BARASTIS BY BAHRAIN FORT 1969

Curator: Welcome. Today, we’re observing Rashid Al Khalifa's “BARASTIS BY BAHRAIN FORT,” an oil painting from 1969. Editor: My first impression is a sense of quiet desolation. The ochre hues dominate, creating a somewhat somber, earthy palette. It’s as if the landscape itself is sighing. Curator: Indeed. Note the application of oil paint. See how the brushstrokes build layers, especially in the foreground? Al Khalifa meticulously crafts a sense of depth and texture, even with this seemingly limited tonal range. Editor: Right, but I am curious about Al Khalifa's selection of oil for this subject. Oil has a grand history; its very application, particularly when depicting quotidian subjects, suggests elevating the everyday—lending significance to the materials and the laborers who constructed this dwelling. Curator: A keen observation. I interpret the brushwork as key. He is invoking modernist landscape, capturing not just visual representation but a personal expression within a defined structural context. Notice how he leads our eye from the village structures on the left towards the serene, almost ethereal depiction of the sea in the distance. The linear design is very pronounced, even for an ostensibly natural setting. Editor: True, though that "serene sea" still smacks of the very real sea that maritime laborers had to face, whether Bahraini fishermen or pearl divers. Did Al Khalifa want us to see past its prettiness to recall that lived, material history? It may also challenge established class divisions, elevating mundane subjects and people's real lives. Curator: I acknowledge your contextual reading. The canvas then functions, in essence, as an exercise in pictorial balance—an interplay of texture, line, and atmospheric depth. The artist utilizes structural harmony to create balance, a resolution. Editor: For me, thinking about the physical act of creation – the mixing of pigments, stretching the canvas, the labor required to manifest this vision, lends this artwork a potent aura. Curator: Very well articulated. Perhaps Al Khalifa uses structural principles to make the land visually meaningful and create symbolic links between place and being. Editor: And perhaps his material engagement transforms paint into memory and testament.