; they struggle with strength and unyielding hope. All of which sprinkled by wit. After leaving Emna Masmoudi’s universe, we find, smiling, the wire of time a little lighter...

Wonderful sculpture - like the roughness and rawness of the finish - it looks so ancient and has a narrative - 

On the wire, Sur le fil, 2013

Look at the layout in the gallery space - so balanced and pleasing to look at 

On the wire, Sur le fil, 2013

https://iroon.com/irtn/album/1049/life-is-beautiful-farhad-moshiri-s-art/

ANNOTATION:  More work by Farhad Moshiri - art can be beautiful again - thank god!  I think the artist is capturing the innocence of childhood and how we don't just all fit neatly together - none of the jigsaw pieces fit  - this could  mean lots of things, when you look at the pictures closely - there is a strange narrative - the crow is about to eat the snowman's nose, the rabbit has chickens in its burrow - the boy is letting the birds escape or is releasing them into a pink room (gender?) little girl eating the apple - perhaps Eve?  A fist around a dove - control?  An odd creature eating rose nectar - roses don't have nectar  - so nothing is as it seems at first......

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-navigating-beirut-s-fast-expanding-art-landscape

Alexxa Gotthardt

Jul 27, 2015 5:36pm