Christie’s to Feature Ramsès Younan’s Painting at Dubai Auction

Contre le Mur’ stands proud as unique and important Surrealist paintings of the artist, pretty uncommon in his oeuvre for its juxtaposition among objects and figures, surpassing different artist’s diffused works in that it’s far pretty crude in look, providing an atraumatic yet powerful message to the viewer. Younan depicted those women crucified through this injustice, simplest to be eliminated if poverty changed into removed. Lying helpless at the ground in a contorted shape, her physical features are accentuated and disproportionate in her knees, shoulders, and nose. This scene is hardly inviting, painted within a De Chirico-esque panorama, with its desolate and emptiness, shop for a lonely chair in the heritage and a chip within the wall, further invoking the poverty inflicted within the area, states the auction residence.

“Contre lemur” is an oil painting on canvas and is signed with initials ‘RY’ (decrease right); signed ‘Ramses YOUNAN’ (on the stretcher). Painted in 1944, it belongs to the artist’s property.

Elaborating on the artwork and Younan’s art style, Christie’s says, “Shocking the public in a ‘degenerate’ manner, Younan portrays his paintings, maximum especially in the ugly figures of female, as a way to shock the public, establishing their eyes into the larger moves at play, particularly the dehumanization of human beings, and the desire to reverse oneself from the shackles of tradition, politics, and conscience. Coining the term ‘subjective realism,’ Ramses Younan considered collective empowerment thru art-making, each globally engaged but rooted inside the neighborhood issues, incorporating recognizable symbols within his works that dealt with social inequality and economic exploitation. Considering Surrealist painters like Dali and Magritte too premeditated, Younan advocated fusing historical imagery with the unconscious, producing very eclectic works.”

The auction residence provides that four works using Ramses Younan from his Surrealist days, which are very rare to locate, may be presented at Christie’s, and “these works depict both his Surrealist length and beginning toward abstraction after the Art and Freedom’s group exhibition changed into released in 1940. Depicted with unique shades and jagged and amorphous bureaucracy, best a handful of paintings from Younan’s Surrealist days are recognized, some of which are housed within the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, and the Museum of Modern Art Cairo.”