Young Collectors Auction - exhibit-E

FatehMOUDARRES1922 - 1999Lot 032Signed26 X 34 cm. Gouache on PaperEstimate (US$ 2,500 - 3,500)Born in Aleppo, Fateh Moudarres (1922-1999) was a prolific modernist pioneer. Withan extensive career and an admired, often imitated, approach to art, his influence wasfelt across the Arab world for decades. Respected among countless art circles and along time favorite among collectors, his oeuvre continues to be recognized for its vastcontributions.After a brief period of utilizing realist and surrealist techniques in the 1950s, he traveledto Italy to attend the Accademia di belle Arti in Rome. Returning to Damascus in 1960, heremerged on the Syrian art scene with a personal style that he described as “surrealisticand figurative with a strong element of abstraction.” Becoming deeply committed duringthis time, especially after 1967, Moudarres took up highly political subject matter, oftendepicting the difficult daily realities that were faced by those living in rural areas or onthe margins of society. In 1969 he left Syria to pursue advanced training at the Ecole desbeaux Arts in Paris. Upon resettling in his native country in 1972, he began a long tenureas a professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Damascus and later servedas the dean of the department until he retired in 1993. Through this position he trainedgenerations of young Syrian artists. Although his compositions often drew from a varietyof sources, including mythology, ancient traditions, icon painting and symbolism, hefocused much of his work on portraying the formidable climate around him, as the MiddleEast (and the world in general) became increasingly tumultuous. Moudarres was one ofthe first artists to tackle such issues and did so with bold brushstrokes, a rich paletteand introspective portrayals of ordinary life, a combination that had wide appeal and wasmastered with great experimentation.