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Lot Essay
Executed in 2008, Laila Shawa’s Summer Dreams (Sahara Series) is a beautiful mesmerising depiction of geometric patterns rendered in rich and warm hues of acrylic and gold leaf. Shawa’s style, what she herself regards as ‘Islamo-pop’ art, appropriates key elements existing from the classical traditions of the Hellenic and Sasanian times to complicate and elaborate upon the artistic achievements of the Islamic world.
Being born in Gaza, Palestine in 1940 and as an artist who lived and worked between the United Kingdom and the United States, her concern was to reflect the harsh realities of community persecution. Shawa received formal art training at the Leonardo da Vinci School in Cairo and the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of Rome. Additionally, she pursued studies at the School of Seeing in Salzburg, founded in 1953 by the Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka with an endeavor to bring around humanist principles after the harrowing aftermath of the World Wars that wrought Europe beyond recognition.
Summer Dreams (Sahara Series) creates a rippled form on the surface that stresses the importance of unity and order. By composing unbalanced interlacing of multisided polygons and six-pointed stars, she refuses to adhere to the principles of geometry, suggesting an infinite growth of freedom. Her art continues to be exhibited internationally and features in the collections of the National Galleries of Jordan and Malaysia, as well as The British Museum, London.
Being born in Gaza, Palestine in 1940 and as an artist who lived and worked between the United Kingdom and the United States, her concern was to reflect the harsh realities of community persecution. Shawa received formal art training at the Leonardo da Vinci School in Cairo and the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of Rome. Additionally, she pursued studies at the School of Seeing in Salzburg, founded in 1953 by the Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka with an endeavor to bring around humanist principles after the harrowing aftermath of the World Wars that wrought Europe beyond recognition.
Summer Dreams (Sahara Series) creates a rippled form on the surface that stresses the importance of unity and order. By composing unbalanced interlacing of multisided polygons and six-pointed stars, she refuses to adhere to the principles of geometry, suggesting an infinite growth of freedom. Her art continues to be exhibited internationally and features in the collections of the National Galleries of Jordan and Malaysia, as well as The British Museum, London.