20TH CENTURY ART / MIDDLE EAST
A vibrant international platform for modern and contemporary arts spanning an array of countries and regions, Sotheby’s 20th Century Art / Middle East auction will take place on 24 April in London. Sohrab Sepehri, Untitled (Tree Trunks and Village Scene), oil on canvas, circa 1972 (est. £200,000-300,000 / $278,000-417,000) A child of Kashan, Sepehri grew up among the town’s ‘gardens of paradise’. This early influence was crucial, as the shady trees that offered cool respite remained central to the artist’s output throughout his life. A rare feature in this almost abstract series, one can glimpse huts from in between the tree trunks. At a time when many were seeking a Western education, Sepehri chose to travel to the East – fascinated by what Hinduism and the traditions of Japan had to offer his gentle, reclusive spirit. Following a printmaking apprenticeship in Tokyo, Sepehri assimilated the Zen culture and minimalist aesthetic into his own universe of poetry, calligraphy and dusty deserts. This evocative painting harks back to his homeland, yet has a universal lyricism. Bahman Mohasses, Il Minotauro fa Paura alla Gente per Bene, oil on canvas, 1966 (est. £280,000-350,000 / $390,000-487,000) One of the rarest works by the pioneering icon of Iranian modernism to ever appear at auction, Mohasses’ The Minotaur Scares the Good People is a highly-charged representation of the artist’s lifetime grappling with demons of alienation, loneliness and disenfranchisement. The dreamscape is populated with a plethora of half-human half-beast creatures, one of very few works by the artist to contain quite so many detailed figures. Hailing from the sought-after period of the 1960s, this irreverent avant-garde painting will make its auction debut having remained unseen in a private collection for nearly fifty years. Filled with movement, anguish and despair, this composition brings to mind Picasso’s renowned series on the Minotaur and Francis Bacon’s anthropomorphic figures. A symbol of mythic power combined with mortality, Mohasses’ Minotaur is a manifestation of ultimate yet truncated power. The humans, though painted in livelier colours, are also symbols of powerlessness – a mother with an infant, a fleeing man – all prisoners of their own condition. Shakir Hassan Al-Said, Bustan Al-Ma’refa (The Orchard of Knowledge), oil on canvas, 1952 (est. £60,000-80,000 / $83,500-112,000) One of the most vibrant and iconic works by the pioneer of Iraqi Modernism ever to have appeared at auction, The Orchard of Knowledge symbolises a stepping stone into a new artistic era. Painted with an idealistic and ‘naïve’ style inspired by religious mythology and ancient folklore – and a palette drawing from the tribal colours of Iraqi ancient carpets – the work merges past and present in perfect harmony. Al-Said was the most versatile Iraqi artist of his generation – a curious, emancipated and adventurous explorer who relentlessly pushed boundaries throughout his lifetime. One of the founding members of The Baghdad Group of Modern Art, Al-Said sought to question notions of Iraqi modern art, which had largely been defined by opulence and classical makers of heritage. Alongside the Art and Liberty Movement in Egypt, the group were one of the few to have published a manifesto expressing their vision and concerns – emphasising the importance of innovation in painting at a time of a country’s ‘awakening to real freedom’.