Fateh Moudarres (Syrian, 1922-1999)

In many of his paintings, Moudarres portrays a faceless crowd, representing a powerless mass stripped of identity. He creates an amalgamation of faces in a totemic fashion, incorporating a reference to Assyrian antiquity; some hinted at faintly in the background, others prominently coming to the foreground of the composition. Despite their strong presence, upon closer view, one realises that although their eyes in some cases remain open, their mouths are closed. In the mind of the artist, personal tragedies such as the death of his two children at an early age, were linked to the political events and social tragedies in the Middle East. Emerging with apparent fear, the figures’ silence speaks of an inability to express themselves, a metaphor for the inability of Arabs to express their own personal political and social opinions, which Moudarres was not shy to criticise. Each of the figures' square faces hark back to the archaeological traditions of the region's history, executed in a broad style with thick black lines and variants of colour. In the present work he uses a tonal palette of beiges and ochres reminiscent of Mamluk architecture in Damascas. By employing the use of historical visual codes into a modern context, the artist highlights the repetition and inevitability of history, violence and political upheaval.

Moudarres participated in numerous exhibitions during his lifetime, including the Venice Biennale, 1961, the São Paulo Biennale, 1963 (Medal of Honour) and 1975, and the Cairo Biennial in 1994. A major retrospective of his work was held at the L'Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris in 1995. In 2019, he was the subject of the exhibition Fateh al-Moudarres: Colour, Extensity and Sense held at MATHAF: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha.