Footnotes

Bonhams are delighted to offer four works by renowned Syrian artist Fateh Moudarres from the collection of Dr Jawdat Naffouj.

The present lots, which come to market for the first time, form part of a collection comprising some fifty works acquired directly from the artist in the 1970's.

These include fine examples of Moudarres' emblematic figurative compositions together with rare and hitherto unseen works on paper which shed new light on the artists influences and stylistic progression.

Collector, gallerist and patron of the arts, Dr Naffouj was born in Syria in 1936. Whilst pursuing a career as a physician in French administered Saarland he came into contact with European art, leading him to abandon his medical practice and set-up his eponymous gallery in Landstuhl, where he dedicated his time to promoting post-war French art throughout West Germany, as well as dealing in works by renowned artists including Salvador Dali. His efforts earned him the Croix de Commandeur de la societe academique Arts-Science-Lettres in 1975.

Naffouj's relationship with Moudarres began in 1975 when the artist and his wife, travelling on the occasion of an exhibition in Bonn, took residence with Dr Naffouj on the recommendation of the Syrian ambassador to West Germany, Al Atassi. What followed was a decade long relationship with Moudarres corresponding regularly with Naffouj and visiting Laundstuhl a further two times in 1977 and 1978.

Preceding his second visit to Germany in May 1977, Moudarres wrote to Naffouj:

"My dear brother and friend. I have prepared around forty paintings and will bring them with me to Landstuhl. I am able to come and stay with you for around two weeks and will work during that time to prepare more works for you"

The Naffouj gallery and atelier proved fertile ground for Moudarres who composed several of the works in the collection in situ including a set of rare and unique black and white paintings on paper which serve as some of the artists most distinctive and unusual works. What emerged from these visits was an intriguing and varied collection spanning the gamut of Moudarres oeuvre, including landscape watercolours, the artist's signature paintings as well as experimental works on board and paper.

It is a body of work which shows great artistic license and freedom of expression, reflecting the spontaneity engendered by Naffouj's encouragement of Moudarres to experiment freely and informally in his atelier. As an organically built single owner collection, it is a powerful testament to of Moudarres' immense talent.

Provenance:
Property from the collection of Dr Jawdat Naffouj
Acquired directly from the artist in 1978

The present work embodies all of the prominent features of Moudarres oeuvre: use of rich, earthly, ochre hues characterizing the rural palette of his native Syria, depictions of totemic, angular figures recalling the art of primitive Mesopotamia, and huddled, familial groups, clinging to each other with a mixture of affection and anxiety.

Moudarres has been broadly classified as a painter within the expressionist tradition, accordingly, his mysterious figurative depictions are animated almost entirely by subjective experiences and esoteric perceptions of his natural environment.

The product of a fragmented family, Moudarres' yearning for domestic fulfilment is writ large in his works, which often revolve around sympathetic depictions of family units closely clustered together. Moudarres' sentiments are channelled through the aesthetic of ancient Mesopotamian reliefs and Neolithic statuary, an apt visual language given early arts fixation on the primitive subject matters of fertility, vitality and tribal solidarity.

The present work was painted in the atelier of the Naffouj gallery in 1978. Its liberal application of paint gives it a tactile and almost gestural quality. In place of Moudarres' usually crowded canvases, this is notable in its figurative economy and portrays only a single family unit, an orientation which is both potent and direct.

Vibrant, lyrical and exemplary, the present work demonstrates the expressive finesse characteristic of Moudarres' oeuvre.