Page 176 - Ahmed Fouad Selim
P. 176
ht filled with protruding spirals. The circle is divided into gradient perimeters,
hovering around one color center in varying degrees, taking a key position in 1969
artworks. It is the same period when he worked in conjunction with the artist Saleh
Reda.
From 1970, Selim became more inclined to reductionism and to the use of abstract
symbols. His works are filtered into elementary circular shape, frame and orthogonal
intersecting pivot lines. These paintings relied on the sophistication of the distribution
of geometric elements after smoothing their sharp symmetry with tight balances of
areas and lines for the intermittent communication of lines in which he used a dark
green circle crossed by two perpendicular vermilion red lines as if they had crawled
behind the olive-colored ground to reappear in the middle of the four sides of the
painting of the edges over a violet frame.
In another painting dating back to 1970, the artist divides it in half. The upper
half is divided into horizontal gradation from bottom to top of dark red to the red,
then vermilion, pink, orange, and orange beige; over the dark area, the artist draws
a circle, while the lower half of the painting was gradated by cold color stripes from
the brightly blue family. This area is surrounded by a red frame and the cold area
has two diagonal crosses drawn in red. In this painting, the artist's tendencies were
revealed through playing with the cold and the warm colors and the warm color
intersection on a cold ground.
In another painting on an oxidized and shaded copper ground with a turquoise
frame around it, the artist drew a set of overlapping squares heading to the center with
their gradual deviation from the parallel; from the outer borders of the square, the
artist extends two lines that meet at the middle of the four sides of the composition.
The artist then depicted a series of two-dimensional paintings with spaces, perspective
drawings, curled lines, numbers, mathematical marks, and gradient striped spaces.
Selim came out of his programmatic research in the language of fine art and the
balance of design and the pairing of arcs and angles, i.e., from the outcome of the
1960s experience to the manifestations of the free formation in Arabic letters which
acquired a certain personality as a result of its rise, cramps and twists, as well as its
overlap, accumulation and condensation around fictitious magnetic spots on the
surface of the painting.
His technical experiences were also crystallized and enabled him to explore
materials and methods of performance. In the 1970s, the interest in lines, angles,
beam lines and reactive circles declined. A kinetic rhythm and equilibrium between
solid spaces and creeping elements were dissolved over the rest of the formation,
shaping the opposite of gravitational energy. The solid black letters with white border
swim on the ground of a hell of raging black smoked red.
Selim worked to achieve the rhythmic equation and balance through the dominant
monochrome atmosphere, and the harmonic shadows. The ambiguous drawn letters
inspire the African characters swimming in a choppy ethereal sea. The occupied areas
of the composition appear to have been cut from a wider area by cutting to allow
174
hovering around one color center in varying degrees, taking a key position in 1969
artworks. It is the same period when he worked in conjunction with the artist Saleh
Reda.
From 1970, Selim became more inclined to reductionism and to the use of abstract
symbols. His works are filtered into elementary circular shape, frame and orthogonal
intersecting pivot lines. These paintings relied on the sophistication of the distribution
of geometric elements after smoothing their sharp symmetry with tight balances of
areas and lines for the intermittent communication of lines in which he used a dark
green circle crossed by two perpendicular vermilion red lines as if they had crawled
behind the olive-colored ground to reappear in the middle of the four sides of the
painting of the edges over a violet frame.
In another painting dating back to 1970, the artist divides it in half. The upper
half is divided into horizontal gradation from bottom to top of dark red to the red,
then vermilion, pink, orange, and orange beige; over the dark area, the artist draws
a circle, while the lower half of the painting was gradated by cold color stripes from
the brightly blue family. This area is surrounded by a red frame and the cold area
has two diagonal crosses drawn in red. In this painting, the artist's tendencies were
revealed through playing with the cold and the warm colors and the warm color
intersection on a cold ground.
In another painting on an oxidized and shaded copper ground with a turquoise
frame around it, the artist drew a set of overlapping squares heading to the center with
their gradual deviation from the parallel; from the outer borders of the square, the
artist extends two lines that meet at the middle of the four sides of the composition.
The artist then depicted a series of two-dimensional paintings with spaces, perspective
drawings, curled lines, numbers, mathematical marks, and gradient striped spaces.
Selim came out of his programmatic research in the language of fine art and the
balance of design and the pairing of arcs and angles, i.e., from the outcome of the
1960s experience to the manifestations of the free formation in Arabic letters which
acquired a certain personality as a result of its rise, cramps and twists, as well as its
overlap, accumulation and condensation around fictitious magnetic spots on the
surface of the painting.
His technical experiences were also crystallized and enabled him to explore
materials and methods of performance. In the 1970s, the interest in lines, angles,
beam lines and reactive circles declined. A kinetic rhythm and equilibrium between
solid spaces and creeping elements were dissolved over the rest of the formation,
shaping the opposite of gravitational energy. The solid black letters with white border
swim on the ground of a hell of raging black smoked red.
Selim worked to achieve the rhythmic equation and balance through the dominant
monochrome atmosphere, and the harmonic shadows. The ambiguous drawn letters
inspire the African characters swimming in a choppy ethereal sea. The occupied areas
of the composition appear to have been cut from a wider area by cutting to allow
174
