Ahmed Alsoudani
Baghdad II, 2008, Acrylic on canvas, 250 x 380 cm
Baghdad I, 2008, Acrylic on canvas, 210 x 370 cm
Untitled, 2008, Oil, acrylic, charcoal, gesso on canvas, 213 x 184 cm
Untitiled, 2008, Charcoal, acrylic, oil on canvas, 152 x 152.5 cm
info not available
Untitled, 2008, Oil, acrylic, gesso on canvas, 213 x 184 cms
Untitled, 2008, Charcoal, acrylic and pastel on paper, 270 x 226 cm
Untitled, 2007, Oil, acrylic, ink, gesso on canvas, 182.9 x 213.4 cm
Untitled, 2009, other info not available
“Most of my work deals with the war. The war for me is a life-and-death issue. I’ve been dealing with it since before I’ve been here, and it’s hard to step away from it. I’m not interested in showing blood and war. I’m working really hard to capture the moment between when the aircraft are attacking and the moment after the attack, that line between life and death.”
Seeking political asylum, Ahmed Alsoudani (born 1975 inBaghdad) left Iraq for the United States in 1999. [He now lives and works in Berlin]. His paintings and drawings reflect the troubled contemporary history of his home country, yet they belong to a long tradition of painting depicting war and atrocity.
His work makes reference to paintings done by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century European artists as well as Francisco Goya, Pablo Picasso, Georg Grosz, Francis Bacon, and Philip Guston. However, he also draws inspiration from Middle Eastern art, literature, and contemporary poetry, such as the work of Lebanese artist Abbas Baythoon.
He received his master’s degree in Fine Art (painting) from Yale University in 2008.
Ahmed Alsoudani at Saatchi Gallery
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