Marwan

Marwan biography

After studying Arabic literature in Damascus, Marwan moved to Berlin in 1957, where he studied painting in Hann Trier’s master class at the College of Fine Arts until 1963. Moving within the same circles as Georg Baselitz and Eugen Schönebeck, he developed his own form of “pathetic figuration”, situated between representation and abstraction.

Whereas his early works were landscapes in a style inspired by Impressionism, Van Gogh and Cézanne, his almost totally abstract works in the early 1960s displayed an affinity to abstract Expressionism. In the 1960s he finally found his preferred subject – a single figure set against an abstract background. He sometimes worked with unusual image details, and fragments of further figures can often be seen protruding into the proportionally distorted large-headed figures whose bodies are reminiscent of Egon Schiele, whereas his painterly style is more akin to Vincent van Gogh or Edvard Munch. Later Marwan focused entirely on frontal depictions of faces whose physiognomy he dissolved almost completely in his course brushwork. In doing so, he used a patchy, multi-layered method of applying the paint from his richly nuanced range of colours. His “Puppets”, too, became a decisive motif. From 1977 to 2002 he held a professorship at the College of Fine Arts. From 1994, Marwan was a member of the Academy of Arts. Numerous solo exhibitions made his oeuvre known in Germany and abroad. His works can be found in prestigious collections worldwide. 

Whereas his early works were landscapes in a style inspired by Impressionism, Van Gogh and Cézanne, his almost totally abstract works in the early 1960s displayed an affinity to abstract Expressionism. In the 1960s he finally found his preferred subject – a single figure set against an abstract background. He sometimes worked with unusual image details, and fragments of further figures can often be seen protruding into the proportionally distorted large-headed figures whose bodies are reminiscent of Egon Schiele, whereas his painterly style is more akin to Vincent van Gogh or Edvard Munch. Later Marwan focused entirely on frontal depictions of faces whose physiognomy he dissolved almost completely in his course brushwork. In doing so, he used a patchy, multi-layered method of applying the paint from his richly nuanced range of colours. His “Puppets”, too, became a decisive motif. From 1977 to 2002 he held a professorship at the College of Fine Arts. From 1994, Marwan was a member of the Academy of Arts. Numerous solo exhibitions made his oeuvre known in Germany and abroad. His works can be found in prestigious collections worldwide.