Thursday, October 28, 2010
Children of War Children Of Peace - Farhat Art Museum
After the 2006 Israeli attack on the following territories of Lebanon, South Lebanon, Dahiyah Disctrict of South Beirut, and Baalbak, the Farhat Art Museum was able to obtain a collection of over two hundred drawings done by children from the devastated areas. The children's ages were varied from age six to fourteen. The objective of those drawings was to allow the children of disasters to express their post- traumatic feelings. Those images were saturated with pure imagination and honesty. The end result were some very powerful images that not even modern masters could copy.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Adnan Al Masri Art By Naim Farhat
A month to this date 6 /7 /2010. The art world and community of Arab artists lost one of their most accomplished and devoted Lebanese artists of the 20th and 21st century, Mr. Andan Al-Masri is one of the few Arab artists who created Arab/Islamic art that is enjoyed and appreciated by all members of humanity. His art i...s universal, bridges the Optical Art of the west and the Arabic calligraphy of the east. His unique compositions and integration of conceptual intent insure his place in history, both by art historians and critiques alike.
My first introduction to Mr Adnan Al-Masri was in 2003 after I acquired the Khaim collection. A call was put out to artists for artwork that commemorated and celebrated the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon . Adnan Al-Masri was one of the first artists to answer the call. Adnan Al-Masri’s art glorifies the strength of the Lebanese resistance and the endurance of the southern Lebanese people. His paintings are statements about the infinite nature of self sacrifice and generosity for the sake of others, be it the nation or humanity.
The majority of Adnan Al-Masri’s paintings incorporate optical illusions comprised of broken geometric shapes interrupted by straight lines. This technique creates the illusion of looking through a broken mirror at pieces of a puzzle comprised of segments of Arabic words and letters. In reality the imagery is impossible to decipher, initially creating a sense of confusion and frustration.
Adnan developed his own school of thought that combines aspects of Sufism and Greek philosophy. Adnan’s concepts are rooted in Greek philosophy and the school of Greek thought. His imagery is inspired by Plato’s writings pertaining to shadows and light and the true reality of man. Reality is not the physical body, but rather the higher form that is independent of the body, id (I) and self.
His interest in Sufism is reflected in his use of repetitive geometric shapes that create the illusion of a whirling Dervish. The purpose of the dance is to attain higher consciousness, and purifying the soul with the use of repetitive, circular motions. Anan’s work is not only pleasing to eye, it is equally pleasing to the intellect and spirit. His paintings are reminiscent of great jazz masterpieces by Miles Davis. His art crosses cultural boundaries, yet remains true to his origin.
Adnan Al-Masri was a very well mannered man from the old school of Arab culture. He was a fine example of the beauty and importance of Arab hospitality and tradition, dress and culture. He remained Secular Humanist throughout his life. During his adult years he lived through two civil wars, the first in 1958 and the second in 1974. Both wars were based on religious ideological descent and were supported by the west. He repeatedly articulated his love for his country and people, and his desire for the Lebanese people to unite. He repeatedly said, “ Lebanon is for everyone who calls his or her self Lebanese.”
Adnan Al-Masri’s presence will be greatly missed. He remains in our hearts and lives through his art.
Naim I Farhat
My first introduction to Mr Adnan Al-Masri was in 2003 after I acquired the Khaim collection. A call was put out to artists for artwork that commemorated and celebrated the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon . Adnan Al-Masri was one of the first artists to answer the call. Adnan Al-Masri’s art glorifies the strength of the Lebanese resistance and the endurance of the southern Lebanese people. His paintings are statements about the infinite nature of self sacrifice and generosity for the sake of others, be it the nation or humanity.
The majority of Adnan Al-Masri’s paintings incorporate optical illusions comprised of broken geometric shapes interrupted by straight lines. This technique creates the illusion of looking through a broken mirror at pieces of a puzzle comprised of segments of Arabic words and letters. In reality the imagery is impossible to decipher, initially creating a sense of confusion and frustration.
