IMAN SHAGGAG | VISUAL ARTIST
Iman Shaggag| Visual artist
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7/22/2018

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Ibrahim El-Salahi's "The Last Sound"

Picture“The Last Sound”, Ibrahim El- Salahi, 1964, oil on canvas, 121,5 x121,5 cm
Visiting Ibrahim El-Salahi's painting, “The Last Sound”, which is at the Sharjah Art Museum as part of the permanent exhibition, A Century in Flux: Highlights from the Barjeel Art Foundation. 

“The Last Sound”, became like a home to me, where I am a stranger in a strange land. Visiting the painting, almost every day to enjoy its company! I know it is an emotionally charged statement, but it is truthfully, how I feel. I am not looking to write, something like an art historian or an art critic. I am writing about my feelings toward the painting, and by extension toward El- Salahi.

Every time I visit the painting, I feel the need to be back and see it again. I know some might pass by and not notice it unless they already know who painted it, because of its subdued colors, and delicate shapes. ​

​ “The Last Sound”, is a very "quiet" painting even though it is bustling with life, unless you have a keen sense of observation you would not see what it has to offer. Nothing on it is shouting at the viewer, with a “look at me” attitude, like what expected of works of art in general, to attract attention, more too often than not that happens in a sort of a loud way, it’s a “show” after all!
"The Last Sound", is like a gentle touch, and has its own way of pulling you in, and keeping you close. All the writings, which I have read with regard to this painting, were in the area of the “African mask” in the center of the painting, which is the focal point. However, I would like to mention some other areas in the painting; I see them as equally powerful.

House Finch, people in Sudan call these very small birds “paradise birds”, I think this one is a male because of its reddish color, setting next to the small black mask in the center of the canvas. In some parts of Sudan, people believe that when they die, if they were good they come back as House Finch birds.
 
A well-known Sudanese song, tells of the Guinea fowl passing by in the country side of Sudan, and here the Guinea fowl with its intricate patterns, shown leaving the circle of images in the center of the canvas. 

A small dancing pigeon gracing the right top part of the canvas, as a child I remember when in Khartoum almost every grandmother had a number of dancing pigeons in her flock of pigeons.
 
​Three mourning doves, one in a light blue color, where the other two have the same color as the background, all enjoying themselves at the top of the written script on the right corner of the canvas.

I believe the painting shows Sudan in a more intimate light rather than a broad brush of impression.
An obvious example is the celebration of birds in the painting. If you know about Sudanese culture, you would know that birds are one of the most celebrated animals in Sudan. In songs and poems, in children’s play songs. The connection with birds is too strong that it surpass life into death as well, which is deeply rooted in the Sudanese culture.

See if you can find the other birds that I did not mention! 

Iman Shaggag
Sharjah, July 2018

Picture
Detail- “The Last Sound”, Ibrahim El- Salahi, 1964, oil on canvas, 121,5 x121,5 cm
Picture
Detail- “The Last Sound”, Ibrahim El- Salahi, 1964, oil on canvas, 121,5 x121,5 cm
Picture
Detail- “The Last Sound”, Ibrahim El- Salahi, 1964, oil on canvas, 121,5 x121,5 cm
Picture
Detail- “The Last Sound”, Ibrahim El- Salahi, 1964, oil on canvas, 121,5 x121,5 cm
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A Garden In Every Flower

3/2/2018

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Salah Elmur "Fragrances of the Forest and Photos" Exhibition

Picture
"Fragrances of the Forest and Photos" an exhibition by Sudanese artist Salah Elmur, at the Sharjah Art Museum, runs from February 28 to June 2, 2018. This exhibition is a great introduction for people who did not see Elmur’s paintings before. As well as a pleasant, update for those familiar with his artwork. Let us not forget that he is one of the artists’ in the museum permanent collection, with four of his paintings available year-round at the museum.
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He is an avid observer, with an imagination of a child, and tools of an aptitude artist and a storyteller. Memories, people, plants, and animals grace his paintings as if in a moment in time everything stopped to pose for the artist! In almost all his paintings, people are posing and looking back at him, as if engaged in conversation with the artist.
The exhibition divided into four sections, “The Forest; Fragrances; Paintings from different stages; and Kamal Studio”. Elmur expressed his keen love for old things, photographs, antics, and old books. Putting that into consideration while looking at the paintings, and what they convey, reflect, or manifest. One might conclude that most of his paintings ponder upon memories. Which is in a way protesting the present, not reliving the past. At the same time, maybe it is his way of recording and saving these memories from vanishing and disappearing from our collective memory. It is not a realistic record, but it is more like an emotional and very intimate record of his feelings, and visual experiences since childhood.

Picture
The Red Forest, Salah Elmur, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 140 x 140 cm Roubi L' Roubi Collection
PictureEmbryo Perfume, Salah Elmur, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 120 x 80 cm, collection of the artist
Elmur’s paintings reflect his graphic design background. Thinking of how diligently detailed his paintings are, almost of an illustrative quality, and staged compositions, and his use of hidden brush strokes. Would like to argue that, all contributed to the way he garnered three different but connected visual paths together in one canvas; photography, illustration, and painting. A perfect example could be his series of paintings inspired by his collection of old fragrance labels. He painted the labels for real and imagined fragrances, like his “fragrance of an embryo” for example, which is a painting with an image of an embryo, in an elongated shimmering yellow hexagon shape; the pattern of orange and dark blue rhombus fill the background with the name of the fragrance written on the painting. The artist inspired by photos he tokes of embryos in glass containers filled with formaldehyde, at the Museum Vrolik Academic Medical Center in the Netherlands.

PictureThe angry Singer, Salah Elmur, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm , collection of the artist
Salah Elmur’s stippling, glazing, stencils, and overlapping techniques, with layers of colors, lights up his paintings and gives a mysterious aura. Some figures appear in transparent cubes, so transparent we cannot see but the edges of the cubes outlined with one color. In some paintings, the cubes are in different colors. The figures appear sort of, in his or her own world, they can see the world around them, and the world can see them, but seems to have limited access to the outside world; reminds of triremes as self-sufficient environments. In a more thoughtful, provoking manner, every figure, rather facing life alone, as we come alone and depart alone!  

Picture
Replica of "Kamal Studio", Salah Elmur, 2018 Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, UAE
PictureThe Identity Card 3, Salah Elmur, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 115 x 55 cm, collection of the artist
In his series of paintings called “ID card”. Elmur said stimulated by photos taken by his father, Kamal Elmur, who owned a photography studio in the 1960s Khartoum. He painted a group of ten same size paintings in narrow rectangular canvas with broad wooden frames, with a portrait in the upper part of the painting, and geometrical shapes in the background and lower part. Every portrait is unique, reflecting every sitter’s temperament, as well as the patterns and background color asserting their disposition, some have calm colors others have hot and busy background patterns. The geometrical patterns in the lower part of the painting as the artist explained represents the information about the ID owner.
Elmur, maneuvering an art scene stretched through different times and different geographies. He converses with a rich history of images and sights, vibrant colors and diverse cultures of, Sudan, Africa, and the world at large, all are present in his work. In some paintings, it is obvious; in others is more settle, or appears in subtle manners.

                                                                                                         

​                                                                                                          Iman Shaggag

                                                                                                  Sharjah, UAE
                                                                                                 March 2018


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    Author

    Iman Shaggag is a visual artist, who exhibited her work in Sudan, the United States, UK, South Africa, Bulgaria & South Sudan. Shaggag was born in the UK, did live in UK, Sudan & US, currently, she resides and works in the UAE.

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