Fateh Moudarres (Syrian, 1922-1999)
Lot 106 PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF DR. RUDOLF FECHTER AND MRS MARIA FECHTER

Fateh Moudarres (Syrian, 1922-1999)

Women at the Wedding

Closed18 April 2012

Price Realised

USD 80,500

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Fateh Moudarres (Syrian, 1922-1999)
Women at the Wedding
signed in Arabic, signed and dated 'Moudarres 63' (lower right)
oil and sand on canvas
45¼ x 48 7/8in. (115 x 124.1cm.)
Executed in 1963

Dr. Rudolf Fechter & Mrs Maria Fechter Collection (acquired directly from the artist in the early 1960s) and thence by descent to the present owner.

Specialist note

'It looks childish, but it is not childish. In my paintings one can see, how much I love human beings, in my art I stand near them, when the power of fate and oppressive structures beset them'.
(Fateh Moudarres)

Dr. Rudolf Fechter (1912-1990) was a journalist and a diplomat and an avid art collector. He was a leading editor at the Rheinischer Merkur in Cologne before he entered the foreign office. In his first position he was a cultural and press attache at the German Embassy in Mexico City. Later he became German Ambassador in Syria (1959-63), in Ethiopia (1969-73) and in Ireland (1973-77). He and his wife Maria were very interested in the ancient and modern art of the countries they lived in. During Fechter's posting as German Ambassador in Damascus between 1959 and 1963, the young Fateh Moudarres returned to Damascus, in 1961 after completing his studies in Rome. Moudarres soon met Rudolf Fechter and his wife Maria and they became close friends.

Rudolf Fechter realized the great artistic power in the works of Moudarres: 'He has an elementary and delicate sense of colours, his paintings have a new suggestive, mystical, sometimes lyrical expression. Moudarres is one of the first artists in the Near East who has searched to establish a connection to the universal development of the art and thus to find a synthesis between his oriental roots and international artistic concepts of his time. Moudarres is a universal artist and his art has a universal validity. His paintings also reflect deep humanity.'

Rudolf Fechter supported this painter and bought many paintings from him. Even after the Fechters had left Syria, Moudarres stayed in contact with them and when they had passed away, Moudarres later wrote in a letter that 'in Damascus they (the Fechters) were my only parents'.