Adnan developed his own school of thought that combines aspects of Sufism and Greek philosophy. Adnan’s concepts are rooted in Greek philosophy and the school of Greek thought. His imagery is inspired by Plato’s writings pertaining to shadows and light and the true reality of man. Reality is not the physical body, but rather the higher form that is independent of the body, id (I) and self.
His interest in Sufism is reflected in his use of repetitive geometric shapes that create the illusion of a whirling Dervish. The purpose of the dance is to attain higher consciousness, and purifying the soul with the use of repetitive, circular motions. Anan’s work is not only pleasing to eye, it is equally pleasing to the intellect and spirit. His paintings are reminiscent of great jazz masterpieces by Miles Davis. His art crosses cultural boundaries, yet remains true to his origin.
Adnan Al-Masri was a very well mannered man from the old school of Arab culture. He was a fine example of the beauty and importance of Arab hospitality and tradition, dress and culture. He remained Secular Humanist throughout his life. During his adult years he lived through two civil wars, the first in 1958 and the second in 1974. Both wars were based on religious ideological descent and were supported by the west. He repeatedly articulated his love for his country and people, and his desire for the Lebanese people to unite. He repeatedly said, “ Lebanon is for everyone who calls his or her self Lebanese.”
Adnan Al-Masri’s presence will be greatly missed. He remains in our hearts and lives through his art.
Naim I Farhat
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Jafaar Al-Dechti
During his stay in Khaim he produced five artworks.His largest piece, entitled " The Myrtle's Journey", it is 200x200cm landscape oil on canvas.The composition divided into three parts, the land, the horizon, and a dominant white sky with blue clouds.
The Myrtle's Journey depicts the death of a young man who losses his life to the soil where he is burred. The foreground , middle ground and back ground are divided into a zigzag composition. The viewer's eye is directed firstly to the body of the Myrtle, the the grave yard, the olive threes of south Lebanon, towards the horizon, to the dove "the message of peace". and ultimately into the open sky which leads to the heavens. The journey of the Myrtle is long and exhausting, just as is war. The artist Jaffar Al-Dechti presents his painting to us in the name of all the Lebanese people who where killed during times of war in Lebanon.
The artist Jaffar Al-Dechti presents his painting to us in the name of all the Lebanese people who where killed during times of war in Lebanon.
http://www.farhatartmuseum.info
Naim Farhat
Omran Al-Kaysi
Born 1943 to a Lebanese mother and an Iraqi Father, Omran Al-Kaysi,is one of the well known artists, historian, and art critics in and around the Leventine and the Gulf countries. He is published in many art magazine and newspapers. He has exhibited in Montreal, Baghdad, Amman, Madrid, and London. He also participated in many group exhibitions as well as being one of the main organizers for the 2002 Khiam symposium in Southern Lebanon.
In his painting," The Wounded Lion of Babylon" Omran Al-Kaysi shows the inflicted wounds of the lion by three spears, each of which represents three separate wars which occurred within the last three decades in Iraq. The first spear represents the Iraq-Iranian war during the 1980's which left millions of people destitute and hundreds of thousands of casualties on both sides. The second war in which Saddam Hussein violated and raped the sovereignty of Kuwait during which time Iraq was forcefully withdrawn from Kuwait and the American Air force bombed the the defeated army of Saddam Hussein, killing many of the Iraqi soldiers who by then were weak and defeated, to create one of the worst massacres in the history of Iraq which was later called, " the highway of death". For the second time Baghdad was bombed under the orders from George H. Bush Sr. The third war came after the embargo and sanctions were imposed on the Iraqi people for over a decade and again Baghdad was bombed on the false pretense that Saddam Hussein was holding weapons of mass destruction and collaborating with Al-QED. This mission was accomplished by George W. Bush Jr. "It took thirty years for Henry Kissinger's vision to become a reality in controlling Iraq.
