Ayyam Gallery Dubai (Alserkal Avenue, Al Quoz) is pleased to present Towards the Absolute of Nature, a large-scale survey of work by the late Moustafa Fathi. Organised under Ayyam Gallery’s custodianship, the exhibition serves as the first posthumous retrospective of the pioneering Syrian painter.
Featuring a diverse selection of paintings and works on paper, Towards the Absolute of Nature highlights Fathi’s theoretical treatment of abstraction through several periods of his oeuvre. Archival materials and the artist’s tools are also on display, including examples of the intricate ‘stamps’ he used in later works. During the second half of his career, Fathi developed a painting style based on a system of signs that he adapted from a variety of sources, such as the motifs of Bedouin textiles. Beginning in 1987, the artist researched traditional folk art throughout Syria then produced a series of carved woodblocks based on his findings. When applying his interpretive designs to a panel of dyed or bare canvas, Fathi used plant-based pigments in the tradition of fiber art practices. Although the artist’s works are outwardly inspired by the geometric patterns of Syrian folk art, Fathi sets aside the symmetry and meticulous designs of his sources, allowing his motifs to organically takeover the composition with the vigor of gestural marks. Fathi’s reliance on intuitive methods of painting corresponds with his admiration of artists who used similar approaches such as Paul Klee and Jackson Pollock.
