
Noor Soussi
Head of Department
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Sold for £51,200 inc. premium
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Head of Department

Group Head
Provenance:
Property from the collection of AbdulMagid Breish, London
Published:
Louisa Macmillan, Mysa Kafil-Hussain et others, In Vested Interests: from Passion to Patronage, The AbdulMagid Breish Collection of Arab Art, Skira, Milan, 2020
This large painting from Dia Al-Azzawi's Land of Darkness series, a painful portrait of the human cost of war, is a bleak, beautifully simple and almost silent ode to the fallen. Wrong Target shows a bicycle, overlaid with young legs still in position to ride away, at the moment of being attacked by occupying forces: mere collateral damage. The strike causes an explosion, marked with roaring shapes and overwhelming energy, enveloping the child on their bicycle. Even if they have somehow survived this onslaught, they will be scarred by the destruction of their childhood, lost to the legacy of war. Despite the limitations of the monochrome palette, the pain, shock and solemn emptiness can be felt through the black, white and grey, in a time when it truly felt like Iraq was stripped of its colour.
- Mysa Kafil-Hussain