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Lot 48^*,TP

Marwan Sahmarani
(Lebanese, born Lebanon 1970)
The War of August 22-28

Amended

Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art

26 April 2017, 15:00 BST

London, New Bond Street

Sold for £18,750 inc. premium

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Marwan Sahmarani (Lebanese, born Lebanon 1970)

The War of August 22-28
mixed media, acrylic, fabric and collage on paper, framed
signed "Sahmarani" and dated "06" (lower right), executed in 2006
203 x 149cm (79 15/16 x 58 11/16in).

Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from a private collection, Switzerland

Exhibited:
Dubai, The Third Line Gallery, Can You Teach Me How to Fight?, 2007

Marwan Sahmarani's vibrant, epic, and monumental mixed media work recalls the murals and illuminated manuscripts of the Medieval Islamic world and their grand depictions of the bloody territorial conflicts that marred the history of the region. Painted while the artist was escaping the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the work is an amalgam of contemporary and historical notions of war and conflict, contextualizing a recent battle within a historical fabric which has long been embittered with bloodshed and unrest.

The most captivating element of the present composition, however, is not immediately noticeable; amidst the melee a brown faced figure looks on perplexed, his neck lodged in the vice-like grip of another soldier. This figure is none other than the artist himself; by stepping into the composition, he not only ceases to be an observer, but by placing himself in the historical landscape of the battles that have scarred the Middle East, he reminds us that not only is he the present victim of conflict, but also the product of a society whose citizens perpetually bear the scars of a society tainted by centuries of war.

A winner of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize, Marwan Sahamrani spends half the year in Beirut and the other half in the small Mediterranean mountain village of Tarbena, Spain, which his work reflects. His textured paintings have abstract, expressionist tendencies but are rooted in the early traditions of landscape painting. He draws heavy inspiration from Picasso's Guernica, a painting that is particularly close to his heart; Sahmarani sees it as representing an analogous situation to the violence he has witnessed throughout his life in Lebanon. "My work is another way of seeing the reality of the region," he says.

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