Dalloul Art Foundation explores evolution and impact of Arab prints and printmaking

Underappreciated artworks on paper deserve to be 'celebrated and more deeply understood'

Olive Tree on AlBaten by Walid Abu Shakra, 1980. Photo: Dalloul Art Foundation

In his 99 Heads (Ibn Arabi), Marwan Kassab-Bachi – known simply as Marwan – renders an impression of each of the divine attributes across 99 artworks on paper. The series inspires awe for its sheer scale, but it is up close where the complexity behind each of the 99 pieces can be truly appreciated.

99 Heads (Ibn Arabi) is displayed across an entire wall at the Dalloul Art Foundation in Beirut. It is one of the opening works in a new exhibition that delves into the nuances of printmaking. While the foundation is indefinitely closed to the public for security reasons due to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, it is accessible virtually through the institution's website.

The choice of the piece is fitting, considering the varied approaches the late Syrian artist took to create each print in the series.

“Marwan reflects the 99 attributes of God in faces that, if you look at them closely, don’t look like faces,” Wafa Roz, director of the Dalloul Art Foundation, says. “They look like topographical faces that take you to experiences or spaces or places that you have been in. This is exactly what we should understand, whether in the Islamic or Sufist ideologies, that the attributes of God are not adjectives or nouns. They are experiences that you face in life.”

The work is being shown as part of the Prints & Printmaking exhibition, which presents hundreds of other fine art prints of paper. That makes it one of the most unique and comprehensive exhibitions of its kind to take place in the region. While some of the best-known Arab artists are being represented, from Samia Halaby to Farid Belkahia, the star of the show is paper – a medium that has long been underappreciated by collectors and institutions alike.

Roz says she hopes that the exhibition can challenge preconceptions about works on paper and showcase the breadth of possibilities that printmaking provides.

“There is less appreciation for works on paper,” she says. “It's a medium that is sensitive and fragile. It's a medium that needs a very high level of conservation.” And yet, that does not mean that they should remain in vaults and drawers, away from the public eye.

“This art form, with its deep roots and diverse techniques, deserves to be celebrated and more deeply understood,” she says. “Through this exhibition, we hope to highlight the unique processes that go into printmaking, while shining a spotlight on the incredible talent of myriad Arab printmakers.”

For example, Walid Abu Shakra's prints present scenes that feature olive trees and cacti. The Palestinian artist's works also use a variety of printing methods, but while Marwan beckons landscapes as embodiments of the divine, Abu Shakra unpacks their geopolitical implications.

“He addresses landscapes, but in terms of borders, landscapes that depict identity,” Roz says. “Palestinian artists symbolise the cacti hedges as the delineation of borders, representative of the ownership of land and identity.”

Abu Shakra’s work is a prime example of how regional artists in the 20th century saw printmaking as a tool of social commentary. In a mesmerising series of silk screen prints, Jordanian artist Mona Saudi juxtaposes totemic figures alongside the poetry of Mahmoud Darwish. The poems are depicted lilting Arabic currents alongside and underneath the abstract forms that seem to transcribe, in corporeal terms, the themes of exile and resistance often found in Darwish’s works.

Dia Al Azzawi, meanwhile, draws from another poet in his silk screen prints. Vibrant with bold colours and forms, The Will of Life series is titled after the poem by Tunisian writer Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi. The works were created in the early 1990s, decades before al-Shabbi’s poem found newfound attention as slogans and chants during the 2010 Tunisian revolution.

Printmaking as a tool of social and artistic expression still resonates in the region, as the exhibition makes clear. There are works by Ayman and Said Baalbaki that reflect on the brothers’ experiences during the Lebanese Civil War, but with different perspectives.

Ayman’s lithographs show the destruction that overtook Beirut as a result of the war, with black ink prints of houses in rubble and landscapes of debris. Said’s work, meanwhile, depicts personal upheavals. His lithographs show stacked suitcases, perhaps alluding to the constant need to relocate because of the conflict.

Some artists were more eager to use printmaking as a medium of visual experimentation. Palestinian artist Kamal Boullata, for instance, used silkscreens to experiment with Arabic letters and forms. Boullata was a central figure of the Hurufiyya Movement, which strove to further explore the abstractions prevalent in Islamic art.

Perhaps less abstract but still stunning are the works of Iraqi artist Suad Al Attar. Her Paradise in Green shows her mastery of colour etching on paper. Depicted with gold and deep greens, the scene emanates a mystical quality, especially given the lack of human presence in the landscape.

Several elements besides the artworks within Prints & Printmaking aim to expound on the potential and the importance of the art form. These include a section dedicated to archival materials, which include objects, such as a plate that Marwan used for 99 Heads (Ibn Arabi).

There is also an authentic 17th-century copy of The Book of Psalms, dubbed as the first book to be ever printed in the eastern part of the Ottoman Empire. The book was printed in 1610, in the monastery of Saint Anthony of Qozhaya in Lebanon. It has been lent to the exhibition by la Bibliotheque Orientale de l’Universite Saint-Joseph, USJ.

Another aspect of the exhibition is the filmed interviews that are invaluable resources for printmaking techniques and history. The four films feature interviews with artists Mohammad Rawas, Samira Badran, Said Baalbaki and Zeina Badran. The interviews will be available on the Dalloul Art Foundation website.

Roz says it was imperative to visit the artists in person and in their studios for the interviews. “When you're talking about printmaking, you need that person to be face to face, in case they wanted to explain any technicalities,” she says. “For instance, Said Baalbaki offered us a three-hour interview, and we could hardly remove any of it, to the extent where we decided to segment it into three parts.

“In the first, he gives us a full explanation of the different types of printmaking and its history. In the second, he talks about his works and in the third part, Said gave us a walk-through of the 99 Heads by Marwan because he worked very closely with Marwan.”