Lot 166: Safwan Dahoul (Syria, b. 1961)

Safwan Dahoul (Syria, b. 1961)
Untitled from the Rêves series
signed, dated and located 'DAHOUL 2000 monte Rosa' and signed in Arabic (lower left)
oil on canvas
48½ x 75½in. (123 x 192cm.)
Painted in 2000

This lot offered for sale is subject to a 5% import duty on the importation value levied at the time of collection/shipment within the UAE.
This painting was painted in Monte Rosa area just few kilometres outside of Damascus in the year 2000. It was painted in one session with other artists sharing a large canvas for a charity event for the children and mothers of Palestine.
In the posture of this figure one can see the intense agony of the Palestinian cause, represented by the mother, the woman, who represents the land. Always from the same theme the Dream, here it seems, a dream with very little hope.
Dahoul's earlier paintings are marked by a more spontaneous and lighter movement of brush strokes and a greater range of colour, predominantly greens and blues. In his later works these disappeared, which retain the same sense of sadness but in monochrome.