Page 152 - Ahmed- Nawar
P. 152
e Holy Land, felt-tip pens on paper, 60 × 45.5 cm, 2016
between the various effects of the lines' visual values.
In some scenes, the artist depicts huge buildings at the forefront
of the artwork or in a primary position at one of its sides. He then
moves the viewer’s eye to the other side to find an extensive scene
linking it with the basic structure of the form through a group of lin-
ear paths connecting the foreground and the background of the
picture.
In a different technique for translating the space visually, Nawar
presents the bird's-eye view scenes as those of the volcano, the
tents of pilgrims, and the mountains in Hijaz drawings. The mag-
nificent presence of the geography of the place appears in them,
the objects and humans begin to dwindle and turn into scattered
fragments, and man returns to be a small body in the heart of
the great universe. This approach fits the idea that the groups of
pilgrims melt in their sacred rites when standing on Mount Arafat;
the human existence fades and unites with the greater existence
embracing humans in glory.
In Nawar’s "Drawings of China", we remember the saying of the
Chinese artist Wu Li (1632-1715), which explains that the oriental
paintings did not try to create illusory spaces suggesting reality as
much as creating a structure for the illustrated artwork resulting
from combining the dream and the memory without resorting to a
detailed description that keeps the viewer away from the state of
the spiritual enlightenment resulting from the artwork. Thus, this is
one of the reasons for considering the oriental arts in general as a
higher and deeper state than mere art.
In most of his compositions, Nawar used the method of "overlap-
ping planes" to express distance. This method was used by the
ancient Chinese artist in his landscapes, which were the subject
of many artworks of Nawar’s collection "Drawings of China". For
instance, the far objects do not disappear but are drawn within
150
between the various effects of the lines' visual values.
In some scenes, the artist depicts huge buildings at the forefront
of the artwork or in a primary position at one of its sides. He then
moves the viewer’s eye to the other side to find an extensive scene
linking it with the basic structure of the form through a group of lin-
ear paths connecting the foreground and the background of the
picture.
In a different technique for translating the space visually, Nawar
presents the bird's-eye view scenes as those of the volcano, the
tents of pilgrims, and the mountains in Hijaz drawings. The mag-
nificent presence of the geography of the place appears in them,
the objects and humans begin to dwindle and turn into scattered
fragments, and man returns to be a small body in the heart of
the great universe. This approach fits the idea that the groups of
pilgrims melt in their sacred rites when standing on Mount Arafat;
the human existence fades and unites with the greater existence
embracing humans in glory.
In Nawar’s "Drawings of China", we remember the saying of the
Chinese artist Wu Li (1632-1715), which explains that the oriental
paintings did not try to create illusory spaces suggesting reality as
much as creating a structure for the illustrated artwork resulting
from combining the dream and the memory without resorting to a
detailed description that keeps the viewer away from the state of
the spiritual enlightenment resulting from the artwork. Thus, this is
one of the reasons for considering the oriental arts in general as a
higher and deeper state than mere art.
In most of his compositions, Nawar used the method of "overlap-
ping planes" to express distance. This method was used by the
ancient Chinese artist in his landscapes, which were the subject
of many artworks of Nawar’s collection "Drawings of China". For
instance, the far objects do not disappear but are drawn within
150
