A Century in Flux - photos
Highlights from the Barjeel Art Foundation. Sharjah Art Museum, UAE, 12 May 2018 - 31 May 2023. Curators: Salwa Mikdadi, Mandy Merzaban, Karim Sultan.
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A Wolf Howls: Memories of a Poet, 1968
Oil on canvas
84 x 104 cm
Dia Azzawi
Born 1939, Baghdad, Iraq
Lives and works in London, UK
(…) It is a haunting figural composition featuring a patchwork of electric colours set against a darkened background. This work is based on an unpublished poem by the Communist poet Muzaffar Al Nawab that narrates the story of a mother who lost her son during the aftermath of the Ba’ath coup. The male figure, lying on the ground with his hands raised upwards to the sky, cowed over by an abstracted wild animal and a female figure in the foreground whose large, hollow black eyes suggest the fear and sorrow of loss. Detached from direct historical reference, the painting underscores a timeless representation of injustice and violence.
From a text by Sarah Rogers, Karim Sultan, Mandy Merzaban, and Suheyla Takesh
© Photo: Courtesy of Barjeel Art Foundation
Highlights from the Barjeel Art Foundation. Sharjah Art Museum, UAE, 12 May 2018 - 31 May 2023. Curators: Salwa Mikdadi, Mandy Merzaban, Karim Sultan.