The three spears symbolize the three wars for the last three decades. It will take Iraq over a century to regain it's strength and independence if and when the "roaring lion of Babylon" is able to survive and heal it's wounds from those wars.http://www.bible-history.c
Solidarity with Lebanon
. This was the George Bush's plan for the "New Middle East Map". This was Israel's second attempt since 1982. The end result being heavy civilian casualties and great destruction to Lebanon's infrastructure. Lebanese artists along with other artists from various different regions within the Middle East stood in solidarity with the Lebanese people. Within this album you will find groups of artists who put their easels within the midst of the rubble left behind by the Israeli's destruction in defiance to the violence..
http://www.farhatartmuseum.info
Naim Farhat
Fatima Al-Hajj
I like Fatima's work for being a reflection of her personality. It is very colorful and full of life but also very unpredictable and full of surprises. The Farhat Art Museum is very pleased to have acquired two paintings, the first one was part of the Khaim collection and the second was from the artist's private collection, titled, " Al-Oud player in the Garden" It was a great addition to the Farhat Art Museum due to its Arabesque composition. This painting reminds you of Fayrouz singing " Mowachahat Andalucia".
Many believe that Fatima Al-Hajj is influenced by the artist, Marc Chagall or other French impressionists. But I will leave this concept to the artist to provide this impression on the viewer.
http://www.farhatartmuseum.info
Naim Farhat
Abbas Al-Kathem
In 2002 after the Israeli withdrawal from Southern Lebanon, fifty world re-known Middle Eastern artists accepted the Lebanese people's request to commemorate their defeat against the two decade occupation of Southern Lebanon by the Israeli army. This commemoration was part of the healing
process for the people of Southern Lebanon. In doing so the Lebanese people were able to turn a negative experience into a positive.
Among the artists from Iraq were Omran Al-Kaysi, Himet Mohamed Ali, and Abbas Al-Kathem who was the only one whose conceptual work was destroyed by the same army which occupied Lebanon.
Abbas Al-Kathem was born in Baghdad in 1954. He studied art in the Fine Art Institute of Baghdad and also in Rome, Italy during 1976-1978. He organized an art show titled, Voices Among Us and between 1994 and 1995 he worked as a director for Decorative Art (The Global Village), which consisted of voluntary work etc. and the list goes on.
Abbas Al-Kathem is one of the many Iraqi artist who still lives in exile after fleeing Saddam Hussein's regime and adopted Denmark as his second homeland.
Abbas Al-Kathem's work stood out from other art work due to the fact that it was a conceptual work created by utilizing the Khan Prison sun-room where the prisoners were able to see and feel the daylight. By doing this Al-Kathem took two elements and added these to the empty space in the sun-room. To do this AL-Kathem set two rows of prison cots and aligned them in the center of the room, then constructed a soldier's shadow by using cloth laying flat on the room's cage wires, which gives the viewer the sense that the Israeli soldier is monitoring from above. By omitting the prisoners in the artwork, Al-Kathem give the artwork an eerie feeling. Despite the fact that the artwork was destroyed along with the Khiam prison in 2006 by the Israeli Defense Force, the work will remain immeded in the everyone's heart and mind for eternity and this is what makes this artwork a masterpiece.
note: The Farhat Art Museum Collection started with the Khiam Collectionhttp://www.farhatartmuseum.info
Naim Farhat
Ian Everard
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Naim Farhat
Youssef Ghazawi
Yousif Ghazawi is one of the few artists that I had the chance to
meet in person. He was part of the group artists who painted in the Khaim (Kheyyam) prison. He has a personality that is full of optimism and life; when you speak to him for the first time you will not know that he had lost his entire personal live art. during the three separate Israeli attacks on Lebanon at which time his studios were distroyed in two different places, once in his home town Khaim ( Kheyyam ) in the south of Lebanon and twice in the Dahiyah district of Beirut. The last one was in the 2006 Israeli attack on Lebanon. His entire studio was turned into rubles. but then he insisted on trying to salvage what he could of his collection of his art from underneath the ruble. It was a very moving experience to see Yousef and his wife Suzanne, who is also an artist, collecting their life creation in pieces right after the dust had saddled, They collected their work with the fear of not knowing when IDF would return with more bombing.
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later that year, the salvaged work was exhibited in the UNESCO Palace in Beirut. The paintings were exhibited without any restoration in the same condition as they were pulled from the rubble .
