Works by Inji Efflatoun, Fahrelnissa Zeid and Samia Halaby are among the highlights of the Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art auction at Sotheby’s London.
The bi-annual event will take place on Tuesday and feature a curated selection of artworks from the Arab world, North Africa, Iran and Turkey.
Halaby’s Morning Honey is among the works with the highest estimated sale price of £70,000 ($93,000) to £100,000 ($133,000). The work, dated to 1992, juxtaposes bold strokes of oranges and yellows against more subdued hues of blue and green. It typifies the abstraction that Halaby is celebrated for.
Works by Shafic Abboud and Sohrab Sepehri also hold similar estimates. Abboud’s Troisieme Chambre Verticale (The Third Vertical Room) is part of a series by the Lebanese artist that captures various moods, light and moments of the day. It was painted in 1983 and features a figure in the fetal position surrounded by swathes of colours – blues, oranges and reds – that bleed into one another. The work is regarded as an example of Abboud’s more mature artistic period.
The untitled work by Sepehri, produced sometime in the 1970s, shows the Iranian artist’s penchant of mixing oils and sand in his canvases. The restrained geometric composition is meant to reflect how the hot desert sun minimises forms into their bare outlines. The work has a slightly lower estimated sale price of £70,000 ($93,000) to £90,000 ($120,000).
Two works by Efflatoun are also being offered. The works were produced around the same time, with Untitled (Portrait of a Woman) dated to 1950 and Untitled (Portrait of a Man) created in 1954. The former has an estimated sale price of £40,000 ($53,000) to £60,000 ($80,000). The latter is set between £30,000 ($40,000) and £50,000 ($66,000).
A pair of works by Zeid, meanwhile, demonstrate the Turkish artists vivid and kaleidoscopic approach. High Seas at Eastbourne, painted in 1948, show a coastal scene in Britain with fervent lines full of movement and energy. The painting is estimated to sell for between £20,000 and £30,000. Carnations, on the other hand, was produced two years earlier and brings a similar energy into a dizzying still-life work. It's estimated sale price is £40,000 ($53,000) to £60,000 ($80,000).
More recent works are also being sold. These include a 2003 piece by Ahmed Mater that comes from the Saudi artist’s early experimentation with X-ray imagery, expressing the relationship between the body, science and faith in a rapidly modernising society. X-Ray Painting 5 is estimated to sell for between £40,000 ($53,000) and £60,000 ($80,000). A 2023 work by Najat Makki is also offered. Imprint #2 is estimated to go for £12,000 ($16,000) to £18,000 ($24,000), and shows the pioneering UAE artist’s continuing experimentations with abstraction.
Other artists whose works are being offered in the sale include Hassan Hajjaj, Adam Henein, Helen Khal, Paul Guiragossian, Aref El Rayess, Chant Avedissian, Mahmoud Sabri, Hussein Madi, Farideh Lashai, among others.
The Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art auction will be followed by another sale that is dedicated to arts from the Islamic World and India.
That sale, taking place on Wednesday, will include historic highlights, such as an illuminated Quran from the Safavid-era, estimated between £300,000 ($400,000) and £500,000 ($666,000); as well as a sprawling and detailed depiction of Maharaja Ranjit Singh riding through the Lahore bazaar, estimated between £200,000 ($266,000) and £300,000 ($400,000).
