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Lot Essay
For four decades, Marwan explored and developed ideas for the
faces and heads, treating his subjects as sculptures, while adding
layers and small facets with every brushstroke. He treated these
heads in different moods and references: from the largely painted
facial landscapes to his amazing sketches and lithographs with
many endless and intricate lines that appear like jagged wires.
The present work is painted in contrasted colours, juxtaposing
two heads against each other; a man is on the left, looking
straight into the eyes of the viewer. A woman is on the right,
looking upwards, her red lip is like a cloud, that is unreadable and
confused.
All elements are painted in short staccatos with a rich palette of
colours exemplified in cool to warm tones, and in blues to browns.
Marwan developed a strong identity and recognizable style
that always gave more importance to colour and treatment of
the texture over the details of what he was representing. It was
his way to move between the taught traditional approaches to
painting and develop his own Abstract expressionism.
Marwan’s paintings are filled with small sources of light, found
between the fragmented pieces of colours that form a face. It is
this light, reminiscent of the magical light that comes through
very small holes in the covered souks of old Damascus, the tales
of the land, and his own original belonging to a land that rejected
all evolution of liberal ideas since he left it. A very curious
outlook combined with nostalgia, it is an intimate experience yet
very universal in its reach. Marwan attacks his faces through a
kaleidoscopic approach, offering a surprising ride into discovering
his characters that he painted and those he created. Then he
infused them with his own emotions using vivid colours infusing
them with life and sometimes distorting their imageries endlessly.
The oeuvre of this giant artist depicts the human being and the
silent life of things. Few images can provoke an endless ocean
of emotions and the naked truth of the human soul. His art is
deeply rooted in the Sufi philosophy. It adheres to a wisdom of
the connectivity between heart, soul and spirit in the unity of the
being. Immersing oneself into Marwan’s images, one can delve
into an adventure into self-discovery of the inner self.
faces and heads, treating his subjects as sculptures, while adding
layers and small facets with every brushstroke. He treated these
heads in different moods and references: from the largely painted
facial landscapes to his amazing sketches and lithographs with
many endless and intricate lines that appear like jagged wires.
The present work is painted in contrasted colours, juxtaposing
two heads against each other; a man is on the left, looking
straight into the eyes of the viewer. A woman is on the right,
looking upwards, her red lip is like a cloud, that is unreadable and
confused.
All elements are painted in short staccatos with a rich palette of
colours exemplified in cool to warm tones, and in blues to browns.
Marwan developed a strong identity and recognizable style
that always gave more importance to colour and treatment of
the texture over the details of what he was representing. It was
his way to move between the taught traditional approaches to
painting and develop his own Abstract expressionism.
Marwan’s paintings are filled with small sources of light, found
between the fragmented pieces of colours that form a face. It is
this light, reminiscent of the magical light that comes through
very small holes in the covered souks of old Damascus, the tales
of the land, and his own original belonging to a land that rejected
all evolution of liberal ideas since he left it. A very curious
outlook combined with nostalgia, it is an intimate experience yet
very universal in its reach. Marwan attacks his faces through a
kaleidoscopic approach, offering a surprising ride into discovering
his characters that he painted and those he created. Then he
infused them with his own emotions using vivid colours infusing
them with life and sometimes distorting their imageries endlessly.
The oeuvre of this giant artist depicts the human being and the
silent life of things. Few images can provoke an endless ocean
of emotions and the naked truth of the human soul. His art is
deeply rooted in the Sufi philosophy. It adheres to a wisdom of
the connectivity between heart, soul and spirit in the unity of the
being. Immersing oneself into Marwan’s images, one can delve
into an adventure into self-discovery of the inner self.