NOW AND TEN

Marwan, The Veil, 1970-1971.
© The artist.
Marwan, The Veil, 1973.
© The artist.
to incorporate silky oranges, violets and emerald
green, inspired by the mountains of his beloved
Syria. The artist’s work from this period took on an
enticing sense of rhythm exemplifed by his free
brushstrokes of pure colour.
Christie’s is delighted to ofer a seminal example
from the artist that reveals Marwan’s artistic
trajectory that developed from his Facial
Landscapes of the 1960s to his most celebrated
Head series, entitled The Veil accompanied by two
comprehensive studies showing the inner workings
of the Marwan’s artistic practice. Following his
arrival in Paris, Marwan began a series of paintings
entitled Veil Paintings in the early 1970s that
suggest concealment and revelation that are as a
result of his sense of foreignness when he arrived
in Berlin and Paris. In not so much an identity
crisis, but inability to become fully immersed
in either German, Syrian or French identity in
Marwan, GROSSER KOPF (NACH RECHTS)
(Large Head (Turned Towards the Right)), 2013.
(Christie’s Dubai, April 2013; price realised:
US$171,750). © Christie’s Images Ltd. 2013
its entirety, this inner schism of the psyche
is translated into his expressive and gestural
paintings. Bedecked in a light veil, his protagonist,
strangely but seductively androgynous, bathed in
a soft layering of colours, simultaneously attracts
and evades, calling for a dialogue that tackles
the notions of concealment and revelation. In this
sense it becomes clear that Marwan’s overcoming
of foreignness is happiness in an unveiling and
searching for truth. The veil becomes a metaphor
for the barrier that protects his inner identity whilst
referencing the veiled women of the Damascus
bazaars. Much like these women, Marwan implies
that once their true identity is revealed, all notions
of perceptions are shed, the question remains
what is real and not real; distance is now a veil
concealing a mystery one now knows more.
Almost always painting his self, these paintings
are self-portraits in the sense that they are psychic
profles of the artist - there is physically little facial
resemblance - although each of his paintings
look similar when viewed separately. It is not
until they are looked at in quick succession of
each other that one realises they are in fact
diferent. They are, in turn, the artist’s ‘inner
faces’ capturing his mental state at the time he
chooses to transfer his emotions onto the canvas.
This multiple personality is mirrored in the multidimensionality
of his paintings, exemplifed by the
viewer’s diferent experiences and interpretations
of the reactions of his faces when viewed from one
angle to the next - while simultaneously looking
at this one painting, the viewer thus takes on this
emotional journey through its shifts of distance
and perspective.
In the three example of Veil Paintings, Marwan
incorporates a fowing brushwork and tender
colouration, in which an extraordinary emotional
language emerges, at once nuanced, but
expressive, pulsating in the ability for these feshy
tones to fow into each other into a consistency that
can only reference his beloved landscape. To this
end, the Veil series coalesce with his Landscape
series to form the beginnings of the celebrated
Head series, such as Large Head (Turned Towards
the Right). Although these examples show a strong
afiliation for the dark brown colour palette that the
artist would use to frame his fgures and faces, the
complexity behind this composition is exemplifed
by the artist’s technique; he applies layer after
layer with great patience and intensity - which
acts metaphorically to highlight the multi-layered
human psyche. Upon closer view, it becomes
apparent that Marwan is starting to incorporate
a more vibrant use of felds of colour that is
to be exemplifed in The Veil from 1973. Here
one realises that the veil becomes a symbol for
shedding the veil of disillusionment, what emerges
is a sense of renewal that is heighted with the use
of shimmering radiant felds of colour. Through a
delicate use of transparency in lightness of touch,
Marwan imparts an ethereal quality to these works
implying a sense of the spiritual that is instantly
recognised. Not all of the works from this series
started with this sense of fragility; much like
the series the artist had developed in the 1960s
The Veil shows an artist who is slowly coming
to terms with his own identity and revelation of
his unique style. His self-portrait which is much
clearer and less androgynous than the present lot
lacks a sense of transparency but much like his
later examples from the series, a renewed person,
confdent with their sense of self, emerges from
beneath the shadows.
With this in mind, we see a gentle smirk across the
face in each of the compositions on ofer. It is as
if the artist reveals a sense of confdence and joy
in self-discovery. It is almost as if the fgure teases
the viewer, enticing them to come closer and
search deep into their soul whose eyes burn with
desire with a gentility that is tender and endearing.
In this context The Veil ofers an exemplary insight
into the inner workings of Marwan’s mind and an
instrumental comprehension of the development
of the artist’s visual vocabulary tracing an exact
evolution of style that is rare to fnd at auction and
unparalleled in its clarity.
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