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Lot Essay
'I address things like the moment when the statue of Saddam fell not at that time but five years later - I just finished this painting a month ago. It took me that long to absorb and process what had happened. I've been living with these moments all these years. This is what I mean when I say my work is not about documentation. I'm addressing things that happened in the past but you can feel the present in them. And Im not just commenting on Iraq but on experience that becomes universal' (A. Alsoudani, quoted in R. Goff, 'Ahmed Alsoudani in Conversation with Robert Goff', pp. 59-62, Ahmed Alsoudani, exh. cat., New York, 2009, p. 62)
'I'm not trying to make "war paintings", but paintings about war. I'm more interested in depicting the effects of war on people who live under these circumstances. So generally I don't show actual battle scenes in which there are soldiers, or fighting weapons. Ive been in the unique and painful situation of observing the war and being in the U.S. while my family remains in Baghdad. I'm away physically but I talk to my family very often, so I feel caught in between. This state of being "between" two places and two worlds allows me to see and hear things from a different point of view' (A. Alsoudani quoted in R. Goff, 'Ahmed Alsoudani in Conversation with Robert Goff', pp. 59-62, Ahmed Alsoudani, exh. cat., New York, 2009, p. 61).
With incredible force and dynamism, semi-abstract forms which teeter on the brink of recognition hurtle across the two panels that form the vast surface of Baghdad I. Painted in 2008, this important picture is one of only a handful of Alsoudani's works which bears a title, a notable exception which points to his memories and feelings of the conflict that has torn apart and scarred his native Baghdad. In this striking image, which is filled with vibrant detail and with an incredibly visceral surface, the painting is dominated by a toppling monumental form which recalls the famous images of statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled over. Baghdad I explores and crystallises many of the mixed emotions Alsoudani has felt as an artist occupying a space he describes as 'between': he lives in exile from his home in Iraq, and instead is based in the United States of America, the country responsible for some of the destruction that he viewed on his television during the invasion by Allied Forces in 2003. Where in some paintings, Alsoudani has avoided bestowing a title so as not to limit readings of his work, it is a mark of the incredible profundity of his feelings for his home country that he has made a rare exception here. He is referring explicitly to the homeland that he had to flee in 1995 after he had defaced a public image of Saddam Hussein.
After living hand to mouth in exile in Syria, Alsoudani arrived in the United States, where he became an artist, studying first at Maine College of Art and then at the Yale University School of Art. There, exposed to the teachings of living artists and the precedents of many older ones, Alsoudani developed the unique visual style which helps, alongside its scale, to lend Baghdad I its visual impact. As we cast our eyes across the bustling surface of Baghdad I, the explosive energy of the composition becomes clear, tapping into the theme of conflict which has long driven Alsoudani. He has captured it through glyphs and ciphers that sometimes elude a clear and simple reading. These have been rendered in a variety of means. In some places, layers of acrylic have been applied, reaching an almost lacquer-like finish, while in other areas, the canvas itself appears visible, with underdrawing peeking through, adding a mirage-like ephemerality to this searing vision.
In terms of those techniques, with the subject matter veering into and out of tangible form, and of his semi-abstracted subject matter, Alsoudani shows a similar approach to the paintings from the highpoint of the career of Arshile Gorky, another artist who found himself in exile in the United States and pining for home. However, while Gorky's works are suffused with nostalgia as he tries to goad his memories back into existence through the forms that coalesce on his canvases, Alsoudani has none of that misty-eyed sentimentality. Instead, his painting is an indictment of violence, a lament like Goya's Horrors of War, Pablo Picasso's Guernica or Joan Miró's Le coq of 1940, so reminiscent of the spectral, fragmented image of the cockerel in Baghdad I. Other elements caught up in this tornado-like composition appear architectural and domestic, for instance the stool-like table in the background which appears to be topped with a vase and flowers. However, those blooms coalesce into puffs of smoke, pointing towards the carnage that lies at the heart of the painting. The whirlwind of forms and colours that dominates the centre of this composition mingles what appear to be ruins with bloody chunks of flesh, providing a vivid image of collateral damage while also hinting at the way that the tyrant, as an institution, had woven himself into the very fabric of his nation, poisoning infrastructure and society alike from the top.
