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Lot Essay
'The use of the letters of the alphabet as an art form is nothing more than a version of the contemplative vision, because it tries to perceive simultaneously the unity of the two worlds in which he lives the world of thought through language and the plastic world of observation.'
(Shaker Hassan Al Said quoted in Sartec/Ministry of Information of the Iraqi Republic (eds.), Iraq Contemporary Art, Vol.1 Painting, Milano 1977, p. 118.)
Christie's is pleased to present Ta'imlat Mowdou'i (MEDITATIONS) or Hourriyat Al Shaheed (The Martyr's Freedom), an enthralling composition by one of Iraq's most prolific artist, the Modernist Shaker Hassan Al Said. A practicing theorist, a teacher, a historian and one of the most influential artists of his generation, Al Said co-founded the Baghdad Modern Art Group with renowned artist Jewad Selim in 1951 and contributed a vast amount of reflections and writings that led to the formation of a distinctive aesthetic and doctrine, which in turn shaped the Iraqi art movement. The Baghdad Modern Art Group established a distinctive local style that merged both the indigenous and international trends of the time.
After a few years spent in Paris where he studied at the Académie Julien, at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs and the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Al Said returned to Baghdad to teach at the Institute of Fine Arts and in 1971, he founded the One Dimension group with a collective of artists who focused on the exploration of the Arabic letter. The group's deep-rooted interest the Arabic alphabet, breaking with classical and traditional calligraphy, were fascinated by the line itself and its endless possibilities of abstraction. They explored the visualisation and philosophy of Arabic script in Modern art under the influence of Sufism and searched for the spiritual in art, through abstraction.
Ta'imlat Mowdou'i (MEDITATIONS) or Hourriyat Al Shaheed (The Martyr's Freedom) is a seminal work that encapsulates the artist's everlasting quest for freedom and exploration of the Arabic letter. The Arabic letter becomes a line that leads to pure abstraction, turning away from the stylised calligraphy of his contemporaries and rather focusing on the eternity of the surface. As such, even scribbles on a wall became a means of instigating a state of mind akin to an intense trance, much in the same way as the intense meditative state that was of deep religious importance to the Sufis. In this sense, the notion of One Dimension was a referral to the one dimension that could connect Man with God.
Searching for the spiritual in the epistemological meaning of art, rather than in the content or the visual vocabulary of the work, Al Said was indeed profoundly influenced by Sufism and as such, to him a work of art does not end or begin with the limits of the canvas, but rather penetrates beyond, attaining the metaphysical realm of the invisible.
In his works, Al Said conjures up the image of an old derelict wall; the wall appears ancient and worn but anchors itself in the modern context through graffiti and abstract splashes of paint. Random letters and numbers, often undecipherable, are roughly incorporated into a series of geometric bursts of colour. A highlight in the composition is the Arabic word Al Hourriya (Freedom) that is paradoxically, but perhaps purposely, confined in a space delineated by cracks and shapes of colour in the upper part of the composition, like a spontaneous yet restrained graffiti on a wall that carries the weight of history.
Painted in 1984, the present work is particularly poignant within the context of Iraq's history, especially within the midst of the horrifying Iran-Iraq war. Al Said was notoriously affected by the deteriorating situation in Iraq that continued even into the 2000s. As a result, this became an underlying theme in his work, which he termed 'the experience of environmental truth in art'. Expressive in its colour palette, texture and sense of depth, this work captures the essence of Al Said's artistic magnificence. Willing to integrate the idea of a wall into his art to convey a sense of collapse of time into space, his fascinating iconography filled with spiritual, philosophical and historical references was to be perceived in his oeuvre until his untimely death in 2004.
(Shaker Hassan Al Said quoted in Sartec/Ministry of Information of the Iraqi Republic (eds.), Iraq Contemporary Art, Vol.1 Painting, Milano 1977, p. 118.)
Christie's is pleased to present Ta'imlat Mowdou'i (MEDITATIONS) or Hourriyat Al Shaheed (The Martyr's Freedom), an enthralling composition by one of Iraq's most prolific artist, the Modernist Shaker Hassan Al Said. A practicing theorist, a teacher, a historian and one of the most influential artists of his generation, Al Said co-founded the Baghdad Modern Art Group with renowned artist Jewad Selim in 1951 and contributed a vast amount of reflections and writings that led to the formation of a distinctive aesthetic and doctrine, which in turn shaped the Iraqi art movement. The Baghdad Modern Art Group established a distinctive local style that merged both the indigenous and international trends of the time.
After a few years spent in Paris where he studied at the Académie Julien, at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs and the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Al Said returned to Baghdad to teach at the Institute of Fine Arts and in 1971, he founded the One Dimension group with a collective of artists who focused on the exploration of the Arabic letter. The group's deep-rooted interest the Arabic alphabet, breaking with classical and traditional calligraphy, were fascinated by the line itself and its endless possibilities of abstraction. They explored the visualisation and philosophy of Arabic script in Modern art under the influence of Sufism and searched for the spiritual in art, through abstraction.
Ta'imlat Mowdou'i (MEDITATIONS) or Hourriyat Al Shaheed (The Martyr's Freedom) is a seminal work that encapsulates the artist's everlasting quest for freedom and exploration of the Arabic letter. The Arabic letter becomes a line that leads to pure abstraction, turning away from the stylised calligraphy of his contemporaries and rather focusing on the eternity of the surface. As such, even scribbles on a wall became a means of instigating a state of mind akin to an intense trance, much in the same way as the intense meditative state that was of deep religious importance to the Sufis. In this sense, the notion of One Dimension was a referral to the one dimension that could connect Man with God.
Searching for the spiritual in the epistemological meaning of art, rather than in the content or the visual vocabulary of the work, Al Said was indeed profoundly influenced by Sufism and as such, to him a work of art does not end or begin with the limits of the canvas, but rather penetrates beyond, attaining the metaphysical realm of the invisible.
In his works, Al Said conjures up the image of an old derelict wall; the wall appears ancient and worn but anchors itself in the modern context through graffiti and abstract splashes of paint. Random letters and numbers, often undecipherable, are roughly incorporated into a series of geometric bursts of colour. A highlight in the composition is the Arabic word Al Hourriya (Freedom) that is paradoxically, but perhaps purposely, confined in a space delineated by cracks and shapes of colour in the upper part of the composition, like a spontaneous yet restrained graffiti on a wall that carries the weight of history.
Painted in 1984, the present work is particularly poignant within the context of Iraq's history, especially within the midst of the horrifying Iran-Iraq war. Al Said was notoriously affected by the deteriorating situation in Iraq that continued even into the 2000s. As a result, this became an underlying theme in his work, which he termed 'the experience of environmental truth in art'. Expressive in its colour palette, texture and sense of depth, this work captures the essence of Al Said's artistic magnificence. Willing to integrate the idea of a wall into his art to convey a sense of collapse of time into space, his fascinating iconography filled with spiritual, philosophical and historical references was to be perceived in his oeuvre until his untimely death in 2004.