When I asked him for a price on some of the work that was shown, he looked at me and with wondering expression in his eyes and a smile on his face as if some one has taken a pride in taken a hit and was able to stand up shortly after. He said to me, "my work now is worth more than ever. It is an art that was subjected to violence, this art was under the rubbles with out a reason. My art was destroyed because of the arrogance of the west and he continued by asking "how much value can one put on art that was destroyed by the Western arrogance when that art spoke about Western art.
Ghazawi's work deals with the concept of presenting an issue of new idea by making a fresh work out of an old well known artwork by a well known artist. from the history of art he takes a composition and gives it a new and modern approach by simply making small changes in his interpretation, of the piece to fit our contemporary time. It is a concept was used before by different artists as paying homage to previous masters
The artist Yousef Ghazawi, his wife Suzanne Shakaroun and nine other Lebanese artists had lost their art to the Israeli attack of the year 2006. The Farhat art Museum has acquired his large mural from the Kheyyam prison symposium in the year 2003... luckily the same work was not in the Khaim prison during the 2006 Israeli bombing of the site.
http://www.farhatartmuseum.info meet in person. He was part of the group artists who painted in the Khaim (Kheyyam) prison. He has a personality that is full of optimism and life; when you speak to him for the first time you will not know that he had lost his entire personal live art. during the three separate Israeli attacks on Lebanon at which time his studios were distroyed in two different places, once in his home town Khaim ( Kheyyam ) in the south of Lebanon and twice in the Dahiyah district of Beirut. The last one was in the 2006 Israeli attack on Lebanon. His entire studio was turned into rubles. but then he insisted on trying to salvage what he could of his collection of his art from underneath the ruble. It was a very moving experience to see Yousef and his wife Suzanne, who is also an artist, collecting their life creation in pieces right after the dust had saddled, They collected their work with the fear of not knowing when IDF would return with more bombing.
.
later that year, the salvaged work was exhibited in the UNESCO Palace in Beirut. The paintings were exhibited without any restoration in the same condition as they were pulled from the rubble .
When I asked him for a price on some of the work that was shown, he looked at me and with wondering expression in his eyes and a smile on his face as if some one has taken a pride in taken a hit and was able to stand up shortly after. He said to me, "my work now is worth more than ever. It is an art that was subjected to violence, this art was under the rubbles with out a reason. My art was destroyed because of the arrogance of the west and he continued by asking "how much value can one put on art that was destroyed by the Western arrogance when that art spoke about Western art.
Ghazawi's work deals with the concept of presenting an issue of new idea by making a fresh work out of an old well known artwork by a well known artist. from the history of art he takes a composition and gives it a new and modern approach by simply making small changes in his interpretation, of the piece to fit our contemporary time. It is a concept was used before by different artists as paying homage to previous masters
The artist Yousef Ghazawi, his wife Suzanne Shakaroun and nine other Lebanese artists had lost their art to the Israeli attack of the year 2006. The Farhat art Museum has acquired his large mural from the Kheyyam prison symposium in the year 2003... luckily the same work was not in the Khaim prison during the 2006 Israeli bombing of the site.
Naim Farhat
Abed Al-Rahim Salim
In the year 2002, Fifty artists accepted the Lebanese people invitation. They came to Lebanon with the hope in turning the negative experience into a positive one. It was twenty two years of occupation by Israel to the south of Lebanon. It had a long impacts and deeper scars in the mind and the souls of people in southern Lebanon .
When fifty artists from around the world and the Middle East came to "Kheyyam" Khaim prison, they came with a message and optimism, they were the pilgrimages who came to revive the spirit of the Lebanese people and make them feel as if they were just born yesterday and no pain from their past. After all the prison became a holy place which held thousands of children, women, sage, and young . They all were the victims of the Israeli aggregation and torture .
Among those artists who came to the south was Abed Al-Rahim Salim; He was born in United Arab Emirates 1955, Abed Al-Rahim studied Art in Cairo and he exhibited in many shows around the Arab World. In his large painting titled "The torturing chair ". oil on canvas 200x300 cm, Abed Al-Rahim was able to give us expressions of hunting images of nude bodies and people being tortured.
He divided the composition into three parts. A group of five bodies on the left facing away from the center. On the right of the composition he added two more nude bodies with an iron pole in the back ground.
The most important part of the painting is a very wide yellow space that symbolized the light coming through the window, here Abed Al-Rahhim placed another nude body who was blind folded and was seated on a red chair.
The red and the yellow colors are the two strong colors which balanced the composition and pulled the painting to the center. In doing this the artist didn't allow the viewing eye to wander and to leave the painting.
The artist was very successful in transforming the pain and the suffering from the torturing room in Khaim prison into his canvas. Those images of the Torturing Red Chair will stay implanted and inprinted in us as long as the story is being told to future generation though art , music and literature. Sadly enough similar images of the torturing rooms became a reality later in Abu Greab prison.
Naim Farhat
http://www.farhatartmuseum.info/
Hassan Massoudy
Creations from Hassan Massoudy are a subtle mix of present and past, oriental and occidental art, tradition and modernity. He perpetuates tradition while breaking from it. Over the years he has purified and simplified the lines of his drawing. The words and phrases he draws come from poets and writers from all over the world or sometimes simply from popular wisdom. All his work is strongly inspired by a humanistic interest. The emotion that one may feel looking at his calligraphies comes from the movement of the lines, their lightness, their transparency, the balance between black, white, emptiness and fullness, the concrete and the abstract.
From his training as a calligrapher in Iraq, Hassan Massoudy has kept the noble spirit of the craftsman who creates or invents his own tools and prepares his own inks.http://www.farhatartmuseum.info
Naim Farhat
Vanessa Stafford Naive Artist
Born in California in 1954, Vanessa Stafford is an artist I have had the privilege of getting to know as a friend and professional artist during the past two decades. She is one of the few naive artists whose work appeals to me. I collected her paintings because of their unique qualities and characteristics.
Her use of watercolor as a medium, pallet of bright colors and unique imagination initially have the appearance of illustrations for children's books. Upon closer inspection the conceptual reality of her work is revealed.
Venessa presents her ideas in the format of a story. The story is a reflection of her personal life experiences . In her painting titled, " The dream in the Jungle". Vanessa bases the imagery on a vision she saw in a dream. In her dream, she was sleeping soundly on a back of an Elephant surrounded by herbivores, a Giraffe on the left and lions on the right, in the middle of a jungle. In the dream, she talked to Saint Michael and he commanded her to reveal her soul to the others. After exposing herself to the herbivores, she was attacked by flying arrows eminating from all directions. The dream respresented her subconscious acceptance of vulnerability to attack by mean spirited people after being open.
Naim Farhat
http://www.farhatartmuseum.info
Mohamad El-Sadoun
Sadoun was born to a Shi'ite mother and a Sunni father, he was also educated in Baghdad during the Ba'ath party regime therefore he grew up to understand that Iraq was never a nation that was structured on the division between people according to their religious believes. Iraqis were divided as groups of Saddam's supporters or non supporters and Sadoun was the last group. The non supporter.
Like many Iraqis during Saddam's ruling Sadoun rejected the goverment and fled Iraq In 1989 to live in Spain and then Japan. Sadoun remembers from that period, Iraq with the Golden age of art when Iraq produced great artists like Shaqer Hassan and many others. He still until now weeps over the destruction of the ancient Babylon civilization and the looting of the Iraqi Museums before the eyes of the American troops and their Europeans Allies. "as if the west wanted Iraq to lose it's history and it's roots".
I believe he understands the magnitude of the destruction because he is an artist and an educator.
In his series of conceptual artworks " burning doors of Baghdad", Sadoun saw the Iraqi Iranian war as a " destruction of life". He also saw the burning doors of Baghdad as art with a very sad perception. He saw the doors before his eyes were burning when the Iranian bombed to his city.Again few years later history repeated itself with George Bush's believe that it is in the best interest of America and the world to remove Saddam Hussein. In the process Iraq was 'being destroyed' and still it is until now.
In an Arabic Culture doors are the only way to enter some ones sanctuary. They are the only Passages to the individuals world. It is everyone holy place. Therefore to have the doors burned down, it means that the whole existence of ones being is vanished.
To the credit of other artists, Robert Overby (1935 - 1993) a California artist has used doors in the 70's as an aesthetic objects in which he fund beauty in the old surface, the ruff structure and the pealed color of unwanted doors, but Sadoun used the doors to symbolize the distruction of a nation.
http://www.farhatartmuseum.info
Naim Farhat
Hilda Hiary
The Farhat Art Museum was able to acquire five of paintings from the Khiam Symposium and one part from the Jordanian mural which was done in solidarity with the Lebanese people against the destruction from the Israeli army attacks of 2006.
In "Prison Cells" Hilda Hiary reduces the human form to their spermatozoa form symbolically depicting the prisoners as in a laboratory test tube as mere lives without souls. By placing the prisoners within the long and very narrow passageways with confining cells on either sides, Hilda allows the viewer to see and feel the degrading treatment by the Israeli soldiers against the Lebanese prisoners held within the confines of their incarceration.
http://www.farhatartmuseum
Naim Farhat
Salih Abu Shandi / Jordanian Artist
devastation of Lebanon is 140x100 cm oil on canvas.
In the summer of 2007, I was introduced by another figurative Arab artist "Adnan Yahya" to Salih Abu Shandi, who is one of the finest people I have met on my trip to Amman Jordon. I was taken to his modest apartment in the outskirts of Amman to see some of his art .
His work was unusual from what one would expect from an artist working in the Arab world. It has a very distinctive style that can only be found in the Indian art school. His figurative work has the influence of the Indian modern masters. It was very refreshing to see a different style of artwork from "Alfan Altashqili".
Later on, I was able to acquire his painting devastation of Lebanon as part of the Jordanian Mural that was added to the Museum Collection. In this Mural, sixty artists from Amman contributed sixty artworks in solidarity with the Lebanese, and in protest against Israeli aggression on Lebanese soil and their deliberate attacks on civilian targets.
In his painting Abu Shandi used the warm colors in his pallete. He also used the surface of the canvas as a sheet of paper to write his story telling of the Israeli attack on Lebanon. His words became symbols anyone can read. In the upper left of the composition he painted Israeli apache helicopters bombing the cities of Lebanon. In the middle of the destruction, Abu Shandy placed the ceder of Lebanon on the top of the rubble and underneath that he placed the stamp of the Zionist state - the of "Star of David" and right underneath the Apaches, he added the crescent, a symbol of a demolished mosque.
Naim Farhat
http://www.farhatartmuseum
Suheil Baqaeen
Suheil Baqaeen accepted the invitation from the Lebanese people to participate in the Khiam Symposium of the year 2002 as a celebration and commemorating turning point in the lives of the Southern Lebanese after twenty-two years of Isreli occupation to their land and lives.
Suhiel was among anothr forty-nine artists to participate in this historical event when the people of Lebanon wanted to turn the negative experience into a positive one through art and creativity. It is the highest form of self expression which any country can provide to it's highly esteemed artists in order to heal the deep wounds of the Israeli aggression.
When Suhiel was asked about his involvement in the symposium, he answered, "we came here to give a hundred percent of ourselves and to express in a truthful manner the severe hard reality of the Israeli presense in the south of Lebanon.
The Farhat Art Museum houses four of Al-Baqaeen paintings which were created on location at the Khiam prison and are part of the Khiam Collection.
In his abstract expressionist painting, "The Dream of Freedom" measuring 200X100cm, acrylic on canvas, Suhiel's use in his pallet of warm red, yellow and orange and his use of wide, fast brush strokes express the passionate feelings in the process of creating the composition as if he is participating in a Native American cerimonial sweat lodge event in which the use of intense heat and smoke are implemented to initiate the healing process of the accumulated twenty-two years of wounds inflicted upon thirty-six hundred incarcerated prisoners by the Israeli Army.
