Page 175 - Ahmed Fouad Selim
P. 175
a homogeneous area of blue over
the area of dark color. In these works,
Selim used the technique of separation
and isolation, dyeing on contrasting
color layers and then scraping to reveal
the protrusions of the lower layer to give
vitality to the background on which the
figurative letters characters are dancing.
In the second half of the 1980s,
Selim's artworks turned into another
form of composition, a form of smoke
clouds from the family of Fernand
Leger’s hanging clouds as if they are
conventional clouds which have been
cut and knocked in metal strips that Oil on toile - 48 x 33 cm - 1985.
swell and concave; Selim’s clouds cross
the composition from the right to the left
of the painting in vibrant strips on a contrasting, dark, blue ground which on the
contrary, inspire a kind of warmth. These strips are cut by a calligraphic vocabulary
that inspire the embodiment as if they were formed from a slow-dry red paste with
plaited, contiguous, and accumulated sculptural qualities closer to the symbols of
musical notation but in organic nature. These letters relations are lengthwise at the
forefront unlike their flat formations in the previous stage.
In the 1970s, Selim continued to use private colors that are uncommon in the work
of his fellow painters; they are sober and articulated, tied with the degrees of warm
and sometimes cold neutrals. He was able to feel and was aware of the energies of
each color.
In 1974, Selim won the first prize of the 10th Alexandria International Biennale,
and in 1983 he won the second prize in the 1st General Exhibition in Cairo.
From 1987 to 1994, Selim's artworks are radically transformed, revealing the
relationship between the flat and solid, organic and geometrical, and spaces and lines
binaries. The painted frames that are opened from a pictorial cloud with shadows
and edges combinations as if they were an area of dust and smoke. Inside the frame,
colored lines of iridescent stripes heal at the top from a wide starting base. At the top
of the composition, areas treated with the same linear color scheme fall as if they
were broad-cracked banana leaves and outlined by light lines to look like the blade.
Sometimes these bundles of lines take the form of diaphanous dresses wrapped
around their tips like claws, and partially accumulate to become brighter around
interstitial areas of poetic rhythm, complementing the directions of parallel lines to
achieve a very poetic polyphony melody.
Selim won the Nile Grand Prize "Oscar" (T) from the 3rd Cairo International
Biennale in December 1988. In that collection, Selim combines the crouching,
173
the area of dark color. In these works,
Selim used the technique of separation
and isolation, dyeing on contrasting
color layers and then scraping to reveal
the protrusions of the lower layer to give
vitality to the background on which the
figurative letters characters are dancing.
In the second half of the 1980s,
Selim's artworks turned into another
form of composition, a form of smoke
clouds from the family of Fernand
Leger’s hanging clouds as if they are
conventional clouds which have been
cut and knocked in metal strips that Oil on toile - 48 x 33 cm - 1985.
swell and concave; Selim’s clouds cross
the composition from the right to the left
of the painting in vibrant strips on a contrasting, dark, blue ground which on the
contrary, inspire a kind of warmth. These strips are cut by a calligraphic vocabulary
that inspire the embodiment as if they were formed from a slow-dry red paste with
plaited, contiguous, and accumulated sculptural qualities closer to the symbols of
musical notation but in organic nature. These letters relations are lengthwise at the
forefront unlike their flat formations in the previous stage.
In the 1970s, Selim continued to use private colors that are uncommon in the work
of his fellow painters; they are sober and articulated, tied with the degrees of warm
and sometimes cold neutrals. He was able to feel and was aware of the energies of
each color.
In 1974, Selim won the first prize of the 10th Alexandria International Biennale,
and in 1983 he won the second prize in the 1st General Exhibition in Cairo.
From 1987 to 1994, Selim's artworks are radically transformed, revealing the
relationship between the flat and solid, organic and geometrical, and spaces and lines
binaries. The painted frames that are opened from a pictorial cloud with shadows
and edges combinations as if they were an area of dust and smoke. Inside the frame,
colored lines of iridescent stripes heal at the top from a wide starting base. At the top
of the composition, areas treated with the same linear color scheme fall as if they
were broad-cracked banana leaves and outlined by light lines to look like the blade.
Sometimes these bundles of lines take the form of diaphanous dresses wrapped
around their tips like claws, and partially accumulate to become brighter around
interstitial areas of poetic rhythm, complementing the directions of parallel lines to
achieve a very poetic polyphony melody.
Selim won the Nile Grand Prize "Oscar" (T) from the 3rd Cairo International
Biennale in December 1988. In that collection, Selim combines the crouching,
173
