History of art(west and middle east)- contemporary art

1. AZIZ
ART
Kenneth
Armitage
Alberto Giacometti
RIDIKKULUZ
Ahmed
Morsi
Reza
Aramesh
July 2017
Competition
Festival

2. Director: Aziz Anzabi
Editor : Nafiseh Yaghou
Translator : Asra Yagho
Research: Zohreh Naz
1-Alberto Giacometti
8-Festival
9-RIDIKKULUZ
15-Kenneth Armitage
17-Reza Aramesh
20-Competition
21-Ahmed Morsi
http://www.aziz_anzabi.com

3. Alberto Giacometti
1

4. Alberto Giacometti
10 October 1901 – 11 January
1966
was a Swiss sculptor, painter,
draughtsman and printmaker. He
was born in the canton
Graubünden's southerly alpine
valley Val Bregaglia, as the eldest
of four children to Giovanni
Giacometti, a well-known post-
Impressionist painter.
Coming from an artistic
background, he was interested in
art from an early age.
Early life
Giacometti was born
in Borgonovo, now part of the
Switzerland municipality of
Bregaglia, near the Italian border.
He was a descendant of Protestant
refugees escaping the inquisition.
Alberto attended the Geneva
School of Fine Arts. His brothers
Diego (1902–85) and Bruno (1907–
2012) would go on to become
artists as well. Additionally,
Zaccaria
Giacometti, later professor of
constitutional law and chancellor
of the University of Zurich grew up
together with them, having been
orphaned at the age of 12 in 1905.
In 1922 he moved to Paris to study
under the sculptor Antoine
Bourdelle, an associate of Rodin. It
was there that Giacometti
experimented with cubism and
surrealism and came to be
regarded as one of the leading
surrealist sculptors. Among his
associates were Miró, Max Ernst,
Picasso, Bror Hjorth and Balthus.
Between 1936 and 1940,
Giacometti concentrated his
sculpting on the human head,
focusing on the sitter's gaze. He
preferred models he was close to,
his sister and the artist Isabel
Rawsthorne (then known as Isabel
Delmer). This was followed by a
phase in which his statues of Isabel
became stretched out; her limbs
elongated. Obsessed with creating
his sculptures exactly as he
envisioned through his unique view
of reality, he often carved until they
were as thin as nails and reduced to
the size of a pack of cigarettes,
much to his consternation. A friend
of his once said that if Giacometti
decided to sculpt you, "he would
make your head look like the blade
of a knife

5. After his marriage to Annette Arm
in 1946 his tiny sculptures became
larger, but the larger they grew,
the thinner they became.
Giacometti said that the final
result represented the sensation
he felt when he looked at a
woman.
His paintings underwent a parallel
procedure. The figures appear
isolated and severely attenuated,
as the result of continuous
reworking. Subjects were
frequently revisited: one of his
favorite models was his younger
brother Diego Giacometti. A third
brother, Bruno Giacometti, was a
noted architect.
Later years
In 1958 Giacometti was asked to
create a monumental sculpture
for the Chase Manhattan Bank
building in New York, which was
beginning construction. Although
he had for many years "harbored
an ambition to create work for a
public square",he "had never set
foot in New York, and knew
nothing about life in a rapidly
evolving metropolis. Nor had he
ever laid eyes on an actual
skyscraper", according to his
biographer James Lord.
Giacometti's work on the project
resulted in the four figures of
standing women—his largest
sculptures—entitled Grande femme
debout I through IV (1960). The
commission was never completed,
however, because Giacometti was
unsatisfied by the relationship
between the sculpture and the site,
and abandoned the project.
In 1962, Giacometti was awarded
the grand prize for sculpture at the
Venice Biennale, and the award
brought with it worldwide fame.
Even when he had achieved
popularity and his work was in
demand, he still reworked models,
often destroying them or setting
them aside to be returned to years
later. The prints produced by
Giacometti are often overlooked
but the catalogue raisonné,
Giacometti – The Complete
Graphics and 15 Drawings by
Herbert Lust (Tudor 1970),
comments on their impact and
gives details of the number of
copies of each print. Some of his
most important images were in
editions of only 30 and many were
described as rare in 1970.

