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Lot Essay
Painted in 2013, Waterfall is a luminous and evocative example of Ziad Dalloul’s poetic approach to landscape. A brilliant field of yellow dominates the composition, suffusing the canvas with an almost radiant light from which the waterfall and surrounding vegetation gradually emerge. The cascading water occupies the central axis, its vertical movement contrasting with the broader expanses of colour that surround it. Forms appear to dissolve into the intensely coloured ground, with passages of green, blue and earthy tones creating depth while retaining the dreamlike ambiguity of the scene. Through Dalloul’s fluid handling of paint the landscape is at once tangible and elusive, its shifting forms creating an impression of a place recalled rather than directly observed. Through this interplay of movement, colour and atmosphere, Dalloul transforms the waterfall from a natural phenomenon into an evocative space of memory and imagination.
This fusion of the observed and the imagined is central to Dalloul’s practice. Rather than simply reproducing a landscape, he approaches it as something to be experienced from within and reconstructed through memory. As he explains: “Painting a landscape on one's canvas is not an end in itself. You have to step into the landscape to see it from the inside, deconstruct it in order to reconstruct it, in accordance with our imagination and memory, which is inseparable from the representation of any work of art” (Darat Al Funun: The Khalid Shoman Foundation, Ziad Dalloul, n.d.). His preference for the expression nature silencieuse (silent nature) over nature morte (still life), closer to the Arabic translation of the expression (al-tabi a al-samita), similarly reflects his understanding of nature as a living, mutable presence rather than a static subject. In Waterfall, the continuous movement of water reinforces this sense of nature as something in a state of constant transformation.
The resulting ambiguity encourages the eye to move continuously through the composition, between the recognisable landscape and more abstract passages of colour, light and gesture. Nature becomes, in Dalloul’s hands, both subject and interior space: a means through which memory, perception and imagination can converge. With its immersive scale and fluid evocation of landscape, Waterfall offers a compelling expression of Dalloul’s visual language.
Waterfall originates from the prestigious Dalloul Collection, Beirut, founded by Dr Ramzi and Saeda Al Husseini Dalloul and now led by their son, Dr Basel Dalloul. Spanning five decades, the collection reflects the artistic, political and cultural shifts of the Arab world and the family’s longstanding dedication to preserving and promoting Arab creativity.
Born in Soueida in 1953, Dalloul graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus in 1977 before teaching art in Algeria and moving to Paris, where he obtained a degree from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in 1987. He has exhibited internationally, with his work held in prominent collections including the British Museum, London; the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; the Institut du monde arabe, Paris; the Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman; and Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah.
This fusion of the observed and the imagined is central to Dalloul’s practice. Rather than simply reproducing a landscape, he approaches it as something to be experienced from within and reconstructed through memory. As he explains: “Painting a landscape on one's canvas is not an end in itself. You have to step into the landscape to see it from the inside, deconstruct it in order to reconstruct it, in accordance with our imagination and memory, which is inseparable from the representation of any work of art” (Darat Al Funun: The Khalid Shoman Foundation, Ziad Dalloul, n.d.). His preference for the expression nature silencieuse (silent nature) over nature morte (still life), closer to the Arabic translation of the expression (al-tabi a al-samita), similarly reflects his understanding of nature as a living, mutable presence rather than a static subject. In Waterfall, the continuous movement of water reinforces this sense of nature as something in a state of constant transformation.
The resulting ambiguity encourages the eye to move continuously through the composition, between the recognisable landscape and more abstract passages of colour, light and gesture. Nature becomes, in Dalloul’s hands, both subject and interior space: a means through which memory, perception and imagination can converge. With its immersive scale and fluid evocation of landscape, Waterfall offers a compelling expression of Dalloul’s visual language.
Waterfall originates from the prestigious Dalloul Collection, Beirut, founded by Dr Ramzi and Saeda Al Husseini Dalloul and now led by their son, Dr Basel Dalloul. Spanning five decades, the collection reflects the artistic, political and cultural shifts of the Arab world and the family’s longstanding dedication to preserving and promoting Arab creativity.
Born in Soueida in 1953, Dalloul graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus in 1977 before teaching art in Algeria and moving to Paris, where he obtained a degree from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in 1987. He has exhibited internationally, with his work held in prominent collections including the British Museum, London; the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; the Institut du monde arabe, Paris; the Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman; and Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah.