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
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