trees Hala Nadar of life W Lush forests filled with trees consume Hala Nadar’s oeuvre. Myrna Ayad meets the artist, who applies geometry and science to nature. hen she was a student of business and technology in art and design at the Chelsea College of Art in London in the late 1980s, Hala Nadar rented a workspace in Princes Gate in which she hung pictures and postcards of Ismail Fattah’s works “for inspiration”. The “simplicity, dynamism and strong brushstrokes” of the pioneering Iraqi Modern Master’s paintings and sculptures appealed to her and heavily influenced a body of work during her academic years. “Ismail’s themes may be controversial by Middle Eastern standards,” says Nadar, “but it was always clear what one was looking at.” The controversy does not transpire in Nadar’s work, rather, its clarity is key: the musical instruments, houses, flowers, fruit, birds, horses, trees and landscapes that have characterised her work for over 15 years are apparent, but allegorical too in their references to family ties and life’s natural cycles – much in the same way that Fattah’s unambiguous figures have rendered the human condition. 126 Opening spread: (Detail) Lemon Dreams. 2009. Oil on canvas. 80 x 120 cm. This page: Untitled. 2012. Oil on canvas. 145 x 120 cm. Facing page: Untitled. 2011. Oil on canvas. 120 x 145 cm. Cultivating Roots works of art that were on fabric,” recalls Nadar, mercial enough,” she explains. “Design has to Though born in Beirut, Nadar, her two elder who tremendously enjoyed the practice of function in a repetitive fashion and everything sisters, Umaima and Maryam and their parents observational drawing, designing a pattern on I was producing was one-off; I didn’t want to settled in Dubai in the early 1960s. The roots paper, mixing dyes and transferring the image force myself into this repetition.” Until this point, of artistic appreciation, she says, stem from her onto a silkscreen. Precision is at the core of this Nadar had not perceived herself as a Contempo- mother “who would have been an artist had procedure, as is the adherence to a chronology rary artist per se, but a turning point happened she had the opportunity”. In fact, due to their of steps. These factors, in addition to the actual in 1992 when she took part in the Three Nadar parents’ encouragement, the three sisters have aesthetic, have continued to form the basis of paintings exhibition alongside her sisters at Lon- become artists in their own right. Nadar fol- Nadar’s subsequent artwork. Hers is a discipli- don’s Foreign Press Association, which led to her lowed her siblings to boarding school in the nary approach and regiment, echoed in her participation in group shows in the British capi- UK and joined the Chelsea College of Art and studiousness and graduation with distinction tal and New York. During this time, Nadar’s work later completed a BA in Printed Textiles from and first class honours from both academic in- with oils – her preferred medium – saw her paint Middlesex Polytechnic in 1991. Her interest in stitutions. “I’m good at making patterns work,” horses, birds and flowers in a naïve style that printed textiles was totally unrelated to the she admits. Nadar considered selling her prints often included indecipherable poetry. She had sphere of fashion and rather focused on the art of painted textiles at international fashion and discovered tribal art during her studies at the of patterning and its detailed process. “It was a design fairs – and she did – but the demands of Chelsea College of Art and had become particu- very fine art-based course with no commercial the fashion world clashed with her disinterest in larly inspired by that which came from Central intent and we were pushed to create one-off moneymaking ‘cyclical’ art. “My work wasn’t com- Africa. As is the case with Fattah’s work, Nadar 127 PROFILE appreciated the “directness, simplicity and modernity” of tribal art, which has come to profoundly affect her oeuvre. She did not know it then, but the bulk of the oil on canvas pieces that Nadar created in her Princes Gate studio were to be exhibited at Dubai’s oldest gallery, Green Art, led by the “visionary, risk-taking, forward-thinking” Mayla Atassi a few This page: (Detail) Day Dreams. years later, in 1995. It was Nadar’s first solo and the gallery’s second show, which 2007. Oil on canvas. 120 x 150 cm. followed Green Art’s inaugural group exhibition of works by Arab Masters includ- Facing page: ing Fattah, Fateh Moudarres and Dia Al-Azzawi. Nadar bought her first Fattah piece Musical Trees. 2008. at the gallery’s debut show, a work on paper of his iconic cockerel, “paid for in in- Oil on canvas. 