Because of his highly personal relationship to his subject matter, it has taken Alsoudani some years to be able to confront his own memories, experiences and feelings regarding the Gulf War. At the time, he had felt frustration at being obliged to watch footage of familiar landmarks in Baghdad as they were bombed from afar. It was only later that he was able to revisit the subject in works such as Baghdad I and some of its sister works - another pair of pictures, Baghdad 2 and Baghdad 3.
'I'm not trying to make "war paintings", but paintings about war. I'm more interested in depicting the effects of war on people who live under these circumstances. So generally I don't show actual battle scenes in which there are soldiers, or fighting weapons. Ive been in the unique and painful situation of observing the war and being in the U.S. while my family remains in Baghdad. I'm away physically but I talk to my family very often, so I feel caught in between. This state of being "between" two places and two worlds allows me to see and hear things from a different point of view' (A. Alsoudani quoted in R. Goff, 'Ahmed Alsoudani in Conversation with Robert Goff', pp. 59-62, Ahmed Alsoudani, exh. cat., New York, 2009, p. 61).
With incredible force and dynamism, semi-abstract forms which teeter on the brink of recognition hurtle across the two panels that form the vast surface of Baghdad I. Painted in 2008, this important picture is one of only a handful of Alsoudani's works which bears a title, a notable exception which points to his memories and feelings of the conflict that has torn apart and scarred his native Baghdad. In this striking image, which is filled with vibrant detail and with an incredibly visceral surface, the painting is dominated by a toppling monumental form which recalls the famous images of statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled over. Baghdad I explores and crystallises many of the mixed emotions Alsoudani has felt as an artist occupying a space he describes as 'between': he lives in exile from his home in Iraq, and instead is based in the United States of America, the country responsible for some of the destruction that he viewed on his television during the invasion by Allied Forces in 2003. Where in some paintings, Alsoudani has avoided bestowing a title so as not to limit readings of his work, it is a mark of the incredible profundity of his feelings for his home country that he has made a rare exception here. He is referring explicitly to the homeland that he had to flee in 1995 after he had defaced a public image of Saddam Hussein.
After living hand to mouth in exile in Syria, Alsoudani arrived in the United States, where he became an artist, studying first at Maine College of Art and then at the Yale University School of Art. There, exposed to the teachings of living artists and the precedents of many older ones, Alsoudani developed the unique visual style which helps, alongside its scale, to lend Baghdad I its visual impact. As we cast our eyes across the bustling surface of Baghdad I, the explosive energy of the composition becomes clear, tapping into the theme of conflict which has long driven Alsoudani. He has captured it through glyphs and ciphers that sometimes elude a clear and simple reading. These have been rendered in a variety of means. In some places, layers of acrylic have been applied, reaching an almost lacquer-like finish, while in other areas, the canvas itself appears visible, with underdrawing peeking through, adding a mirage-like ephemerality to this searing vision.
In terms of those techniques, with the subject matter veering into and out of tangible form, and of his semi-abstracted subject matter, Alsoudani shows a similar approach to the paintings from the highpoint of the career of Arshile Gorky, another artist who found himself in exile in the United States and pining for home. However, while Gorky's works are suffused with nostalgia as he tries to goad his memories back into existence through the forms that coalesce on his canvases, Alsoudani has none of that misty-eyed sentimentality. Instead, his painting is an indictment of violence, a lament like Goya's Horrors of War, Pablo Picasso's Guernica or Joan Miró's Le coq of 1940, so reminiscent of the spectral, fragmented image of the cockerel in Baghdad I. Other elements caught up in this tornado-like composition appear architectural and domestic, for instance the stool-like table in the background which appears to be topped with a vase and flowers. However, those blooms coalesce into puffs of smoke, pointing towards the carnage that lies at the heart of the painting. The whirlwind of forms and colours that dominates the centre of this composition mingles what appear to be ruins with bloody chunks of flesh, providing a vivid image of collateral damage while also hinting at the way that the tyrant, as an institution, had woven himself into the very fabric of his nation, poisoning infrastructure and society alike from the top.
Because of his highly personal relationship to his subject matter, it has taken Alsoudani some years to be able to confront his own memories, experiences and feelings regarding the Gulf War. At the time, he had felt frustration at being obliged to watch footage of familiar landmarks in Baghdad as they were bombed from afar. It was only later that he was able to revisit the subject in works such as Baghdad I and some of its sister works - another pair of pictures, Baghdad 2 and Baghdad 3.