BY RAYNALD C RIVERA
DOHA: Eighty of the best works of acclaimed Sudanese modernist painter Ibrahim El Salahi tracing the extraordinary artistic journey in over five decades of the man’s admirable life are displayed at his first-ever museum retrospective which opened yesterday at Katara.
Both visually and intellectually satisfying to many a visitor, the octogenarian artist’s exhibition is unique in itself as it shows the transition in the artist’s technique from using basic lines and forms to abstract and meditative to black and white paintings.
“Though I use oil from time to time, I like to use ink because of its brilliance, particularly black because it heightens the sense of drama in the piece more than other colours and it also poses more challenge,” said El Salahi during a press preview before the opening.
He said he wanted his works, which to him are a reflection of what’s within him, to be heard and felt by the people whom he considers one of the three important aspects of every artist’s life apart from himself and the universe. More than his artistic genius shown in his paintings, the painter is even more admirable the way he thinks every artist should live his life and his attitude to people around him.
“I am more concerned about the human condition everywhere. I’m very much touched seeing people who have not and I care much about human dignity and the presence of self,” he said.
A highlight of the exhibition is a Prison Notebook El Salahi created following his release from six-month stay in Cooper Prison, containing a medley of drawings and poetic prose documenting his incarceration. It is accompanied by a video showing every page along with the artist’s commentary. On his view of developments going in the Arab region in recent times as reflected in Arab art, he told The Peninsula there is still dearth of artworks produced by artists on the Arab movement.
“I have seen some in my travels to Egypt, Iraq and Nigeria but it still needs time to develop and a lot to be done having contemporary artists get together to add more of these works,” he said.
Having stayed in Qatar for quite sometime, the artist has witnessed how art has developed in the country. “I find everything I’ve seen very interesting indeed especially the young artists have been working. Qatari artists like Faraj Daham and Yousef Mohammed are very much recognised outside. The only thing is to widen the scope and keep carrying on, keep producing and showing them,” he said.
The expo is the first-time collaboration between New York-based Museum for African Art and Katara. “Ibrahim has spent 17 years in Qatar so it is very important to make people here access his artworks through this exhibition. This place has been very important to Ibrahim and has been influential to his body of work,” said Amanda Thompson of Museum for African Art.
“We are committed to traditional and contemporary African art which unfortunately has not been appreciated enough in museums so we feel we give an important contribution by bringing them in exhibitions in countries like Qatar,” she said. The expo opened by Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage, runs until November 27 at Katara Gallery Building 22.
The Peninsula