60 x 90 cm. stalments” and which is today among many pieces of the same genre in her and 128 PROFILE “We are surrounded by patterns. The vista from an airplane window, earth itself, the structure of DNA... it’s fascinating.” her husband’s collection. “I met all these incredible and scout new artists. Marriage and mother- artists through Green Art and had the privilege of hood followed, pausing her artistic production interacting with them,” recalls Nadar, who returned and it is in the last five years that a “resurrection” “home” to Dubai permanently in 1995 after almost has materialised. two decades in the UK. “I’ve never regretted com- ing back and I’ve never been happier,” she adds. “It’s a privilege to live in this country and to have so A NATURAL ORDER many opportunities on so many levels.” “Had I not been an artist, I would have been a Her return to Dubai signalled a focus on her landscape architect,” confesses Nadar. Not sur- painting in addition to working at Green Art, prising as she has managed to weave the latter helping to put on exhibitions, design catalogues practice into her art: the ‘architectural’ processes 129 PROFILE “My head is buried in trees. I do believe I’m in a forest of my own and I will be for a long while too.” of planning, designing and constructing form the crux of her method. Her technique also abides by geometric outlines and graphical formulas, imbuing her paintings with a highly structured and ordered feel. “The configuration comes from the textile training that I’ve done,” adds Nadar. Yet, in spite of this organised arrangement, her paintings evoke a simplicity and innocence that is reminiscent of the naïve works of French painter Henri Rousseau and Croatian artist Ivan Rabuzin. She reveals a paper featuring 14 linear graphs given to her by an art tutor in the late 1980s, the shapes of which she has been applying to her paintings ever since. “The number of variations that can be achieved from the same graph is incredible, it’s infinite,” she explains. “Each has a mathematical perfection.” When one peers a little closer behind the ornate leaves attached to the arterial branches of an untitled work from 2012, and within the backdrop of Musical Instruments from 2008, a diagram appears. It becomes clear that she applies shapes to shapes, fitting and corresponding ele- ments from nature into forms. Nadar takes this analogous method further – in line with assembling elements within these linear graphs, she has also classified the elements themselves as patterns. The result is a physical layer within a metaphoric one. “We are sur- rounded by patterns,” she explains. “The vista from an airplane window, earth itself, the structure of DNA, the cycle of leaves falling from trees, becoming compost and regenerating energy – it’s fascinating.” It was only a matter of time before Nadar chose to focus on trees and she admits that “the interest isn’t new, it has just blossomed”. An avid pho- tographer and nature enthusiast, she has taken thousands of pictures of trees from all over the world and designed her home’s garden herself, which she overlooks from her pristine studio. “The tree itself is organic and is a symbol of strength,” she adds. “Not only does it support itself, but a whole existence along with it and experiences cycles through seasons – again, another pattern.” 130 PROFILE The Family Tree As Nadar describes trees, she ultimately personi- both from 2009, though all works share a time- fies them. This narrative presents itself through an consuming and meditative experience. In an untitled piece from 2011, which is immediately oeuvre that encompasses science, mathematics suggestive of a morose, gloomy mood. It isn’t too and nature, Nadar’s artistic disposition is simple: long before one can decipher that the theme of “This is all about life.” The 18 pieces that are set death is prevalent here, as are familial relations. for exhibition in October at Artspace Dubai – her Nadar painted this soon after her father’s pass- first solo since 1995 – have all been created over ing and has rendered him as a black, barren tree the last five years. It will be difficult to part with with outstretched branches, enclosed in a tomb- them, she sighs, however the theme of trees is like structure. The sky and earth around him are not something she will leave behind anytime This page: shaded in violet hues, evocative of an other- soon. “My head is buried in trees,” smiles Nadar. “I Jug Mug & Music II. worldly resting place, while the four trees under- do believe I’m in a forest of my own and I will be 2005. Oil on canvas. 15 x 28 cm. neath – herself, sisters and mother – huddle in for a long while too.” Facing page: the foreground. “Some works do have emotional (Detail) Red Apple Tree. 2009. Oil links and there are many that I relate to my fam- on canvas. ily and our relationships,” explains Nadar. Hala Nadar’s solo show at Artspace Dubai 25 x 30 cm. The palette of other pieces insinuates happier runs from 3–23 October. For more informa- All images courtesy the artist. moods, such as Lemon Dreams and Red Apple Tree, tion visit www.artspace-dubai.com 131
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