Lot 12: Untitled

NASSER CHAURA (SYRIAN, 1920-1992)
Untitled
signed and dated 'N.CHAURA 1966' and signed again in Arabic (lower right); signed and dated 'N.CHAURA 1966' and signed again in Arabic (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
39½ x 28½in. (100.2 x 72.2cm.)
Painted in 1966

Acquired from the estate of the artist by the present owner

In his brief period of experimenting with pure abstraction, Nasser Chaura superimposed layers of colours in different shapes and of different transparencies. This he did as a kind of exercise, as a test for his emotions and his senses. On visiting the Ghoutta (the green oasis surrounding Damascus), he soon he decided instead to use this technique as a means to express elements of natural world around him, rather than to dwell on abstraction as an end in its own right.

The present painting is therefore a rare survival. In an interview with Chaura, Mamdouh Kahslan asked him about which of his paintings he was most proud, and which he wanted most to keep, and he said
"In fact I let go a lot the work I really liked, and lately I realized that, and now I try to keep a collection for myself, as representative of the different periods I went through, faces, nature, and a very small collection from the abstract period. And these I will never give up under any circumstances, just because I no longer painted like this again." M.Kashlan, Nisf karen min al -ibda al-tashkili fi souria (Half a century of creative contemporary art in Syria) , Damascus 2006, p.112.