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Lot 404

Fateh Moudarres
(Syria, 1922-1999)
Untitled

8 April 2014, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £11,875 inc. premium

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Fateh Moudarres (Syria, 1922-1999)

Untitled
acrylic on paper
signed "Moudarres" in English and dated "1975" (lower right), executed in 1975
35 x 50cm (13 3/4 x 19 11/16in).

Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from the collection of Dr Jawdat Naffouj
Acquired directly from the artist in 1975

The present work on paper is perhaps one of Moudarres most distinctive and unusual paintings. One of a set of four action paintings composed at the Naffouj atelier in 1975, the style and composition are unlike any works from Moudarres' oeuvre.

Exhibiting a radical freedom of touch and compositional economy, the present depiction is animated by the tension between gestural dynamism and anatomical restraint. In it, a pose that seemingly exudes mobility and energy also appears contorted, vulnerable and abject.

This dualism compares interestingly with a set of sketches by Francis Bacon in the early 1960's which were the artists only works ever executed on paper ( see Matthew Gale, 'Points of Departure', in Francis Bacon: Working on Paper, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1999, pp.29-30). In them, Bacon depicted boxers and athletes in "states of collapse", through depicting fragility and helplessness in what are considered the most strong and durable of people, Bacon heightens the sense of inexorable feebleness that he held characterized the human condition.

Moudarres' portrayal, similarly, has a cowering, inhibited configuration. Fetal and recoiled, it recalls the primitive, Neolithic representations that Moudarres was so inspired by. Nimbly rendered, Moudarres rhythmic strokes exhibit a perfunctory freedom that belies their honed and skilful execution. Empathetic and deeply humane, the present work deftly demonstrates the unnerving transience and vulnerability that underlies human existence.

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