7. In his later years Giacometti's
works were shown in a number
of large exhibitions throughout
Europe. Riding a wave of
international popularity, and
despite his declining health, he
travelled to the United States in
1965 for an exhibition of his
works at the Museum of Modern
Art in New York. As his last work
he prepared the text for the book
Paris sans fin, a sequence of 150
lithographs containing memories
of all the places where he had
lived.
Artistic analysis
Regarding Giacometti's sculptural
technique and according to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art: "The
rough, eroded, heavily worked
surfaces of Three Men Walking ,
1949, typify his technique.
Reduced, as they are, to their very
core, these figures evoke lone
trees in winter that have lost their
foliage. Within this style,
Giacometti would rarely deviate
from the three themes that
preoccupied him—the walking
man; the standing, nude woman;
and the bust—or all three,
combined in various groupings."
In a letter to Pierre Matisse,
Giacometti wrote: "Figures were
never a compact mass but like a
transparent construction".In the
letter, Giacometti writes about how
he looked back at the realist,
classical busts of his youth with
nostalgia, and tells the story of the
existential crisis which precipitated
the style he became known for.
"I the wish to make compositions
with figures. For this I had to make
(quickly I thought; in passing), one
or two studies from nature, just
enough to understand the
construction of a head, of a whole
figure, and in 1935 I took a model.
This study should take, I thought,
two weeks and then I could realize
my compositions...I worked with
the model all day from 1935 to
1940...Nothing was as I imagined. A
head, became for me an object
completely unknown and without
dimensions."

8. Since Giacometti achieved
exquisite realism with facility
when he was executing busts in
his early adolescence,
Giacometti's
difficulty in re-approaching the
figure as an adult is generally
understood as a sign of existential
struggle for meaning, rather than
as a technical deficit.
Giacometti was a key player
in the Surrealist art movement,
but his work resists easy
categorization. Some describe it
as formalist, others argue it is
expressionist or otherwise having
to do with what Deleuze calls
"blocs of sensation"
(as in Deleuze's analysis of Francis
Bacon). Even after his
excommunication from the
Surrealist group, while the
intention of his sculpting was
usually imitation, the end
products were an expression of
his emotional response to the
subject. He attempted to create
renditions of his models the way
he saw them, and the way he
thought they ought to be seen. He
once
said that he was sculpting not the
human figure but
that is cast".
Scholar William Barrett in Irrational
Man: A Study in Existential
Philosophy (1962), argues that the
attenuated forms of Giacometti's
figures reflect the view of 20th
century modernism and
existentialism that modern life is
increasingly empty and devoid of
meaning. "All the sculptures of
today, like those of the past, will
end one day in pieces...So it is
important to fashion ones work
carefully in its smallest recess and
charge every particle of matter with
life."
A 2011-2012 exhibition at the
Pinacothèque de Paris focussed on
showing how Giacometti was
inspired by Etruscan art.
Exhibitions
Giacometti's work has been the
subject of numerous solo
exhibitions including Pera Museum,
Istanbul (2015) Pushkin Museum,
Moscow (2008); “The Studio of
Alberto Giacometti: Collection of
the Fondation Alberto et Annette
Giacometti”, Centre Pompidou,
Paris (2007–2008); Kunsthal
Rotterdam (2008); Fondation
Beyeler, Basel (2009),

9. Buenos Aires (2012); Kunsthalle Hamburg (2013), and the High
Museum of Art, Atlanta (1970).
The National Portrait Gallery, London's first solo exhibition of
Giacometti's work, Pure Presence opened to five star reviews on 13
October 2015 (to January 10, 2016, in honour of the fiftieth anniversary
of the artist's death)

10. 8

11. 9

12. RIDIKKULUZ is a Jordanian New Yorker promoting his Middle Eastern
subculture in a surrealistic context infused with an urban influence. His
uncle started the Rowaq al Balqa foundation and gave him an artistic
premise early on; he furthered his studies in Paris and Florence.
RIDIKKULUZ is on a mission to bridge the Arab and western world
through art. A little nostalgia, trying to bring back the times where
woman could let there hair down in the Middle East during the sixties
and Arabic music is always playing and the flowers were brighter.
What's so astonishing is that this type of vintage feel also works so well
in the states because America is going through a "throwback" phase as
well. Everyone is paying homage to old stars and bohemian feels. I'm
bringing something that every walk of life can appreciate and make a
bond over.
RIDIKKULUZ has since then been featured in Al-Maha magazine, Nadi
Orthodox Magazine, and recently featured in the Daily 49er. He
currently works with BIZG87 New York, Riverside Gallery New York,
Potato Mike Gallery in New York/Paris, Rowaq Al Balqa Gallery in
Jordan/Florence, and ArtMeJo in Jordan/Lebanon.
1-I noticed much of your artwork is
made with paint, is paint your
favored choice when it comes to
creating your pieces?
Yes, paint is my favored
medium. In reality, anything that
makes a mark will suffice.
I like to use Moroccan pigments
and mix it with linseed oil for the
most vibrant colors.
2- How is your personality reflected
in your work?
Well art is nothing but revealing a
truth of some sort. Through my
work I reveal the most honest form
of me and in turn the audience can
find a truth about themselves. You
can see that my strokes and
technique is just as hyperactive,
spontaneous, pessimistic, intense
and emotional as I am.

