AZIZ

ART

Kenneth

Armitage

Alberto Giacometti

RIDIKKULUZ

Ahmed

Morsi

Reza

Aramesh

July 2017

Competition

Festival

Director: Aziz Anzabi Editor : Nafiseh Yaghoubi Translator : Asra Yaghoubi Research: Zohreh Nazari

1-Alberto Giacometti 8-Festival 9-RIDIKKULUZ 15-Kenneth Armitage 17-Reza Aramesh 20-Competition 21-Ahmed Morsi

http://www.aziz_anzabi.com

Alberto Giacometti

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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

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.

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."

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 "the shadow

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),

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)

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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.

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?

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.

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

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.

Kenneth Armitage 15

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.

Reza Aramesh

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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.

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/imagineartafter.art18

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Ahmed Morsi

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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.

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.

http://www.aziz_anzabi.com