41 - ‡ YOUSSEF ABDELKE (SYRIAN B.1951)

‡ YOUSSEF ABDELKE (SYRIAN B.1951) UNTITLED (FISH) charcoal on paper 100 x 100cm (104 x 104cm framed) Executed in 2020 Sold with a Certificate of Authenticity signed by the artist Property of a Private Collector, Beirut Provenance Acquired directly from the artist's studio by the present owner Born in Qameshli, Syria, in 1951, Youssef Abdelke grew up in a family of political dissidents, a heritage which deeply shaped his life and artistic vision. After studying etching in Damascus, his involvement with the League for Communist Action led to his arrest in 1979 under Hafez Al-Assad’s regime. Following two years in prison, he was forced into exile in Paris, where he completed his arts education, including a doctorate from the University of Paris VIII in 1989. In France, Abdelke’s style turned expressionist. Influenced by German artists like Otto Dix and George Grosz, he created his Figures series - pastel and collage works featuring austere, moustache-clad authority figures that evoked the lingering trauma of his imprisonment. By 1995, he shifted exclusively to a stark black-and-white palette using charcoal and etching, creating meticulous still lifes of sharp objects, plants, and dead animals and fish, such as the current example, as metaphors for exile and the suffering of his homeland. After 25 years of exile, Abdelke returned to Damascus in 2005. He continued to face government persecution, including passport confiscation in 2010 and a brief re-arrest in 2013 under Bashar Al-Assad’s regime. Despite political upheaval and debate, he remains permanently based in Syria. Youssef Abdelke's works are held in prominent international museums, institutions, and private collections worldwide, including The British Museum (London, United Kingdom), Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris, France), Dalloul Art Foundation (Beirut, Lebanon), Amman Museum of Modern Art / Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts (Amman, Jordan), National Museum of Kuwait (Kuwait City, Kuwait), and the Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation (Amman, Jordan).