
Noor Soussi
Head of Department
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£18,000 - £25,000
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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 powerful diptych is one of AbdulRahim Sharif's many portraits executed in 2000, following a trip to the USA. Although many were of musicians, specifically from Chicago's jazz scene, he often painted self-portraits depicting himself with a hat and cigar. This painting shows no cigar, but the hat suggests that the image may be of the artist. With the figure's face emerging in low light from an otherwise dark canvas, this portrait echoes themes of stoic alienation and loneliness found in much of Sharif's earlier work, with a mysterious, raw emotion emanating from the vacant, muted stare of the subject and his dark surrounding environment.
-Mysa Kafil-Hussain
Please note that this work is oil on canvas and not acrylic on canvas.