Naim Farhat
Monday, 06 September 2010
Brenda Louie Art
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| By Brenda Louie - Farhat Art Museum Collection |
Brenda N.Louie. In her statement Brenda expresses her own experience as an artist of two cultures and the effect that it has on her work.
As a person trained in two cultural traditions, I seek to demonstrate the uniqueness of cultural experience and to explore experiential similarities as an approach toward an artistic language. I use elements ancient Chinese hieroglyphs and writing in concert with modern western art theory. My goal is to transcend ethnic barriers through artistic expression. I intend to extend cultural experience through interpretation. I do not intend to dilute it through amalgamation.
My work attempts to illuminate a universal past by recreating it in the significant symbols of specific experience. In my early works, I introduced reinvented hieroglyphs as a symbolic medium in my paintings. These glyphs became unique icons, no longer meaningful in a linguistic context. I used repetitious writing over painting. The writing was repetitively destroyed, buried, excavated, and rewritten in a new interpretive form and context, yet essentially related to the prior form and context. This process and resulting images become a metaphor for the turbulent patterns of social and cultural change. My works make an affirmative statement concerning the ability to reconcile disparate cultural and aesthetic experiences.
In the recent works, "The Lotus Series", I started with an idea derived from and ancient poem entitled "The Voice of the Lotus Lover." In this writing, the nature of the Lotus is disclosed as a metaphor for a human of perfect character and integrity. I investigate the use of spontaneous free Chinese calligraphic brush strokes on a textual western canvas. I am influenced by Chinese calligraphic gestural movement. The works of Mark Tobey and Brice Marden have provided a validation in the free use Chinese writings. I am interested in an approach that once also fascinated Impressionists: the concept of light and color. I apply this through interaction with the nature of the metaphoric lotus.
I am intimately aware of the transformational possibilities of the Chinese characters. I am free to manipulate the forms into the desired effect that in my work always have a suggestive rather than a descriptive purpose.
Naim Farhat
http://www.farhatartmuseum
Adnan Yahya's Art By Naim Farhat
Jordan, being a fairly young country which was established in the early twentieth century by the British and was used as a pressure valve to ease the pressure in the shift of Palestinian refugees being forced out of their homeland and being relocated to make room for the influx of Zionist terrorism against the indigenous population of Palestine.
My first knowledge of Yahya as an artist was when I acquired the first of many of his paintings from the Made in Palestine traveling exhibition in 2004. Later on my visit to Amman, Jordan in 2007, I was able to make his acquaintance by visiting his home in the Um-Al-Thawarah district of Amman. After being introduced to all members of his very pleasant family. I was pleased to learn that two of his children are named after two historical Shi'ite religious figures, "Hamza and Jaafar" the other two named Naji, after the character artist, Naji Al-Ali and Omar, after a Sunni historical character. When asked regarding the names of his children he answered, " I have no division beliefs between Sunni and Shiites. The concept of division serves only the policy of colonization and that is what the "West" is trying to implant in the minds and hearts of the people around the Arab World which is what we see happening at this moment in Iraq, "the Sunni Triangle"
One cannot ignore, from close-up study of his work, to see that Adnan Yahya is an historical archivist who documents the history of his people through his paintings, sculptures and ceramics. He is most undoubtedly a new school of aesthetics who stands on his own, in his artistic ability and humanitarian thought.
Yahya treats his composition with a Post-Surrealist approach in which his subjects are magnified sculptures of deteriorated images of generals who represent the tyranny of the "Super Powers" frozen in the past time zone. It is only logical to visualize power as "statuary" because every powerful leader strives to build a large and larger monument which immortalizes their earthly existence on the expense of their own people or other people whom they have colonized. His use of insects, such as ants and cockroaches as symbols of soldiers who are transporting death, destruction and disaster from one place to another with disregard to life and humanity.
Farhat Art Museum highly encourages people with high respect to mankind to view in close-up his art exhibit at the Foresight Gallery in Amman, Jordan beginning October 13Th and running through the month of October.
Naim Farhat
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