Ahmed Alsoudani

Haunch of Venison, London
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonalities in the original are deeper and richer, and the illustration fails to convey the detail of the fainter charcoal marks. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is a slight undulation to the two sheets throughout, and there are artists's pinholes at intervals along the edges of each sheet. There are a few faint scattered handling creases to each sheet, which are consistent with the large scale of the work. Very close inspection reveals two short nicks to the right edge of the left sheet near the top corner.
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Imbued with the grandeur of traditional history painting due to its impressive scale and subject, Untitled, dating from 2009, is an immensely powerful example of Ahmed Alsoudani’s utterly distinctive corpus. A writhing mass of tangled human bodies engages in a desperate struggle for dominance, seemingly tearing themselves apart in the midst of utter chaos, whilst the presence of ragged stumps of wood in the background indicates the extent of the obliteration wrought upon the surrounding environment. Intensely visceral in its depiction of anguish and suffering, Untitled serves as a forceful indictment of the senseless horrors of war and conflict, with contorted figures rendered helpless by the presence of machine guns and other destructive metal elements suggestive of weapons and shrapnel. The result is a work of commanding authority and strength that arguably alludes to Alsoudani’s complex background: born in Baghdad in 1975, he fled to Syria at twenty after committing a youthful act of anti-government graffiti, harshly punishable by Saddam Hussein's repressive establishment. Although the artist has made his life in the West, his family remain in Iraq, ensuring that Alsoudani  still feels a conflicted sense of personal ownership and belonging to the country of his birth. The artist has declared that: “I’m not trying to make ‘war paintings,’ but paintings about war. I’m more interested in depicting the effects of on the people who live under these circumstances” (the artist quoted in: Exhibition Catalogue, London, Saatchi Gallery; New York, Goff + Rosenthal, Ahmed Alsoudani, 2009, p. 9).

Untitled reveals Alsoudani’s exquisite mastery of line and command of his medium, highlighting his ability to imbue a work on paper with the impact of a major oil on canvas. The compelling applications of charcoal and acrylic paint, displayed to impressive effect within Untitled, attest to Alsoudani's rejection of strict boundaries between media: "One of my biggest aims is to bridge the gap between the process of drawing and the final product of painting" (the artist quoted in: Sarah Schmerler and Ahmed Alsoudani, 'In the Studio', Art in America, June/July 2011, p. 114). The achievement of depth without recourse to strict spatial perspective lends the work a surrealistic quality, recalling the watercolour and line drawing constructions of Arshile Gorky in particular, whilst the work also harks back to the disturbing war scenes of Eighteenth Century Spanish artist Francisco Goya. In its nightmarish and boldly forthright depiction of human suffering, Untitled can be regarded as a magisterial exposition of Alsoudani’s emotive and intensely powerful creative praxis.