Lot 757 D

Oil on canvas 89 x 130 cm, framed. Signed and dated 'Marwan 79' lower middle. The stretcher signed and dated 'Marwan '79 Okt.79'. - Some surface dust.

With verbal confirmation from the artist, Berlin, on 4.10.2013.

Exhibition: Bagdad 1980 (Museum of Modern Art), Marwan, exib.cat.p.48 with col.ill.

“... The poetic technique of hovering around the subject and surrounding it with analogue sensations hints at an understanding of the role that has been played by the puppet motif in the artist's paintings since 1978. In view of the raw clichés that appear to have pervaded the Western mindset by now this theme may be suspected as symbolising a 'woman as such'. This is a huge mistake: Marwan himself admits that what primarily prompted him to make this choice was his fear of intimacy with a live model. In view of the basic position of his work, the decision for a puppet must therefore be understood as a further important step towards understanding his artistic intent. If the face and the figure are really only the outer garments of emotions or shells of a hyper-individual life, then the role of the subject may as well be taken by a mask and its supporting frame. After all, as it has been empty from the very beginning, it is even better suited to assume the imaginary existence of a depicted creature. In Marwan's paintings the puppet is always far less self-conscious in its pose than any of the creatures that preceded it. It lives through all the ups and downs of life, without qualifications: grande dame in one scene, a pile of misery in another, then again cheekily approaching the limelight, languishing wistfully, charming, infamous, demanding sympathy - whatever the player of the puppet might find within it. The gap that serves as Marwan's starting point seems to have been bridged in this figure once and for all. At the end of the day, the Prophet can hardly be filled with anger, as no one can accuse the artist of imitating Creation. Yet in the same way one might also conclude that Marwan fully meets the criterion of modernity which Henri Matisse impressed so clearly upon all sensualists: he does not expose a woman, but he paints a picture of his emotions.” (Robert Kudielka, Marwans Traum, in: Marwan, exhib.cat., Kunsthalle, Kunstverein Darmstadt, 1984, p.11)