Young Collectors Auction - exhibit-E

NazirISMAIL1948Lot 045Signed, Dated42 X 55 cm. Mixed Media on Paper 2010Estimate (US$ 2,000 - 3,000)Born in Damascus in 1948, Nazir Ismail’s highly expressionist compositions range fromportraits of disfigured figures that are as otherworldly as they are mysterious to semiromanticizedlandscapes. Having trained privately, he began exhibiting in public venuesin Damascus in 1966, joining a group of Syrian artists that would initiate the transitionfrom the modern period of art to the adoption of contemporary modes of representationthat took concurrent global trends into consideration. During this time, like a number ofhis colleagues, he employed a symbolist approach to painting that often found inspirationin traditional Syrian art forms. In 1971 he was given his first solo exhibition at the ArabicCultural Centre in Damascus.Since then, he has held nearly fifty solo exhibitions throughout the Arab world, developinga collector’s based that includes a number of public institutions such as the SyrianMinistries of Tourism and Culture, the People’s Palace and National Museum in Damascus,the Omani Royal Museum and the Museum of Modern Arab Art Qatar. An accomplishedartist, he has been honored with a number of awards, such as third prize from the SharjahBiennial in 1996. That same year, the Goethe Institute of Damascus organized a thirty-yearretrospective, which highlighted his rich and varied career and was received with greatacclaim. His importance continues to be recognized within the regional art scene, as he wasrecently featured in a Christie’s Dubai sale of modern and contemporary art international.