Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 424

Moataz Nasr
(Egypt, born 1961)
El Thaher Wa El Baten (The Manifest and the Un-manifest)

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

Sold for £20,000 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Islamic and Indian Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

Moataz Nasr (Egypt, born 1961)

El Thaher Wa El Baten (The Manifest and the Un-manifest)
textile
signed and dated 2010 (on the reverse), number one from an edition of five
170 x 170cm (66 15/16 x 66 15/16in).

Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from a private collector, UK

Literature:
Simon Njami, Moataz Nasr: The Other Side of the Mirror, Gli Ori 2011, p. 83

Exhibited:
Dubai, Lawrie Shabibi, Moataz Nasr: Collision, 2013

London, Selma Feriani Gallery, Moataz Nasr: In a Nutshell, 2011

In El Thaher Wa El baten (The Manifest and the Un-manifest), the artist uses the Arab form of the word Elhob ('love'), this is executed in the distinct style of old Egyptian tent hangings.

This work brings together two art forms central to the Arab world: the high art of traditional Arabic calligraphy and the popular art of patchwork tapestry making. Through his careful choice of composition, medium and execution, Nasr reveals several layers of meaning. The radial symmetry of the individual words repeated multiple times, reflects both a sense of unity in multiplicity and circularity. What seems at first to be two layers of wording, a contrast between the white lettering of the upper layer over apparently dark grey lettering, is in fact an illusion. The 'grey' letters are themselves white, partially screened by a black veil that separates the two layers.

The works themselves are produced in the "Khayemeya" district, in a technique familiar to any visitor to Cairo. Based around Bab Al-Futuh, an endangered medieval area of Cairo, originally the Tent Makers produced the geometric patchwork hangings that decorated Bedouin tents- now mainly used for special occasions, and these days survive making cushion covers and bedspreads for the tourist market.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

Francis Newton Souza(India, 1924-2002)Untitled (Head)