Lot 25: Fee Al Souk (At the Market) or Campagnards (Countrymen)

Mahmoud Hammad (Syrian, 1923-1988) Fee Al Souk (At the Market) or Campagnards (Countrymen) signed in Arabic, signed and dated 'Hammad 61' (lower right) oil on board 23 3/8 x 18½in. (59.4 x 47cm.) Painted in 1961

59.4 x 47cm.

Damascus, Ministry of Culture and National Guidance, Spring Annual Exhibition, 1961.

Private Collection of a Former Swiss Ambassador, Damascus. Private Collection, Switzerland. Anon. sale, Dobiaschofsky Auctions Bern, 7 November 2014, lot 553. Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Christie's is delighted to present a beautiful painting by the Modern Syrian painter Mahmoud Hammad. This rare work is the epitome of the artist's Horan period, entitling a time from 1956-1963 while he lived in Daraa, south Syria. As one of only about ninety paintings retrieved from this period in Daraa, this work encapsulates an important time in his artistic practice, combining the technicalities of abstraction with the intricate portrayal of figural silhouettes as he orchestrates a truly unique work of art. Hammad had an eye and appreciation for fine arts from a young age. First striking a fascination for the work of the Italian Masters, he was intrigued by the classical Italian style of painting. Despite the unfortunate circumstances and challenges presented by the war in Syria, he secured a scholarship from the local government to attend the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome in 1953. Painting amongst a few of his Syrian contemporaries such as Fateh Moudarress, Hammad had the ability to explore the fascinating methods of Italian painting. In the process of defining his artistic hand, he experimented with a multitude of subjects, materials and techniques - all elements of the classical Italian style. This level of experimentation and embracing of cultural and artistic paradoxes undoubtedly had a long-time effect on the artist's methodology, enabling him to hone an artistic voice that would truly become his own. Returning to Syria in 1957, four years prior to the execution of this painting, the artist departed on a new artistic journey, exploring both his new visual identity and language. Painted in 1961, the present work The Countrymen or At the Market is a manifestation of a peak in Hammad's artistic career. Using the countryside, its matters and its people as the subject for his new artistic endeavours, it saw the artist's Horan period come to fruition. Though he would go on to explore this sense of abstraction in more diverse ways later in his career, this period marked a crucial point in the evolution of the artist's style. In this figural composition, we see the artist use both line and colour to harmoniously orchestrate these semi-abstracted silhouetted figures on the canvas. His ability to capture the dichotomy between rural and urban life through the mastery of a unique dimensionality is truly a beautiful artistic feat. Mahmoud Hammad, one of the fathers of Modern Abstract art in the Arab world has gracefully depicted the portrait of a family embracing, but the subject matter becomes in turn a way for the painter to experiment with form and colour. Although evidently figurative, the present work paves the way to abstraction as planes of colours are delicately juxtaposed to create a serene scene with symbolic and aesthetic significance.