13. 3-Furthermore, has your Middle
Eastern background/ancestry
played a major role in influencing
your artwork?
It has played a huge role. I think
the best way to navigate the
journey to the “self” is to turn
back time and analyse every little
piece of you that has made you,
you. Ethnic background is
something we take for granted but
is embedded in us. How you react
when you feel heart broken, the
way you cross your legs when you
sit to simply raise a cup of tea to
your lips. All this is important. I’m
trying to expose this through my
work some how. Just how my
culture is ingrained in me it is also
engrained in my artwork. All the
figures and faces all seem to have
that same aquiline nose, the
dramatic Arabic eyes, lips that
yearn to be kissed. Apart of me
also wants to give Arab’s
something to show for besides the
reputation we have on the news.
The Middle Eastern music that I
paint to also plays a huge part.
Songs that go on for hours on end
with instruments we are
unfamiliar with move the soul.
The instruments almost sound like
they’re crying. I try to give my
pieces (the inanimate object here)
the same effect.
4-Tell me, what kind of exhibits or
art shows have showcased your
work? How does it feel to have
your artwork displayed for all to
see?
I’ve showed in many exhibits
varying from joined exhibits here in
NYC to different features abroad in
Europe and the Middle East. It’s
honestly most shocking to see
people’s reactions. At most times
they are intrigued and left asking a
lot of questions. Even though I am
sometimes left unsatisfied, they
quench for more. Whether its
confusion over the androgyny of
the figures or feeling some time of
sombre emotion, they’re left
wanting to interrogate me as if I
have some explaining to do.
5-You've described yourself as a
"Jordanian New Yorker promoting
societal subcultures" with his
paintbrush — what do you mean by
societal subcultures exactly? And
how does your artwork help get
this work done?

14. Society is made up of a culture
and within that culture is different
subcultures. You take what
you are, dissect it and study it.
Gender, Race, Sexuality, Ethnicity,
State, borough, community,
political views. Subcultures are the
most important thing right now in
2016. We’ve come to a point
where we are making cos-play of
our lives. “shit black people say”,
that Dominican guy playing loud
music from his bodega, the stinky
Arab at the airport. Being a New
Yorker plays a huge role in this
study. Living in the most diverse
and populated city in the world
can give you so much exposure.
You’ll really start to feel
the weight of the world.
You have to make it laughable,
through humor people can take
their truth and be less offended.
Just two days ago,
I painted 5 ladies sipping out
of the same cup. They’re gossiping,
get it haha?!
6-Do you feel the nationwide
community of artists have
welcomed you with open arms?
Have you ever received any kind of
social exclusion from this
community?
A lot of these artists are so talented
and some of the nicest people. On
the other hand the ones curating it
are not necessarily. Middle eastern
art is the most traumatic and
intense work I’ve ever seen. This
might be biased, but maybe the
best. You don’t see enough Middle
Eastern art in galleries. In my
opinion the American taste in art is
horrible. In Europe they ate my art
up. Just two days ago I saw a blob
of slime selling for $50,000. “da
fuck”. Also places like Pier 1 imports
and home goods have brainwashed
the American people to think a nice
art piece for their home should cost
no more than 50 bucks. Ha, you can
buy one of my prints.
7-Tell me a few of your aspirations
in life — where do you hope your
artwork might take you someday?
I hope to come to terms with
myself, completely. I hope to find
that child society made me lock in a
cellar long ago (dramatic lol). I
don’t think we become anything. I
think we’re already formed but we
add layers to ourselves like an
onion and then spend most of our
late adult years peeling those layers
off. That’s what I am doing with my
work as time goes on.

15. I am peeling away the layers that
aren’t me. If I had it my way I
would paint the whole city until
my body collapses. But there is
rules put in place regulating
creatives, what
does that say about
us as a society?
8-I've noticed some Arab
calligraphy in your artwork, would
you consider your work to be
contemporary Middle Eastern art?
Yes, I would consider it
contemporary middle eastern art
but not because of the calligraphy…
but because I did it… and I am
Middle Eastern … and my art work
is me and I am my art work.
9- Is ridikkuluz your pseudonym?
Yes it is. Funny. I got it from Harry
Potter and then twisted the letters
to make it look more appealing. In
the book the spell is used to make a
joke out of what you fear the most.
Maybe I fear myself?
10-Tell me about the kind of praise
or criticism your work has received.
Well it usually varies. Not
necessarily positive or negative but
more questioning. “Why can’t I tell
the gender?” “Why is it sad?” … I
like that it makes people want to
stare. Most critiques and reviews
are on my site: ridikkuluz.com

