Lot 233: ALI OMAR ERMES (LIBYA, B. 1945)

Alif Sucoon
signed and dated in Arabic (lower right)
acrylic on paper
59 x 39 1/2 in. (150 x 100cm.)
Painted in 1997

London, Albermarle Street, Ali Omar Ermes in Context, 2003, (illustrated in colour, p.27)

With eight lines of the poem by Muaan Ibn Aws. The verses describe the poet's stand for honour, rejecting and condemning corruption and social decay.
This is one of a series of four Musical Alifs each with different short vowels, the others being Alif Kesrah, Alif Fethah, and Alif Dhammah, the respective sounds given to the letter by the short vowels are i, a and u, the succoon of the Alif Succoon meaning silence. Thus the artist engages with the expression of the poem, using form, colour, texture and sound, by using the four vowels of the Alif in its four degrees from low to high.