Mounir Canaan

Private collection, Egypt
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2014 

This work is in very good condition. Some minor signs of wear to the aluminium paper surrounding the central composition. In some areas of the work, the paper is slack, this is due to the artists choice of medium. The colours in the catalogue illustration are accurate, with the overall tonality being softer in the original work. The catalogue illustration fails to convey the metallic aspect of the paper.
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Sotheby’s is delighted to offer the first work by Mounir Canaan at public auction. An avant-garde twentieth-century Egyptian artist, Canaan introduced collage to Egypt and the Arab World in a style consistently ahead of its time. Self-taught, he started as a figurative artist before producing, in 1945, his first abstract painting, which he exhibited at the São Paulo Bienniale in Brazil. Canaan moved towards liberating the Egyptian art scene from past conditions and allowed for the development of new ideas.

Following the 1952 Egyptian Revolution, subject disappeared for Canaan altogether, leaving space for the material to prevail. The first stage consisted of partially erasing the original painting by crossing as a sign of rejection while the second stage consisted of writing and re-painting over it, adding new elements and materials that hardly show what lies beneath.

Canaan managed to achieve equilibrium and harmony by juxtaposing scraps of wood, cardboard, jute and glued sand. Geometric abstraction was the natural framework within which the clippings moved with exceptional freedom. Such geometric design prevailed as a theme in his works for many years until his death. Canaan was obsessed with liberating art from norms and traditional practices. He is quoted saying:  'Therefore, no painting of mine is like another, there is a bond, but no repetition, never, and such is rather exhausting to my soul'.