Lot 335: Y. Z. KAMI

FACES (#42)
signed and dated 1992 on the reverse

51 by 35.5cm.; 20 by 14in.

oil on canvas

Executed in 1992-1993.

Barbara Toll Fine Arts, New York
Private Collection, Europe
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 2008

For an example of Y. Z. Kami's other distinctive series of works please see lot 317 in this sale.

Y. Z. Kami is arguably the foremost portrait painter of Middle Eastern origin. Subscribing to the principles of sufi mysticism, he believes that the light of the divine is reflected through man. There is indeed something angelic about his sitters, their faces carefully sculpted in soft browns and creams, the light around them diffused, their gaze simultaneously sharp and unfocused. Kami has a remarkable skill in manifesting the spirituality of his subjects upon the canvas, his sitters have an aura of otherworldly beauty that transcends their physical appearance; and it is this that marks him as such an extraordinary portraitist.