Painting by Ahmed Alsoudani at Marlborough Fine Art, London. By: Alexandra Zirinis
I visited a few exhibitions while in London for fall break, but I can’t stop thinking about an exhibition on the top floor of Marlborough gallery, that of Ahmed Alsoudani. I hadn’t heard much about the Iraqi artist before I visited his current exhibition on the contemporary floor of Marlborough gallery. I ended up spending about an hour walking through this very small exhibition because the paintings, the show, and the narrative of the artist himself moved me. Maybe because I learned something new from this artist, but also maybe because his works are unique and exciting. The paintings are large in scale, even so large that some are overwhelming. Although, it is not just the scale of the works that makes them overwhelming, it is the energy and vigor of each individual brushstroke that consumes the viewer (in this case, me!)
Alsoudani was banished from Iraq and became a political refugee in the United States during the Gulf War, after defacing a poster of the dictator of Iraq at the time, Saddam Hussein. In the United States he attended Yale Art School and soon after that his talent was spotted by Charles Saatchi (a major figure in the contemporary art world who owns and runs Saatchi gallery in London). Alsoudani then exhibited at the Venice Biennale in the Iraqi pavilion (different countries hold pavilions each year), and was when his when his career really took off.
Themes of war and chaos take over his paintings; they are abstract and frenzied (similar to English artist Francis Bacon’s disfigured paintings referencing the Holocaust). The works seem to represent the injustice and scarring of war around the world, along with the toll that conflict takes on human life as a whole. Alsoudani’s inspiration clearly comes from the struggle in the Middle East as he is from there, but it is not limited to that. There is not a specific story in all of his paintings, which in my opinion is purposeful. Alsoudani seems to be referencing the hardship and destruction that war and conflict cause all around the world, whether in the Middle East or other regions.
Painting by Ahmed Alsoudani at Marlborough Fine Art, London. By: Alexandra Zirinis
The exhibition was small (only about five or six large paintings - canvases much larger than others, some even taking up an entire wall). The rest of the gallery was bare and white which was a great decision by Marlborough gallery. Even though it was small, the exhibition was curated well and allowed the viewer to wander through, but also left room to stand and stare at the paintings which I found myself doing, because honestly I couldn’t help it. The thick black swooshes and swirls (for lack of better descriptive words) caught my eye immediately and then I stayed lingering - perhaps because of the harsh contrast of colours or just the intense vitality of the major canvases. There are black holes painted throughout the canvas, which possibly represent the doom and disaster that victims of conflict face on a day to day basis. It is hard to describe the intense hardship of war, so maybe a story is described the best in a painting. The middle east is dealing with seriously cyclical, violent issues and the black hole metaphor (although tragic) represents that beautifully.
Alsoudani has not had an exhibition for a while so it is interesting that Marlborough took him on when they do not represent him. However a work of his entitled “Baghdad” did sell at Christie’s for 541,250 GBP, even though the high estimate was 350,000. There seems to be no doubt that some of these works will be ripped off the walls and only appreciate in value. Not only are the paintings meaningful and thought provoking, but they are truly beautiful - I know I, along with many others are looking forward to Alsoudani’s career hopefully taking off even more.
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