
Noor Soussi
Head of Department
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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
With a wide selection of distinguished Libyan artist Bashir Hammouda's artistic oeuvre in this collection, AbdulMagid Breish was drawn to the painter's vivid expressionist, and especially cubist, compositions. Ranging from still lifes of everyday items, such as plants, food, and other objects, to cityscapes as well as figurative depictions of both men and women, Hammouda's attention to detail is remarkable. His colour palettes vary, but he tends towards strong purples, reds, blues and yellows, for much of his abstract work, whereas his paintings of flowers and plants, and also of food, tend to be in more subdued, realistic tones. His masterful execution of light and shadow can be seen in The Cactus (2001), Sempiternal Companionship (2007) and City (2006). His more experimental works, such as Reproach (2012), Model (1973) and The Prisoner (2012), were inspired by modern European movements during his time spent studying in both Italy in the early 1970s and later in Hungary (when he painted Budapest in 1987). These influences brought a completely different approach to his work and, after he returned to Tripoli and became a teacher, undoubtedly inspired other artists, and perhaps modern Libyan art in general. Whilst his subjects are not necessarily steeped in Libyan or Arab or African culture and heritage, Hammouda's visual creativity is sparked by the simplicity of the world around him, whether the evening light hitting a man's face, the intricacy of the architecture in a cityscape, the colours of a plate of food or the texture in an everyday pot plant.
-Mysa Kafil-Hussain