Contemporary Art / Doha - Inji Aflatoun

Inji Aflatoun

1924 - 1989

L'OR BLANC (WHITE GOLD)

signed and dated 63; signed and titled on the stretcher

oil on canvas 

66.5 by 79.5cm.; 26 1/8 by 31 1/4 in.

She further pursued her art education under the tutelage of Kamel El Telmissany, one of the founders of the Art and Freedom movement.  He introduced her to the life of common Egyptian peasant, which was a far cry from her upbringing and education at Lycée Français du Caire.  Efflatoun’s immersion into the common Egyptian life transformed her into a staunch nationalist. She refused to further pursue her artistic education in France at the behest of her family. Rooted in her need to discover her Egyptian identity, Efflatoun recounts: “it was impossible for me to leave Egypt and go to counties of the foreigners when I was passing by a hard period of Egyptianizing myself, all my life I talked in French. Eighteen years have slipped in my life in this secluded society even in my native language I could not talk it to the extent that when I began really frequenting the people of my country I couldn’t communicate with them in their language. What a misery I felt un-rooted.” More

Contemporary Art / Doha - Abdelaziz Gorgi

Abdelaziz Gorgi

1928-2008

JOUEURS DE CHKOBA; VEILLÉE DU RAMADAN (CHKOBA PLAYERS; EVE OF RAMADAN)

signed

acrylic, gold leaf, ink and pen on paper

76 by 55cm.; 29 7/8 by 21 3/4 in.

Executed circa 1960-1969. 

His oeuvre is a testament to a strong attachment to Tunisia, both in its form and practice.  As one of the founders and last president of the Ecole de Tunis, of whom he remained an active practicing artist alongside Jallal Ben Abdallah and Hedi Turki, Gorgi's paintings and tapestries are colourful, repeatedly featuring tokens such as 'chechias', the traditional Tunisian headgear or Chkoba, the traditional Tunisian card game, which both act to symbolize his personal background. Gorgi was also very active in encouraging the arts within his community, designing the first Tunisian postage stamp in 1956 and establishing the Tunis School of painting which he presided over until 1983. In 2000 his efforts were repaid when the Tunisian ministry of Culture announced that the country to be celebrating a ‘Gorgi Year’ of culture. More

Contemporary Art / Doha - Mahjoub Ben Bella

Mahjoub Ben Bella

B. 1946

UNTITLED 

signed

oil on canvas 

133 by 95cm.; 52 1/4 by 37 1/2 in.

Executed in 1987

"What we first distinguished in  Mahjoub Ben Bella paintings, of course, is the signs. Its repetition. Its resonance as if it were an incantatory vocal. Mahjoub Ben Bella is not to illustrate or follow in the footsteps of some illustrative calligraphy. No! His work simply reflects a musicality that finds its rhythm in both the treatment and in the colors. The score is ticking right through, throbbing and vibrant. Overturning the silence of the monochrome, it covers the canvas to excess, striking the seal of its eighth notes, embellished with lilting tones. He carries it into a syncopated and linear abstraction. Sometimes exceeding the simple tone, he tried to lose us in the rustle of life itself, in quivering landscapes..." More

Contemporary Art / Doha - Rachid Koraïchi

Rachid Koraïchi

B.1947

NEDJMA (THE FOUR SEASONS) 

hand woven and embroidery silk, in four parts 

Each: 304 by 152 by 7cm.; 119 3/4 by 59 7/8 by 2 3/4 in.

Executed in 2009.

Born in Algeria in 1947, the descendant of an old Sufi family, Rachid Koraïchi works with effortless facility in several contrasting mediums, producing pieces that belong firmly within the Sufi tradition yet nonetheless encompass intriguing aspects of modernity and universality. Through the use of Arabic calligraphy and symbols from both ancient and current cultures, Koraïchi movingly investigates the lives of the fourteen mystics of Islam; great Muslim thinkers and poets such as Rumi and El Arabi whose visions remain enduring to this day. More

Contemporary Art / Doha - Nabil Nahas

Nabil Nahas

B. 1949

COLOR BLIND

signed, titled, and dated 1998 on the reverse

acrylic on canvas

121.9 by 121.9 by 8.9 cm.; 48 by 48 by 3 1/2 in.

banese artist Nabil Nahas has firmly established himself as a pioneer of abstraction through his unique use of color, texture and complex composition to create spellbinding canvases. Nahas received his MFA from Yale University in 1973, and although formally trained in Western painting, his work is inspired by a multiplicity of sources including nature and the geometric patterns like those that can be found in the decorative Islamic art of his birth city, Beirut. His most famous and innovative works are created by dense layers of acrylic paint, texturized with powered pumice and pigmented with vibrant colors. This technique creates a splendid visual effect as the works appear otherworldly but also organic—as if they had been extracted from coral or a meteor. More

Contemporary Art / Doha - Monir Farmanfarmaian

Monir Farmanfarmaian

B. 1924

A NEW SPRING 

signed and dated 2007 twice on the reverse 

mirror, reverse-glass painting and plaster on wood 

93.5 by 122.5cm.; 36 1/2 by 48 1/4 in.

Farmanfarmaian’s artwork draws inspiration from classical Iranian culture and tradition, which is translated both conceptually and in the technical execution of her works. The intriguing combination of the traditional with the avant-garde creates an elegantly distinctive style which the artist applies to reinterpret Islamic geometric designs in a variety of mediums, often using glass or mirror as her primary support. More

Contemporary Art / Doha - Abdulnasser Gharem

Abdulnasser Gharem

B.1973

MEN AT WORK (TIME MAGAZINE PERSON OF THE YEAR 2003: THE AMERICAN SOLDIER) 

ink and lacquer paint on rubber stamps and board, in four parts 

Overall: 160 by 200cm.; 63 by 78 3/4 in.

Executed in 2011.

"I HAVE NO STUDIO SO MY STUDIO IS WHERE I CAN FIND PEOPLE. WHEN I SEE THE OPPORTUNITY I GO. THAT IS MY WAY OF THINKING ABOUT ART."

BORN IN 1973 IN THE SAUDI ARABIAN CITY OF KHAMIS MUSHAIT, WHERE HE CONTINUES TO LIVE AND WORK TODAY. IN 1992 GHAREM GRADUATED FROM THE KING ABDULAZIZ ACADEMY BEFORE ATTENDING THE LEADER INSTITUTE IN RIYADH. IN 2003 HE STUDIED AT THE INFLUENTIAL AL- MEFTAHA ARTS VILLAGE IN ABHA AND IN 2004 GHAREM AND THE AL-MEFTAHA ARTISTS STAGED A GROUP EXHIBITION, SHATTAH, WHICH CHALLENGED EXISTING MODES OF ART PRACTICE IN SAUDI ARABIA. SINCE THEN GHAREM HAS EXHIBITED IN EUROPE, THE GULF AND THE USA, INCLUDING AT MARTIN GROPIUS-BAU AND AT THE VENICE, SHARJAH & BERLIN BIENNALES. HE RECENTLY MADE HISTORY WHEN HIS INSTALLATION MESSAGE/MESSENGER SOLD FOR A WORLD RECORD PRICE AT AUCTION IN DUBAI, ESTABLISHING GHAREM AS THE HIGHEST SELLING LIVING GULF ARTIST. GHAREM DONATED THE PROCEEDS OF THIS SALE TO EDGE OF ARABIA TO FOSTER ART EDUCATION IN HIS NATIVE COUNTRY. HIS FIRST MONOGRAPH ‘ABDULNASSER GHAREM: ART OF SURVIVAL’ WAS PUBLISHED IN LONDON IN OCTOBER 2011. More