ARTWORKS IN PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

This piece is about the power of the single stroke technique which Ali Omar Ermes employs as a hallmark of a number of his works.

It explores the vast richness of the Arabic language and the magnitude of the depth of expression in Arabic with the simplest and most direct method or as complicated as you wish.

The inscription from a poem by the poet Al Hutayya promises rewards in this world and Hereafter for anyone who delivers a good deed.

This piece was dedicated to the United Nations in the context of the Bosnia tragedy, containing poems by Ali Omar Ermes. A quote by Dr. Riad Nourallah (Senior Lecturer at the Diplomatic Academy of London) describes this artwork well:

“In ‘Akh!’ or ‘Aahhh!’ (1993), a diptych dedicated to the United Nations, the sense of anguish expressed by the groaning sound of the word, itself cradling in tiny script a moving poem by the artist/poet, seems to accentuate, beyond its immediate historical context and collective concern, the artist’s own agony as he labours to transmute pain into creativity and senselessness into meaning.”

The twin letters. With poems by the wise and well-quoted poet Abul Atahiyah, from the Abbasid period. In them, he argues that self-sustenance, one of the sweetest of all things to have, is complete self-reliance as it gives one self-respect and dignity and one of the hardest things of all is to ask favours from people.

Between the elements of colours and sound, it is self-evident that we have a state of comprehension, a state of wanting for new beginnings.

Poems by Qotam Ebni Khabeeh, known as Sullotan, advising his son in a storytelling manner about life and values, this piece of poetry has a very rare property of combining the deadliest serious of all matters in the most beautifully sweet and musically moving sounds.

It recalls samples of poetry which reject domination by big powers as much as it rejects acts of terrorism by individuals, states or invading armies as much as it condemns corruption, environmental and cultural abuses. Lines of poetry expressing in general or some in specific terms that we are all in this together.

Poems by Antar Ben Shadad, the famous Arab warrior-poet, who is known for his love story with Ablah and his courage and chivalry. In this poem, he describes some of his experiences where actions speak louder than words. He speaks of fairness, steadfastness, and courage in the face of hopelessness and great despair.

La, Kalla, Wa Lan – This is a trio.

Recalls samples of poetry which rejects domination by big powers as much as it rejects acts of terrorism by individuals, states or invading armies as much as it condemns corruption, environmental and cultural abuses.

Preparing the mental state, bringing all elements of the piece you want to work on, between the simplicity or the complexity of colour, an instrument of application in material such as colour, brush, paper, canvas, etc. Not to mention the body of the artwork, sizes, spaces, positions etc but most important of all is the preparation of the mental state before the moment of application and along with that until a satisfactory result is achieved.

Al-Khaa Al-Ashhab (1998) is a powerful example of Ali Omar's inimitable interpretation of the Arabic letter. Using the letter khaa as the focal point of the work, he evokes a sense of swiftness and speed in its delineation. The monochrome palette is a deliberate play on the name Ash-hab, which means greyness.

The artwork features one line of poetry by the eminent poet Abu Al Tayyib Al Mutanabbi, the meaning of which in general says:

“Great souls carry enormously ambitious dreams but all that for the misfortune of their earthly bodies”.

This artwork portrays a very tranquil state of mind over harmonious quiet colours. The poem is by the eminent Islamic poet Hassan Ibnil Thabit (the Prophet’s poet, PBUH). The poem says in what could be interpreted like this (praising Al Ansar in Madinah):

Recalls samples of poetry which rejects domination by big powers as much as it rejects acts of terrorism by individuals, states or invading armies as much as it condemns corruption, environmental and cultural abuses.

Lines of poetry expressing in general or some in specific terms that we are all in this together. Humanity would not be able to run away from itself, and if all want to live in peace and harmony, we need to face the facts and the people and systems that are behind all this injustice in the world.

Juha was and still is a very important figure in Arabic literature (mainly the verbal literature) and Juha was a name for Dujain ibn Thabit in the early days of Islamic civil society (1,400 years approx.) with a very rich collection of humour in contradicted forms of wisdom and foolish or unpredictable material, which all make a sounding point of view towards people, politics and behaviour of the society in all its endeavours. But Juha did not stop here, as one man as he was in the beginning, but other people who have an exceptional talent like the original Juha had been added during the Arab and Islamic societies through history.

This artwork shows the grabbing of the expression Lamm, the Arabic equivalent of the English letter L. It has powerful, dominant blows of brush strokes in single colours softened by sensitive swipes in middles tones of the pigment making this complicated piece of art very simple and vice-versa.

This is a powerful stroke of the letter Alif in black with shades of orange making the background. This is the third of four pieces of artwork where the position of the stroke around the hamzah is going to determine the sound of the letter Alif, in this case, the Dhammah is above the hamzah, becoming an ‘oo’ sound.