Lot 62: Qaffon Aasif - Stormy Qaff

Ali Omar Ermes (Libyan, b. 1945)
Qaffon Aasif - Stormy Qaff
signed in Arabic and dated '1983' (lower left)
mixed media on paper, mounted on canvas
43 3/8 x 46 7/8in. (110 x 119cm.)
Painted in 1983

C. Pocock, Ali Omar Ermes, London/Dubai, 2008 (illustrated on the cover and in colour)

This painting shows an unfamiliar way of executing the letter qaff, which in some ways resembles the old Kufic script. Unusually in the work of Ali Omar Ermes, it has stormy golden strokes around its sides.

A comparable painting, similar in style, can be found at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.

Over the last two years works by Ali Omar Ermes have veen exhibited at international exhibitions, such as the British Museum and the Tate Britain in London, the Smithsonian Institute and LACMA in the USA and the Museum of Oriental Studies in Moscow and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

The texts are poems by Ahmed Shawqi about the very well known resistance Libyan leader Omar Al Mukhtar who died in 1932.