Contemporary Art Auction 2012 TAG Heuer is proud to be the sponsor of JAMM’s Contemporary Art Auction and to participate through this unique partnership to the development of culture and art in Kuwait and in the Middle East. TAG Heuer has been pioneering Swiss luxury watchmaking for over 150 years, bringing to the art of time measurement some of its most important innovations. Creativity and daringness are at the heart of TAG Heuer, as they are for any true artist. KWT Magazine Frog_Mikrograph_CAR5041FC8178_mag_DPS_286x456.indd 1 10/2/12 10:22 AM About JAMM JAMM specializes in cultural projects without About the Alexander Gilkes was one of the youngest geographical boundary. More than simply an art Auctioneer members of an executive team at LVMH, where advisory company, JAMM is a vessel to promote he helped turn Krug Champagne into one of the cultural diplomacy. Our goal is to advance Arab and group’s star brands. More recently, as the global Iranian artists in the West, and Western artists in JAMM wishes to thank their exclusive sponsor marketing director and auctioneer for Phillips de the East, and thus encourage further collaboration Tag Heuer for their kind support. Pury. Alexander’s art education started in the between the two. Whilst we build both private and drawing schools at Eton and evolved throughout corporate art collections, the scope of our projects his extensive travels, which have included months encompasses artistic representation, exhibitions, in St.Petersburg, Russia, writing his student thesis events and auctions. We are committed to the on Soviet Cultural Politics and enjoying daily visits development of the contemporary art market in to The Hermitage. emerging markets including the Middle East, North Africa, Iran, Turkey, Latin America and Asia. JAMM Alexander is co-founder of Paddle8, an on-line is uniquely positioned to draw on its relationships destination that offers international collectors to bring active collectors and emerging artistic access to a selection of works from the world’s talent closer together. With its distinctive global leading galleries, foundations, and art fairs. footprint, JAMM brings together cultures, trends, collectors and private individuals who are shaping the contemporary art market today. Design and print by www.calverts.coop 1 Mahsa Karimi Give me your hand 2012 Acrylic and collage on canvas 120 x 120 cm Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner Estimate: KD 600 – 800 USD 2,100 – 2,800 The whole idea was about camouflaging something and intervening in another space. Something like the Trojan Horse… The important part for me is that this construction, the background is hiding something from you. They are camouflaging something from you, behind the port, these doors. Somebody is looking at you from behind that building or door, somebody is gazing at you, exactly gazing, they are fixing their eyes to your eyes. They are transsexuals, and they are bridges; they are not women, they are not men. This work is not from West not from East; it’s not a painting, it’s not a photograph, it’s a bridge. A combination. 2 3 Navid Azimi Sajadi Reda Salem Camouflage Old Lantern Still Life 2011 2012 C-print, Edition 4/5 Digital print on stretched canvas, Edition 1/7 67 x 100 cm 100 x 100 cm Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist Estimate: KD 700 – 900 USD 2,500 – 3,200 Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist Estimate: KD 800 – 1,200 USD 2,800 – 4,300 Omar Fakhoury’s painting depicts a typical wall of red and white barrels used by the army at bases and checkpoints around Lebanon. These precarious architectural structures are the witnesses and reminders of an ongoing political and military instability that the country has been experiencing for many decades. 4 5 Omar Fakhoury Daryoush Gharahzad Untitled Untitled 2012 2011 Acrylic on carton Acrylic on canvas 70 x 100 cm 160 x 120 cm Provenance: Courtesy of Agial Gallery – Beirut Estimate: KD 1,200 – 1,600 USD 4,200 – 5,700 Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist Estimate: KD 1,700 – 2,100 USD 6,000 – 7,500 As a creative artist Khazaal is centered on mankind and its dilemmas. His symbolism that verges on abstraction has evolved into a lighter state and much of the darkness one used to encounter in his previous subjects has dissipated. His painting now reflects the feelings and emotions he is experiencing in his honest concern for society and any negativity affecting its cultural development. 