16. 11-Are you Jordanian or Jordanian-
American?
Jordanian American
12-What would you say makes
your art distinct from other
Middle Eastern and American
contemporary works involving
paint?
It's a mixture of both. That's the
difference. I take the techniques
they teach kids at art school in the
states with the vibrations,
humming and haphazard bells you
hear when looking at middle
eastern art... it's just too intense ..
vibrates like a mmhmmm sound ..
not to sound cocky but I don't feel
that vibration when I look at other
pieces of work.. maybe it's
because it's mine haha
13-You mentioned that you
consider contemporary Middle
Eastern art to be "traumatic and
intense." How so?
The years of oppression shows
through. Its the pulling and tugging
between a world that's brought up
by Islamic influences but wants to
be westernized so bad. It's the girl
that pulls off her hijab when her
family isn't looking. You see that in
all various forms of middle eastern
art. Bridging the gaps between
something that wants to be but
can't.
14-Would you say the majority of
your pieces are paintings of
people? If so, who are these
people? Family? Celebrities?
Friends?
Yes. The Arabic people hold their
musicians dear to their hearts.
Singers such as oum khalthoum,
Abdel haleem, fairouz etc can be
compared to the American Nina
Symone, Frank Sinatra etc. These
people are icons to the Middle
Eastern population. I also like to
draw people with interesting
character faces. A cleft chin. A gap
in the teeth. Frog looking eyes. An
oversized nose. What isn't beautiful
to society is beautiful to me.

17. Kenneth Armitage 15

18. William Kenneth Armitage
CBE 18 July 1916 – 22 January
2002
was a British sculptor known for
his semi-abstract bronzes.
Biography
Armitage studied at the Leeds
College of Art and the Slade
School of Fine Art in London
before joining the British Army in
1939. Armitage became head
of the sculpture department at
the Bath Academy of Art in 1946,
a year after completing his
military service, and served for a
decade. In 1952, he held his first
one-man show in London.
In 1953, he became
Great Britain's first university
artist in residence, at the
University of Leeds (to 1956). In
1958, he won best international
sculpture under age 45 at the
Venice Biennale. Armitage was
made CBE in 1969 and was
elected to the Royal Academy in
1994.
Work
Armitage's striking mature style
was evident as early as 1952. Most
of his works are recognizably
human, but are sometimes joined
with the forms of animals or
furniture. Many displayed quirky
humor. Armitage was also
interested in ancient Egyptian and
Cycladic art and his works have an
archaic flavour. He was featured in
the 1964 documentary film "5
British Sculptors (Work and Talk)"
by American filmmaker Warren
Forma.
Exhibition
1960: Kenneth Armitage - Lynn
Chadwick, Kestner-Gesellschaft,
Hannover, Germany
1963: Kenneth Armitage - Galerie
Charles Lienhard, Zurich,
Switzerland
During the 1960s and beyond,
Armitage adapted to the styles of
the times, sometimes incorporating
plastic or spray paint.

19. Reza Aramesh
17

20. Reza Aramesh
I was born on an early December
morning, in the south-west of
Iran, at a time when everything
was covered with snow.
According to my mother, it was
the easiest labour she has ever
had! I was her fourth child. By the
time the midwife arrived I was
already out. Filled with joy, my
grandmother screamed as she
rushed to open the door with the
news that I was a boy. Assuming
that yet another baby girl was
to be born into the family, they
were not looking forward to my
mother's labour.
I grew up in a very small town,
surrounded by amazing
mountains that were almost
always covered with snow, even
in the midst of the heat of the
summer. Every time I would try to
imagine a way of leaving the town
as fast as possible, my mind would
shut down: I felt that there was no
escape.
I used to spend the summer with
my grandparents, where my bed
was usually prepared in the garden.
This was the perfect place for
dreaming. I would stare at the stars
for hours, feeling that I could
almost touch them. Often, I would
imagine a world so different, miles
away - somewhere new, unfamiliar
and yet very, very exciting.
That childhood refuge in my
grandparent's garden didn't last
very long. The war between Iran
and Iraq was declared and instead
of staring at the stars, my eyes
began to follow the dark smoke
that the warplanes left behind.
In the mid-1980s, I managed to
leave Iran: my aim was to emigrate
to the USA. I was so excited
throughout the journey. At the
same time I was filled with fear: will
I be allowed to enter the country? I
was looking forward to seeing all
those fantastic tall buildings in
close-up. I had even decided I
would not live anywhere below a
25th-floor apartment in New York.

