Ayman Baalbaki

Luce Gallery, Turin
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2008

This work is in very good condition. The colours in the catalogue illustration are accurate, with the overall tonality being slightly softer in the original work.
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Al-Mulatham I is Ayman Baalbaki’s most poignant and intriguing painting to come to auction since the world record set in Doha in 2013. Similarly to his more celebrated portraits, Al-Mulatham I focuses on resistance in the face of challenge, depicting the shrouded face of a lone figure, gazing away from the viewer. Visual semantics play a leading part in the artist's work, and as though he is is directing a film, Baalbaki plays with the angle of the sitter’s gaze - creating the dynamism of a thrilling moment - begging the viewer for engagement and emotion. Realised in an explosive swirl of thick red and white impasto, the impenetrable visage of the subject escapes the picture plane, and the viewer, at the same time.
Among Baalbaki's most celebrated themes, the depiction of a face wrapped in a kaffiyeh is communicated through determined, expressive, brushstrokes, reminiscent of those of the great Frank Auerbach. An everyday garment, the kaffiyeh is often misread as a reference to Palestinian resistance, and has morphed, through war depiction and extensive media attention, from a traditional utilitarian object, into a powerful symbol of struggle and turmoil in the Middle East. Highly connotative, and yet elusive, Al-Mulatham I evokes a broad spectrum of interpretations ranging from the political to the emotional, most of which can be attributed to the sense of tension and ambiguity found in the kaffiyeh itself.

Drawing on the collective subconscious of popular Middle Eastern visual culture, Baalbaki leaves the viewer to speculate as to the sitter’s masked emotions, forcing the observer to seek guidance from dense, purposeful, brushstrokes, and to search for a possible narrative in this charged composition.

Baalbaki thoughtfully balances this moment of possible activism with elements of obvious aesthetic beauty, framing his subject beneath a variety of light and inviting colours, all of which enrich the visual experience of Al-Mulatham I.