RED
acrylic and plaster on canvas
130 x 130cm; 51 1/4 x 51 1/4in
140.5 x 140.5cm; 55 1/2 x 55 1/2in (framed)

Property of a Lady, Berkshire

Provenance
Hadba Nizar Kabbani (acquired from the artist)
Thence by descent to the present owner

"Beyond artistic exploration, I search for the soul" – Nazir Nabaa

A rare shift away from Nazir Nabaa's figurative works, the present work is a display of unwavering colour and texture. Built on a plaster foundation, the painting alludes to a structure or wall, bleeding with an abstract fusion of red hues. The colour pervasive is in the artist's work and escalates alongside his shift towards socio-political tensions in the Middle East as subject matter. Like many 20th Century artists before him who have used abstract modes of representation to express the inexpressable and paradoxical, the work balances a feeling of expansion through its engulfing colour and large scale with the obstruction of its physical surface.

Nabaa was born in Damascus and studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo, graduating in 1965. His extensive body of work spans a variety of subjects, from portrayals of Arab women to abstracted portraiture, still lifes, and politically-charged posters. Fascinated by texture and detail, his paintings reflect a commitment to artistic research developed whilst at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (from which he graduated in 1974). He was later a professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus, receiving the National Garter in 2006.

Deeply influenced by the Palestinian crisis, the Lebanese Civil War, and the American invasion of Iraq, Nabaa’s work has been showcased in major institutions, including the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, and he was honored with the Judges Panel Award at the Biennials of Alexandria and Cairo. Today, his paintings are held in esteemed collections such as the Jalanbo Collection, Barjeel Art Foundation, and Dalloul Art Foundation.