6 7 Mohammed Ramadan Hameed Khazaal Untitled Distance 2012 2012 Acrylic on canvas Oil on canvas 152 x 122 cm 120 x 100 cm Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist Estimate: KD 800 – 1,000 USD 2,800 – 3,500 Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist Estimate: KD 2,600 – 3,000 USD 9,200 – 10,700 8 9 Ahmad Al Ayoub Nasser Azizi Untitled Untitled 2012 2009 Acrylic and oil on canvas Acrylic on canvas 100 x 100 cm 100 x 100 cm Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist Estimate: KD 500 – 700 USD 1,800 – 2,500 Provenance: Private collection Estimate: KD 1,800 – 2,200 USD 6,400 – 7,800 When I was preparing for the entrance exams for the University of Fine Arts, I spent two years drawing flowers. I drew some every day… Afterwards, to earn a own personality... And these days, now that I draw flowers rather frequently, that sensation has come back very vividly. I find them just as pretty, just as disturbing. living, I spent nine years working at a preparatory school, where I taught the students to draw flowers. Once every two days, I would buy flowers for my lesson and At the same time there is this strength in them; it is the same image of strength I find when drawing the human face. So I thought that if the opportunity arose, I make compositions for my students to work on. At the beginning, to be frank, I didn’t like flowers, but as I continued teaching in the school, my feelings changed: would pretty much like to make a work in which I would represent them as if in a “crowd scene”, in the manner of these scenes of moving crowds that you see their smell, their shape – it all made me feel almost physically sick, and at the same time I found them very “cute”. Each one seemed to have its own feelings, its in films. – Takashi Murakami 10 11 Takashi Murakami Takashi Murakami Flower Ball Cosmo Flower Ball Pink 2007 2007 Color lithograph, Edition of 300 Color lithograph, Edition of 300 71 x 71 cm 71 x 71 cm Provenance: Private collection Estimate: KD 800 – 1,200 USD 2,800 – 4,300 Provenance: Private collection Estimate: KD 800 – 1,200 USD 2,800 – 4,300 There is no exact meaning in my work, but it is the very attempt to recall the naive moments, moments of surprise, where things appear for the first time. 12 13 Fadhel Al Abbar Adnan Meatek Carry Me, Carry You The Alphabet Man 2006 2007 Bronze Ink on paper 40 x 28 x 12 cm 29.5 x 21 cm Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist Estimate: KD 1,600 – 2,000 USD 5,700 – 7,100 Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist Estimate: KD 1,200 – 1,400 USD 4,200 – 5,000 Perhaps there is no other phrase that fittingly summarizes the development of current American and European culture than “Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll.” In Words are scary. Using words to explain, discuss or justify the visual texts, we are overshadowed by the words’ contours and old structures. Parnes’ art piece, it has transformed itself from a definition of Western depravity to the seemingly mundane, yet in the East, its context still retains its underlying “The explanation of the artwork is in its inner satisfaction.” It is a professional solution, but it does not grant me satisfaction. I think about my crisis and the crisis of meaning. Here, being written in Farsi, the words automatically create a sudden dichotomy. Aesthetically pleasing to the eye, the artist’s work also underlines the the culture of my society. All the intricacies of my artwork are laid there. There is no choice then but to think in different directions. Whether these perspectives are international cultural exchanges subtly taking place in present times. similar or different they are practically a depiction of a life, certain dates, political situations, three meaningless wars, semi-definitions, needs, rebellion, an escape, immigration, a destiny of a homeland and the destiny of its people. 14 15 Eric Parnes Mohammed Al Shammarey Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll Self-portrait 2011 2010 Neon, Edition 1/ 5 + 2AP Giclee printed on canvas 88 x 150cm 100 x 200 cm Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist Estimate: KD 2,000–2,400 USD 7,100–8,500 Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist Estimate: KD 2,600–2,800 USD 9,300–10,000 My association with the decline of images and ideas in this space and time informs my work practice. Individuals, species, events, geography, religion, philosophy, economics, politics – everything is constantly in a circle, which has a common key point for start and end. All our lives, we keep on re-inventing/ re-discovering that point… That’s where life breathes. 16 17 Suhaila Al Najdi Sajjad Ahmed Untitled Science Philosophy Religion (IV) 2009 2012 Acrylic on canvas Archival inkjet print on cotton paper, Edition 1/5 + 1 AP 200 x 300 cm 122 x 76 cm Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist Estimate: KD 2,800 – 3,200 USD 10,000 – 11,400 Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist Estimate: KD 800 – 1,200 USD 2,800 – 4,300 In 1954, Francis Bacon began a series of works entitled Man in Blue.