Utilisateur:AKhedher/Resmi al-Kafaji

Resmi al-Kafaji[modifier | modifier le code]

Iraqi-Italian painter, born in 1945, Sumer district, Diwaniyah, Iraq. He studied at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad and later at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy. He displayed his works in many countries.

Earth and Moon, by Ilaria Magni, 2018[modifier | modifier le code]

On the path of Malevič’s suprematism, which, starting from its first black square on a white background, reached, what at the dawn of the 20th century, could be considered an expression of pure sensitivity, or the extreme limit of art. For most contemporary artists, the black and white, as opposing poles of the chromatic circle, have the power to generate an immediate tension in cancelling or evoking the form; one by its welcoming and containing function, the other in the emptiness of the absence of color.

For Resmi Al Kafaji, the use of black and white generates an architectural structure that reflects the foundations of the human microcosm, summarizing the lived experience but also overcoming the dual tension that pushes beyond the eye and mind to the unconscious search for deeper senses, for mysteries evoked by the perfect interlocking of the black and the white form, to better activate emotion and reason on a sort of initiatory journey within an undefined period of time.

“Terra e Luna” tells the story of an intellectual, capable of putting distance between the self and its context, permitting him to distance his own body from himself, while having the courage to look inside himself. The inner journey begins by undermining the obvious, shifting the starting point of the observation so as to make it coincide with an aerial perspective, as if looking at the Earth from the Moon, giving back to us geometric visions in the absence of color, sections of landscape as a sublime point, stylizing rolling hills or steep slopes, straight or winding paths, rivers, mountains, seas, and lakes, from the strongest sound and material sensations to the most rarefied and evanescent ones.

The aniconicity of the Islamic tradition, which the artist of Iraqi origin has absorbed from his homeland, merges into his work with the purity of Mediterranean classicism and the outcomes of the conceptual revolution of the historical avant-gardes, generating a balance of an emotionally intense and excruciating lyricism, in an environment dominated by the glorious perspective of logic and by instinctive and non-verbal sensitivity.

Al Kafaji’s painting draws strength from the visual perception of the abolition of colour and goes beyond the limits of the appearance of objects, guiding the spectator in a sui generis path, which transcends the “terrestrial” force of matter to reach the luminous lunar abstraction.

With refined pictorial methods, the artist reveals opposition to the chromatic system and, at the same time, shows the infinite relationships that white, black and grey entertain not only with light, with shadows and with the dark, but also with the other colors, their becoming the very same, with identical volume, and becoming matter. In this ‘iter’ of visions running in one direction or in another, seeking each time an unexpected balance and cultured suggestions. Resmi Al Kafaji appears as a cosmopolitan intellectual travelling, continually one step away from somewhere else.

Terra e Luna’ when the sign becomes the dream, by Luca Sposato, 2018[modifier | modifier le code]

In an historical moment, feverish, and dying for social and cultural relations, a good vaccine (definitely necessary) could convey the reading of the classic Calderòn De La Barca “Life is Dream”, itself a moralizing hyperbole on the control of one’s own bestial instincts, because nothing, not even individual reality, can be defined as obvious. The exhibition proposal by Resmi Al Kafaji “Terra e Luna” at the Studio38 gallery of Pistoia, the outgoing Italian city of Culture, curated by Ilaria Magni, is rather interesting.

In addition to the relevant point of view that, by and of itself, could be offered by an artist of Iraqi origin working in Italy for more than 40 years, the art of Al Kafaji ideally gathers a universal and immediate dimension, through a rich tendency to give predominance to graphic signs, specifying, with poetic sweetness in the drawing, that matrix common to all mankind. Suspended between the material body of the various pictorial aids (from oil to acrylic to the earth), as varied as humanity itself, and dreamlike suggestions both literary (the natural archetypes of sunsets and night) and artistic (the skies of Van Gogh and the landscapes of Rothko), “Terra e Luna” highlights a genuine research, not necessarily sophisticated, accessible and appreciable because of its delicate lightness, a panacea to survive in the thorny chaos of reality. The works, almost all realized in the last year, favoring black and white, mark a strong relationship with the written page but are not distant from the bichromatic and cosmic like decorations typical of Gothic architecture, both Middle Eastern and Western, with a veiled nod to the inherent wealth in the fruitful and necessary cultural exchanges.

Personal exhibitions[modifier | modifier le code]

2019 – Pathways, Albareh art gallery, Bahrain; – Patways 2, Wadi Finan art gallery, Amman (Giordania);
2018 – Terra e Luna, Studio 38 arte contemporanea, Pistoia;
2017 – Due Memorie, Galleria Zetaeffe, Firenze;
2016 – other homelands 1, Orfali Art Gallery, Amman, (Giordania); – other homelands 2, Albareh Art Gallery, Bahrain; – other homelands 3, Artspace Hamra, Beirut, (Libano);
2014 – Autunno., Galleria Immaginaria, Firenze;
2012 – Incontro. Artisti K0, Auditorium – Centro per l’ arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato;
2012 – The Globe. Galleria La Corte Arte Contemporanea. Firenze; – Canti Andalusi, Galleria Immaginaria, Firenze;
2008 – Trenta anni di distanza, Zinc exposities galerie, Bergen (Olanda);
1999 – Stadsbiblioteket, Goeteborg (Svezia); – l’albero della vita, Galleria La Spirale, Prato;
1997 – Galleria La Spirale, Prato;
1996 – Tamuz Gallery, Bruxelles (Belgio);
1993 – Sala Polivalente, Montemurlo, Prato;
1989 – Galleria Alfa, Milano;
1984 – Galleria del Palazzo Comunale, Rignano sull’arno (Firenze);
1983 – Spazio Comunale, Troghi, Firenze;

Expositions collectives[modifier | modifier le code]

2018 – Bagdad mon amour, a cura di Morad Montazami, Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris (Francia); – Art-Karlsrue, Karlusruhe (Germania); – Astrattismo-sguardi, a cura di L. Gualtieri e I.Magni, Borgheitto di Bagnolo, Montemurlo-Prato; – Milleduecentosessantuno, fra astrattismo e arte concettuale, Galleria Zetaeffe, Firenze;
2017 – Locura Follia, a cura di L.Gensini, Biblioteca Lazzerini, Prato; – Palazzi d’arte, Studio38 arte contemporanea, Pistoia; (I); – Art Abu Dhabi (EAU) – Wopart, Lugano (Svizzera); – Collettiva di artisti internazionali, Galleria Zetaeffe, Firenze;
2016 – Tandem in tandem, a cura G.Giusti, case d’arte–via d. mattonaia, Firenze; – Art Dubai, Dubai; – mostra 20, galleria Zetaeffe, Firenze;
2015 – Art London, Londra (Inghilterra); – Beirut Art Fair, Beirut, Libano;
2014 – Oltrevisore-Albume convivial art project, Cuneo;
2013 – 21 Cuori, Atelier Giardino Colgante, Prato; – ALTER EGO, Ex-chiesa di San Giovanni Gerosolimitano, Prato; – Il linguaggio universale dell’arte, C.A.O.S. Museum,Palazzo Primavera,Terni;
2012 – Dove Sta “Za”? 110 Artisti Per i 110 Anni Di Cesare Zavatini. Quadro 0,96. Fiesole; – Dialoguing Textures.Ex-Ghiesa Di San Giovanni Gerosolimitano.Prato;
2011 – Videoarte, Neon campobase, Bologna; – La rincorsa della lepre, Brolo (ME); – festart Video Art Festival ,Forum di Ancona Culture as resource and value, teatro delle Muse – Ancona; – The Mystical Self, videoartverona; visualcontainer, Milano; – Ars gratia artis, Galleria La Corte, Firenze;
2010 – Visioni irachene, videoart, Sala Altana, Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze; – Magmart Festival, PAN, Palazzo delle arti, Napoli e Museo di arte contemporanea, Casoria (CE); – 3rd Bagasbas Beach International Eco Arts Festival, Filippine; – festart videoart Festival, Macro Testaccio, Museo di arte contemporanea di Roma, Roma; – Ravello LAB, Torre Maggiore di Villa San Rufolo, Ravello;
2009 – sulla propria pelle, Villa Vogel, Firenze; – Galleria Roos, Greve in Chianti (FI);
2008 – 15 artisti x 111 sms, Andrea Del Sarto, Firenze;
2005 – Il Cassero, Prato;
2003 – Artisti del Novecento pratese, Santa Caterina, Prato; – Kufa Gallery, Londra (Inghilterra);
2002 – Theatre of Utrecht, Utrecht, (Olanda);
2001 – Company Gallery, Utrecht (Olanda); – Mokum Gallery, Amsterdam (Olanda);
2000 – Brunei Gallery, Londra (Inghilterra);
1998 – Etruria Arte, Venturina, Livorno;
1996 – Konst Ustalling, Goeteborg (Svezia);
1995 – Galleria CEPAC, Prato;
1993 – Galleria La Spirale, Prato; – I colori del mondo, S.Bartolo a Cintoia, Firenze; – I colori del mondo, Galleria DEA, Firenze;
1989 – l’arte che non esiste, Palazzo Valentini, Roma;
1988 – Galerie Nuovo Aleph, Milano;
1984 – Circolo Brecht, Milano;
1982 – Museo del Folklore, Roma; Spazio Comunale, Parigi (Francia); – Centro Culturale siriano, Damasco (Siria);
1983 – Fiera d’Arte, Messina; – 15th Biennale Internazionale di Arte Grafica, Ljubljana (Slovenia);
1981 – Palazzo Parte Guelfa, Firenze – Palazzo Ca’ Giustiniani, Venezia;
1978 – 1979 – Mostra di Artisti Iracheni, Palazzo Comunale, Perugia;