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Lot Essay
“Colours should feel as fresh as spring water and as clear as glass. Once I begin to sense that I could almost plunge through the painting’s surface as in a pool or a mirror, I realise that the work is finished.”
— Kamal Boullata
Painted in 2001, Nocturne I is part of a triptych and exemplifies Kamal Boullata’s signature exploration of harmonious and rhythmical geometric abstraction. The artist describes the creation of these works as a deliberate oscillation between the mechanical and the organic: beginning with precise mathematical instruments, a pencil, compass, and ruler, to establish a geometric skeleton which then evolves into a living composition through the application of colour and effects of light.
Overlapping sharp geometric planes are filled with varying tones of blue and purple. This interplay of colour and sharp geometries creates an effect akin to a prism, simultaneously grounded in structure yet evoking lightness and transcendence. At the same time, the rotation and distribution of the overlapping geometries conveys a dynamic balance, as if inviting the viewer to engage moving abstract colour field.
Born in Jerusalem in 1942, Boullata studied at the Academia di Belle Arti in Rome and later at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, D.C., supported by a Fulbright Senior Scholarship. He is widely regarded as one of the leading Palestinian artists of his generation. After extensive residencies in the United States and France, he settled in Berlin, where he was elected a fellow of the Institute of Advanced Study in 2012–13. Boullata’s work has been showcased at prominent institutions such as The British Museum, London; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; and Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris.
— Kamal Boullata
Painted in 2001, Nocturne I is part of a triptych and exemplifies Kamal Boullata’s signature exploration of harmonious and rhythmical geometric abstraction. The artist describes the creation of these works as a deliberate oscillation between the mechanical and the organic: beginning with precise mathematical instruments, a pencil, compass, and ruler, to establish a geometric skeleton which then evolves into a living composition through the application of colour and effects of light.
Overlapping sharp geometric planes are filled with varying tones of blue and purple. This interplay of colour and sharp geometries creates an effect akin to a prism, simultaneously grounded in structure yet evoking lightness and transcendence. At the same time, the rotation and distribution of the overlapping geometries conveys a dynamic balance, as if inviting the viewer to engage moving abstract colour field.
Born in Jerusalem in 1942, Boullata studied at the Academia di Belle Arti in Rome and later at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, D.C., supported by a Fulbright Senior Scholarship. He is widely regarded as one of the leading Palestinian artists of his generation. After extensive residencies in the United States and France, he settled in Berlin, where he was elected a fellow of the Institute of Advanced Study in 2012–13. Boullata’s work has been showcased at prominent institutions such as The British Museum, London; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; and Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris.