.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
During Samia Halaby's career, new technologies such as computer-based kinetic and pixel art were challenging human perception. The magnification of images catalysed shifts across science and the arts, inspiring her processes of making art as a way of thinking through nature. By means of an abstract language that expresses the interconnectivity with various forms of life, her close attention to fragile relationships in today’s time, like environmental and planetary crises, is discernable in Green Earth. Here, the viewer encounters changes in depth and shades along the outer and inner edges of a myriad of nesting squares and rectangles. Halaby says her artistic impetus springs from her instincts and understanding of the sights of urban landscapes, such as 'trees in the city and how they look at night in artificial light'. The panoramic views of New York from where she lives and works further nourish her imagination to imbue her urban portraits with sweeping intricacy. Using a plunging perspective, this painting distils buildings into stark, uncomplicated shapes spattered with hues, offering delight through visceral encounters with infinite nuances and contextual dependence on colour.
Born in Jerusalem in 1936 and raised in different places across the United States, Halaby embarked on her professional journey immediately after obtaining her MFA in Painting from Indiana University in 1963. Between the 1960s and the late 1980s, Halaby taught at various universities in the United States. For a period of ten years, she held the distinction of being the first female associate professor at Yale University’s School of Art. In 1964, while serving as a faculty at the Kansas City Art Institute, Halaby received a research grant that allowed her to travel to the Eastern Mediterranean, during which she delved into the world of geometric abstraction present in the Islamic architecture of the region. By conducting experiments with various surface media that marked the beginning of a lifelong exploration into the principles of abstract art, she sought to understand the essence of reality and its enactment in material form. Heavily influenced by the abstract movements of cubism and futurism, Halaby is motivated by the belief that innovative approaches to painting create the potential for reconfiguring perceptions, not only in the realm of aesthetics but also as significant contributions to technological and social progress.
Samia Halaby’s works are part of numerous institutional collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Art (New York and Abu Dhabi); Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Detroit Institute of Art; Cleveland Museum of Art; Institut du monde arabe; and The British Museum, London.
Born in Jerusalem in 1936 and raised in different places across the United States, Halaby embarked on her professional journey immediately after obtaining her MFA in Painting from Indiana University in 1963. Between the 1960s and the late 1980s, Halaby taught at various universities in the United States. For a period of ten years, she held the distinction of being the first female associate professor at Yale University’s School of Art. In 1964, while serving as a faculty at the Kansas City Art Institute, Halaby received a research grant that allowed her to travel to the Eastern Mediterranean, during which she delved into the world of geometric abstraction present in the Islamic architecture of the region. By conducting experiments with various surface media that marked the beginning of a lifelong exploration into the principles of abstract art, she sought to understand the essence of reality and its enactment in material form. Heavily influenced by the abstract movements of cubism and futurism, Halaby is motivated by the belief that innovative approaches to painting create the potential for reconfiguring perceptions, not only in the realm of aesthetics but also as significant contributions to technological and social progress.
Samia Halaby’s works are part of numerous institutional collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Art (New York and Abu Dhabi); Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Detroit Institute of Art; Cleveland Museum of Art; Institut du monde arabe; and The British Museum, London.