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Eclectic Wonders: The Collection of Timothy Egert

6^* — Louay Kayyali (Syria, 1934-1978) The Young Lovers (Al Ashiqan Al Saghiran)

£50,000 - £80,000

7^* — Naim Ismail (Syria, 1930-1979) Hayy ibn Yaqzan (Alive, son of Awake)

£40,000 - £60,000

8^* — Saliba Douaihy (Lebanon, 1915-1994) Mar Gerges Church, Ehden

£20,000 - £30,000

9^* — Jewad Selim (Iraq, 1919-1961) Still life with Statuette

£50,000 - £80,000

10^* — Mamdouh Kashlan (Syria, 1929-2022) Before The Light Fades (Kabl An Yazoul Al Djaw)

£12,000 - £15,000

Property from the Artist's Estate

11 — Mahmoud Sabri (Iraq, 1927-2012) Study of a Rural Family

£15,000 - £25,000

Property from the Artist's Estate

12 — Mahmoud Sabri (Iraq, 1927-2012) Mother and Child

£100,000 - £150,000

Property from the Artist's Estate

13 — Mahmoud Sabri (Iraq, 1927-2012) Public Bath

£40,000 - £60,000

Property from the Artist's Estate

14 — Mahmoud Sabri (Iraq, 1927-2012) H20 + AG + AiR (From the Quantum Realism Series)

£50,000 - £80,000

15^* — Sliman Mansour (Palestine, born 1947) Woman From Bethlehem

£60,000 - £80,000

16^* — Etel Adnan (Lebanon, 1925-2021) Belles Creatures

£60,000 - £80,000

17^* — Saloua Raouda Choucair (Lebanon, 1916-2017) Untitled (from the Repetitive Dual series)

£30,000 - £50,000

18^*,AR — Chaouki Choukini (Lebanon, born 1946) Equation Existentielle

£30,000 - £40,000

19^AR — Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq, born 1939) Al Shamr

£40,000 - £60,000

Property from the collection of the late George Touma Yacoub

20^AR — Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq, born 1939) Arabic Image II

£30,000 - £50,000

Property from the collection of the late George Touma Yacoub

21^AR — Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq, born 1939) Drawings Consecrated to Love

£4,000 - £6,000

Property from the collection of the late George Touma Yacoub

22^AR — Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq, born 1939) Horse

£4,000 - £6,000

Property from the collection of the late George Touma Yacoub

23^AR — Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq, born 1939) Composition

£4,000 - £6,000

Property from the collection of the late George Touma Yacoub

24^AR — Shafic Abboud (Lebanon, 1926-2004) Le Cafe a Gien

£2,000 - £3,000

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Lot 32

Mustafa Al Hallaj
(Palestine, 1938-2002)
Self-Portrait

Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art

26 April 2017, 15:00 BST

London, New Bond Street

Sold for £8,750 inc. premium

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Mustafa Al Hallaj (Palestine, 1938-2002)

Self-Portrait
oil on paper, framed
signed "Al Hallaj" dated "5/9 Sham (Syria)" and inscribed "age 45" in Arabic (lower right), executed in 1983
40 x 30cm (15 3/4 x 11 13/16in).

Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from the collection of Georges El-Zeenny

Mustafa Al-Hallaj is one of the most renowned Palestinian artists of the twentieth century. In this intimate, transfixing Self-Portrait we are confronted with the artist in all his intensity; an almost aggressive, hostile gaze and rough hardened features articulate a portrait which is rumored was composed after the artist injured himself. As an activist and political revolutionary, the depiction perfectly captures the spirit of rebellion which characterized the Hallaj's life.

Al-Hallaj was born in Salame, Jaffa, in 1938. After the 1948 Nakba, he ended up with his family in Damascus, where he studied Sculpture at the College of Fine Arts in Cairo. He attended the Luxor Atelier for Postgraduate Studies. His repertoire includes paintings, graphics, murals, illustrations, cover designs and etchings. Al-Hallaj was specialized in graphic art and sculpture and was called by some critics "an icon of contemporary Arab graphic arts".

He lived in Beirut and Damascus, and contributed to define "fan al-muqawama" (the art of resistance). He lost 25,000 of his prints in the Israeli attacks on Beirut in 1982 but managed to save the wood and masonry cuts he used to make them.

Al-Hallaj won several local and international awards and prizes. He died in Dec. 2002 in Damascus, while trying to rescue his works from a fire that destroyed his studio. He was buried in Al-Yarmouk Refugee Camp, Damascus.

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- Modern & Contemporary Middle Eastern Art