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Lot Essay
In Syrian born Marwan's works, one is transported into a multi-dimensional realm that captures so deeply the inner psyche. His multiple personality is mirrored in the multi-dimensionality of his paintings, exemplified by the viewer's different experiences and interpretations of the reactions of his faces when viewed from one angle to the next - while simultaneously looking at one painting, the viewer takes on this emotional journey through its shifts of distance and perspective. His paintings thus incorporate several layers diffusing light into his works with superimposed pigments that recall the magic of his native city, offering an intimate and mystical experience.
In the 1970s, at a time Marwan was first starting to paint what was to become his infamous Head and Facial Landscape series, the artist began to capture still life scenes that depicted areas in his studio and living space that featured often in his self-portrait paintings in bed of the late 1960s and 1970s. Heavily inspired by German Expressionism - no doubt a consequence of his teaching under Hans Trier with fellow artist Georg Baselitz - in the present work, the artist's jacket hangs above a table of green apples, the lines and brushwork offering characteristics that have become synonymous with the artist's oeuvre whereby elements and interwoven colours in twitching masses of ribbons, strokes and dots slowly morph into each other as the perspective is flattened.
As light delicately bounces of the canvas, an extraordinary emotional language emerges, at once nuanced, but expressive, pulsating in the ability for these delicious tones to flow into each other into a consistency that can only reference Marwan's beloved native homeland.
At times melancholic, at times shy or projecting feelings of marginalisation, Marwan's paintings captivate the viewer in their surreal quality.
In the 1970s, at a time Marwan was first starting to paint what was to become his infamous Head and Facial Landscape series, the artist began to capture still life scenes that depicted areas in his studio and living space that featured often in his self-portrait paintings in bed of the late 1960s and 1970s. Heavily inspired by German Expressionism - no doubt a consequence of his teaching under Hans Trier with fellow artist Georg Baselitz - in the present work, the artist's jacket hangs above a table of green apples, the lines and brushwork offering characteristics that have become synonymous with the artist's oeuvre whereby elements and interwoven colours in twitching masses of ribbons, strokes and dots slowly morph into each other as the perspective is flattened.
As light delicately bounces of the canvas, an extraordinary emotional language emerges, at once nuanced, but expressive, pulsating in the ability for these delicious tones to flow into each other into a consistency that can only reference Marwan's beloved native homeland.
At times melancholic, at times shy or projecting feelings of marginalisation, Marwan's paintings captivate the viewer in their surreal quality.