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Lot 122*
Ibrahim El-Salahi(Sudan, born 1930)I walk in the night with sleepy eyes closed
12 October 2023, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £15,360 inc. premium
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Ibrahim El-Salahi (Sudan, born 1930)
I walk in the night with sleepy eyes closed
signed 'Salahi' (lower right); inscribed '27' (crossed out)/ 'No, 22'/ "Series F"' (verso)
Indian ink on paper
19.5 x 41cm (7 11/16 x 16 1/8in).
Accompanied by an exhibition catalogue, 'Drawings: Ibrahim El Salahi', (Mbari Publications Ibadan, 1962)
signed 'Salahi' (lower right); inscribed '27' (crossed out)/ 'No, 22'/ "Series F"' (verso)
Indian ink on paper
19.5 x 41cm (7 11/16 x 16 1/8in).
Accompanied by an exhibition catalogue, 'Drawings: Ibrahim El Salahi', (Mbari Publications Ibadan, 1962)
Footnotes
Provenance
Bought directly from the artist 1963;
A private collection.
Calligraphic modernism is thematically central to Ibrahim El-Salahi's oeuvre, and indeed to this work. The artist uses text to bridge together his desire to create modern works and his heritage to draw the attention of traditionalists into his work. In the present work, the beautifully fluid lines displaying an abstracted almost animalistic figure are symptomatic of El-Salahi's most iconic works. Paired here with the Arabic sentence to the top of the work, translating to 'I walk in the night with sleepy eyes closed', we see the artist has conflated two forms of aestheticism.
"I said to myself, "Man, let us for a time forget about those archaic concepts of art for art's sake, and that unreal nonsense of the muse and the ivory tower recluse that we read about, and get down to work that might solve our problem."...I worked like mad, introduced Arabic writing and decorative patters in a corner of my works like a stamp on an envelope, and exhibited some of those works. People recognizing something that they were a bit familiar with, took note and came a bit closer. I gradually spread the lettering with symbols, words from the Qur'an and Sufi poetry over the surface of the picture, mixing it with figurative work. They came closer, showing a greater degree of interest."
El-Salahi was committed to the idea of a wider Muslim aesthetic, acquiring universalism through transnational modernism. During the era of decolonization, the introduction of Islamic discursive inclusion attempts to appeal to the wider community; endeavouring to formulate a sense of unification in modernity.
Bibliography
Salah M. Hassan, 'Ibrahim El-Salahi, A Visionary Modernist', (New York: Museum of African Art, 2012), p. 49.