21. After a few hours into the journey
the plane had to stop in London
and all the passengers were asked
to disembark. I remember that
from the air London looked grey
and full of small houses and
chimneys. I was so relieved that
London was not my final
destination. A couple of hours
later, however, I was told at the
immigration desk that I was not
going to be allowed to enter the
USA because of the political
situation between Iran and
America. I was also told that I
could remain in Britain on a
temporary visa. Later, they said, I
could try to obtain a US visa.
My dream of the giant buildings
and of an energetic city crowded
with vibrant people soon
collapsed. I settled for a tiny room
in a semi-detached house in Surrey,
with an old woman and her grown-
up son. She insisted that I call her
"mum". She didn't know how much
I had been through just to escape
home! Of course, I could not
explain any of that to her - at the
time, the only thing I could say in
English was "Hello, my name is
Reza". I was 15.
My favourite place
It's difficult to choose my favourite
place in London - there are so
many. But I think it is the City at
lunchtime - I find it full of energy
and vitality. There is a sense of lack
of time, almost everyone seems to
be running out of time. Also,
people mostly look unhappy and, in
a very sadistic way, I like that - it
makes me feel comfortable with
the choice I've made!
References
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2005/oct/19/imagineartaf
ter.art18

22. 20

23. Ahmed Morsi
21

24. Ahmed Morsi
was born in Alexandria, Egypt in
1930. In 1954, he graduated from
the University
of Alexandria,Faculty of Arts with
a major in English Literature.
During the years 1952-53, he
studied art in the studio of the
Italian master Antonio Becci,
whose former students included
Seif Wanly, in Alexandria. Early on,
Ahmed Morsi was initiated into
Alexandria’s literary society
as well as the city’s very own
rising group of artists. By his early
twenties, he was participating in
group shows with Egypt’s most
notable modern artists,
including A Al Gazzar, H El
Telmisani, I Massouda, F Kamel,
H Nada and M Moussa. In 1949,
he started writing poetry and
developed this talent in parallel
with his painting – publishing his
first Diwan, “Songs of the
Temples / Steps in Darkness”
at the age of 19.
Career
Morsi moved to Baghdad, Iraq in
1955, where he taught English to
supplement his two-year stay. This
was a time of a
cultural renaissance in Iraq, when
Baghdad was a center for the
literati, the artists and the
intellectuals. It was in Baghdad that
he developed a friendship and a
working relationship with several
Iraqi writers and painters, among
them Abdel Wahab Al Bayati, Fuad
Al Takarli and Ardash Kakavian; and
these relationships continued to
produce noteworthy creative
cooperation as well as lifelong
friendships throughout the coming
decades.
Returning to Egypt, he moved to
Cairo in 1957. In these years,
Ahmed Morsi was the first Egyptian
to work alongside Egypt’s
acclaimed playwrights, Alfred
Farag, Abdel Rahman Al Sharkawi,
designing stage sets and costumes
for The National Theater at the
original, Khedieval, Cairo Opera
House – art forms that had until
then previously been relegated only
to Italian designers. He also
partnered with Abdel Hadi Al
Algazzar and co-designed stage sets
for an American play at the Cairo
Opera House. Other projects with
Al Gazzar included a book of
Morsi’s poetry alongside Al Gazzar’s
drawings.

25. The book was never published due
to Al Gazzar’s untimely passing,
however the poetry/drawings live
on. In 1968, he co-founded the
avant-garde magazine
“Gallery ‘68” with
Edwar Al Kharrat,
Ibrahim Mansour, Gamil Atteya,
Sayed Hegab and others. This
publication immediately became
Egypt’s most reputable source as
the voice of the new modernism.
With these years began the
Artist’s journey into the world of
criticism, publishing critiques on
both art and literature, both of
which remaining intimate
domains. He wrote two items for
Grand Larousse Encyclopedia
(1975); “Art in Egypt” and
“Art in Iraq”. Again the pioneer,
Ahmed Morsi introduced a new
creative vehicle to the art public in
Egypt with his 1995 show: “The
Artist’s Book”. Following his
exhibition, a new Biennial, The
Artist’s Book, was created in
Alexandria.
In 1974, Ahmed Morsi moved to
New York City, where he continues
to paint, write and critique from his
Manhattan home.In 1976, like
many artists residing in the NYC
area, he took up the art of
lithography at The New School and
added yet another dimension to his
creative tools and in the last 20
years, the Artist embraced
photography – the last art form to
be included in Ahmed Morsi’s
extensive palette.

26. http://www.aziz_anzabi.com