Mohamed Kanoo

Condition: This work is in very good condition. The stretcher is very lightly pulling the canvas on top right corner.
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The word La' (No)

Quite clearly inspired by the Argentine-born artist Lucio Fontana, Mohamed Kanoo transforms standard calligraphy into a conceptual and sculptural triumph. In 1959, Fontana began the so-called Slash Series of paintings that featured precisely cut and slashed painted canvases. A trained sculptor, these works draw on concepts of mass, movement, time and space by transforming a flat and one dimensional surface into something else entirely - simply by introducing the space behind the canvas.

Kanoo began producing his own slash paintings by merging the slash with Arabic script, in this case the word for 'no' La', thus the artist introduces a conceptual and cultural identity to a work that is also driven by physics and the philosophy of time.