Beautiful Agitation

In modern Syria, a contested territory at the intersection of differing regimes of political representation, artists ventured to develop strikingly new kinds of painting to link their images to life forces and agitated energies. Examining the works of artists Kahlil Gibran, Adham Ismail, and Fateh al-Moudarres, Beautiful Agitation explores how painters in Syria activated the mutability of form to rethink relationships of figure to ground, outward appearance to inner presence, and self to world. Drawing on archival materials in Syria and beyond, Anneka Lenssen reveals new trajectories of painterly practice in a twentieth century defined by shifting media technologies, moving populations, and the imposition of violently enforced nation-state borders. The result is a study of Arab modernism that foregrounds rather than occludes efforts to agitate against imposed identities and intersubjective relations.

In Siria moderna, un teritoriu contestat la intersectia diferitelor regimuri de reprezentare politica, artistii s-au aventurat sa dezvolte noi moduri izbitoare de pictura pentru a-si lega imaginile de fortele vietii si energiile agitate. Examinand lucrarile artistilor Kahlil Gibran, Adham Ismail si Fateh al-Moudarres, Beautiful Agitation exploreaza modul in care pictorii din Siria au activat mutabilitatea formei pentru a regandi relatiile dintre figura la sol, aspectul exterior la prezenta interioara si sinele la lume.