Abdulhalim Radwi was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in 1939. A prolific sculptor, curator, and poet, Radwi’s work is guided by both cultural heritage and modernist sensibilities. He played a crucial role in the development of Saudi modernism, with an artistic outlook heavily guided by his experience as one of the first artists from the Kingdom to study abroad. Radwi obtained his degree in Fine Arts in Rome from 1961 to 1968, during which time his focus on realism progressed further towards abstraction. Upon his return to the Kingdom he began teaching, which solidified his standing in the local arts landscape and inspired the younger generation of artists, such as Taha Al Sabban and later Ahmed Mater. Though Radwi was absorbed by Western artistic discourses, he never strayed far from local heritage and traditions, and instead invoked his own narrative of the Arab world through Cubism and Expressionism, which distinguished him from his artistic contemporaries. During the 1970s, Radwi was the Action Director of the Association for Arab Artists in Madrid, and graduated from the Royal Arts Academy in 1979. Shortly after that same year, Radwi obtained a professorship to teach in Madrid until 1984.
As in the present work, his paintings depict traditional folkloric themes in bright, often kaleidoscopic compositions, celebrating the cityscapes and monumental sand sculptures adorning Jeddah. Exemplary of his later period, Untitled (1984) features a group of women carrying what appears to be clay pots, a traditional vessel found regionally to transport water and keep it cool. Rendered in a rich palette of reds, blues, and purples, the scene is imbued with an effervescent, bustling energy that recalls the vivacity of popular life in his beloved old towns of Saudi Arabia. The traditional motifs adorning the garments of the figures are dexterously interwoven into the landscape, forming a sense of continuity between the planes and simulating a sense of dynamism and interactivity that is typical of Radwi’s oeuvre.
“[Radwi’s] aim is not so much capturing what is stationary in nature as it is giving us an image of the movement of light formed from its perpetual twists and turns and concentrating it in the centre of the work, the point to which the eye of the onlooker is attracted.”
Over the course of his prolific career, Radwi created thousands of paintings and has headed or otherwise been a member of numerous art committees and organisations, including as director of Jeddah’s Centre for Fine Arts. He has exhibited across the Middle East and Europe, including at the Ibiza Biennale in 1968, for which he received third prize. Radwi's artistic output is a delicate and poetic balance of tradition and innovation. His ability to merge popular culture and sentiments with newly acquired artistic techniques serves as a precursor to contemporary Saudi art today.