667 - MARWAN (MARWAN KASSAB-BACHI)

MARWAN (MARWAN KASSAB-BACHI) 1934 Damascus–2016 Berlin Title: Untitled. Date: 1985. Technique: Mixed media on laid paper. Dimensions: 103.5 x 70 cm. Notation: Signed lower right: Marwan. Signed, dated, and inscribed on the reverse, upper center: Marwan Juli 85 444 (circled). Frame: Framed. Provenance: - Private collection, southern Germany - Heads are a central motif in Marwan’s body of work - Through his distinctive visual language, the artist engages deeply with the human condition - From 1980 to 2002, Marwan was a professor of painting at the Berlin University of the Arts - The artist’s works are represented in numerous public institutions, including the Tate Modern in London, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and the Centre George Pompidou in Paris Marwan Kassab-Bachi was born in Damascus in 1934 and studied Arabic literature there. In 1957, he moved to Berlin, where he studied painting under Hann Trier at the Berlin University of the Arts, graduating in 1963. In the 1960s, he created figurative works before increasingly focusing on the depiction of heads and faces. Since the early 1970s, the human face has become the central motif of his work. Using multiple layers of paint, he models faces that are less individual portraits than they are spiritual landscapes. Along with Georg Baselitz and Eugen Schönebeck, Marwan was part of a circle associated with a new form of expressive figuration in postwar Berlin art. In 1980, he became a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts. With his painting, which oscillates between figuration and abstraction, Marwan occupies a unique position in German postwar art. At the same time, he is regarded as a bridge-builder between Western and Arab art and seeks, in his depictions of people, a visual language that transcends cultural boundaries. The large-format work on handmade paper presented here was created in 1985. A dense network of brushstrokes and overlapping fields of color spreads across nearly the entire surface. Earthy shades of brown, red, and ochre meet turquoise, blue, pink, violet, and bright green. The paint is applied in impasto in some places, while in others it is applied more thinly and gesturally; individual sections appear to have been painted over and then revealed again. From this dynamic interplay of colors, fragmentary forms emerge that are reminiscent of eyes, mouths, or facial features, without coalescing into a clearly recognizable face. Figuration and abstraction remain in a state of tense suspension. The work is characteristic of Marwan’s painting from the 1980s, in which the head increasingly dissolves into color and painterly movement. The face is not depicted, but is repeatedly sought, overlaid, and re-created in the process of painting. Estimated shipping costs for this lot: This lot is not suitable for parcel shipping. Transport is available only through a shipping company after consultation following the auction. Additional shipping insurance Shipping insurance up to a total invoice amount of 25,000 euros: max. 41.65 euros For a total invoice amount exceeding 25,000 Euros: 1.8 per thousand Shipping to the U.S. by individual arrangement after the auction. #Marwan (Marwan Kassab-Bachi) #Figurative Painting #Germany #Post-War Art #1980s #Post War. In accordance with §26 UrhG (German Copyright Act), VAN HAM is obligated to pay a statutory resale royalty on the sale proceeds of all original works of fine art and photography whose authors have not been deceased for 70 years prior to the end of the calendar year of the sale. The buyer shall contribute 1.5% of the hammer price toward this fee.