Lot 53: Suad Al Attar (Iraq, born 1942) Tender Embrace,

Tender Embrace, oil on canvas, signed and dated 2000 in English and Arabic lower right, similarly signed on reverse and inscribed London 28/12/2000, framed, 69.5 x 54.5 cm (27 3/8 x 21 7/16in).

Provenance:
Private UK collection.

An extract from the 'Song of Rain' a poem by Iraq poet Badr Shakir al-Sayyab (1926-1964) is inscribed in Arabic on the reverse of the work.

'How many tears we shed the night we parted. Excusing our own sorrow by saying 'it's only the rain'.
'I see your eyes which seem to float with the pain, the stars drawn in a mist of sorrow, in the warmth of winter, the chill of autumn, embracing death and birth and darkness and light.
'The shiver of a sob wakens my soul.'

'The theme of Tender Embrace emerged in my work over a decade ago and since then it has both developed and progressed. Thus I look upon this as the culmination of a steady and ongoing evolution of the theme. In my portrayal of the human, I seek to explore the inner humanity of men and woman, both within themselves and also between each other. This relationship is discreet, it is kind and gentle, an invitation to meditate rather than a summons to debate.

'Tender Embrace blends the atmospheric fuzz of browns and subtle reds with the luminosity of the woman's face while the male face fades into the dark background. For this painting I chose to focus on the technique with which the paint is applied to the canvas.

'I applied the paint in countless thin layers, later scraping them away and then once more applying films of paint onto the surface, finding the perfect contrast between the light sun-face against the dark surrounding, a technique acknowledging the work of the old masters.

'In this work I have tried to express a vision where dreams and reality combine together with poetic meaning, a meaning that expresses a private vocabulary.'

Suad Al-Attar, April 2010.