Marwan – Arab art exhibition at Christie’s

Important and influential works from the Arab artist Marwan will be in the spotlight in Christie’s forthcoming non-selling exhibition, Marwan: A Soul in Exile, taking place at the auctioneer’s London headquarters on July 16 to August 22.

This will be the third exhibition in the Summer series at Christie’s King Street, preceded by Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World in 2023 and Ahmed Mater: Chronicles in 2024, bringing attention to important works and influential artists from the Arab world.

Curated by Dr Ridha Moumni, Chairman, Christie’s Middle East & Africa, Marwan: A Soul in Exile pays tribute to Marwan (1934-2016), one of the most critically acclaimed and influential artists of his generation. This retrospective exhibition brings together an exceptional group of over 150 works on loan from prestigious museums, institutions, and private collections in Europe and the Middle East.

The exhibition traces Marwan’s extensive career, from his artistic beginnings in Syria to his prolific output in Germany, his adopted homeland, where he spent six decades of his life. Showcasing paintings, works on paper, and editions from 1953 until 2014, this exhibition offers the audience a rare opportunity to engage with Marwan’s unique and inspiring oeuvre through remarkable works that have not been presented together previously.

Marwan: A Soul in Exile will journey through Marwan’s artistic evolution, starting in Damascus, where he studied Arabic Literature and painted one of the earliest works featured in the exhibition, Landschaft bei Damaskus (Landscape near Damascus) (1953), on loan from Berlinische Galerie-Museum of Modern Art, Photography and Architecture, Berlin.

In 1957, Marwan moved to Berlin and attended the Hochschule für Bildende Künste, graduating in 1963 from their Department of Painting. Initially abstract, his paintings from the 1960s will increasingly focus on the human figure. At times androgynous and erotic, the depicted characters explore the body as an outer self. The figures possess an unsettling amorphous quality, with shapes that distort perspective and limbs dissolving into the background, as exemplified by Untitled (1969) on loan from the Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah.

While swiftly integrating into post-war German society and joining a circle of German expressionist painters that included Georg Baselitz and Eugen Schönebeck, Marwan retained his Syrian identity and engaged with social and political issues of the Middle East through his art. The Disappeared (1970), on loan from the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, stands as a poignant homage to the lives erased amid political turmoil and conflict. Through the covered face – a recurring symbol in Marwan’s oeuvre – the artist expresses the lingering grief and unresolved questions that haunt the memories of those who vanished.

From the early 1970s, Marwan’s focus shifted exclusively to the human face. Drawing on his experiences as an outsider navigating life in a foreign European country and his quest for the self, he explored the human visage as a landscape upon which to excavate and express the complexities of the soul. By blurring the boundaries between abstraction and figuration and employing expressive brushwork alongside richly layered surfaces, Marwan embraced larger canvases, producing compositions that are intimate yet subtly distorted, imbued with profound psychological intensity. Kopf (1974), on loan from Berlinische Galerie-Museum of Modern Art, Photography and Architecture, Berlin, exemplifies this transformative period in his career.

German institutions such as the Berlinische Galerie were among the earliest supporters and collectors of Marwan’s work. In 1976, the Große Orangerie Schloss Charlottenburg in Berlin held Marwan’s first retrospective; several key works from this seminal exhibition will be reunited and displayed in Marwan: A Soul in Exile. Between 1978 and 1983, Marwan embarked on a renewed investigation of the human figure through his Marionette series. Inanimate and passive yet deeply emotive, these puppets embody a striking duality and question complex power dynamics. With their performative, theatrical quality, works such as Marionette (1983), on loan from the Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, invite viewers to contemplate themes of identity, agency, and vulnerability, and showcase Marwan’s ability to fuse figuration with deep existential and psychological inquiry.

Although Marwan held solo exhibitions at the Arab Cultural Centre in Damascus in 1970 and the Baghdad Museum of Modern Art in 1980, it was not until he participated in the inaugural group exhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris in 1988, followed by solo shows in Paris in 1993, that he began to establish a significant presence in the Arab world. A series of exhibitions in Damascus, Beirut, and Cairo from 1994 onwards further solidified his reputation. His legacy in the Middle East was cemented between 1999 and 2003, when, as a founder and director of the Summer Academy at Darat al Funun in Amman—an art space and residency for Arab artists—Marwan profoundly influenced a new generation of young artists from the region. The Friend (2002), a masterpiece from this period, is on loan from Darat al Funun – The Khalid Shoman Collection, Amman, where Marwan’s legacy continues to resonate.

Marwan’s latest works revealed a continued study of the face, through increasingly fluid and intuitive brushstrokes and a more vibrant colour palette. By reducing the layering of the surface, Marwan allowed the face to float against the background of the canvas, distilling its emotional essence. Head (2008), on loan from the iSelf Collection, London, is a powerful example from this period. The work embodies Marwan’s enduring commitment to exploring identity through a hauntingly poetic visual language.