Abdul Halim RADWI (1939-2006) [ARABIA-SAUDI ARABIA] - Lot 34

Abdul Halim RADWI (1939-2006) [ARABIA-SAUDI ARABIA] Market scene, 1965 Oil on isorel. Signed and dated lower left. Signed in Arabic lower right. 31.5 x 43.5 cm Born in the holy city of Mecca in 1939, Abdul Hakim Radwi was one of the first Saudi artists to study abroad. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome in 1964, then became director of the Association of Arab Artists in Madrid. He graduated again from the Royal Academy of Arts in Madrid in 1979, a city he had visited during the 1970s. Prior to this, he founded the Fine Arts Center in Jeddah (1968-1974), then served as Director General of Culture and Arts in Jeddah (1980-1992). Although he worked abroad and studied the currents of Western painting, his paintings of the mature years (1980 / 2000) synthesize his apprenticeship and are marked by a constructive, dreamlike geometry applied to the settings, folk scenes and landscapes of his native Arabia. Our painting can be compared with Market Scene (1967), to be sold in London in 2023 (20 th Century Art/ Middle East - Sotheby's). Radwi treats a traditional market scene with a synthetic, cubist grammar and bright, vivid colors, magnified by the light of his native land.