Photo : Hamed Abdalla, Talisman, acrylique, 80 x 43 cm,1975, Courtesy of the artist and Mark Hachem Gallery

From the 21 st til the 24 th of October, Mark Hachem Gallery invites you to rediscover two 20 th century masters: the Egyptian painter Hamed Abdalla (1917-1985) and the Lebanese painter and sculptor Hussein Madi (1938), as well as contemporary Iranian photographer Shadi Ghadirian (1974).

The early works of Hamed Abdalla incorporate popular frescoes and sculptural figures from the primitive art. But it’s mostly from the 50’s onwards that Abdalla invented a whole new concept coined “the creative word”. He used the Arabic alphabet from which he suggests human figures. He willingly reduces his vocabulary of forms as well as his choice of materials to reach a sort of Arabic hieroglyphs: an expressive synthesis between expressionist letterism and figurative art of extraordinary power.

Another master from the Middle East is Hussein Madi, both in painting and sculpture. In his paintings where the motif is repeated, Madi doesn’t look for narration, neither does he use a classical perspective. And yet he achieves an impressive depth, defining space on each plane by using straight lines, geometric patterns, curves and colors. The same language can be found in his galvanized iron sculptures; the straight line, the curves and the angles of the volumes which form a script, born from relentless study, and a profound understanding of what is essential.

On the other hand, Shadi Ghadirian is a renowned contemporary photographer based in Tehran. Through her work, she critically comments on the pushes and pulls between tradition and modernity for women living in Iran, as well as other contradictions that exist in everyday life.