ABSTRACT FIGURATIVE IV 1990

Curator: This work, titled "ABSTRACT FIGURATIVE IV," was created in 1990 by Rashid Al Khalifa, using acrylic paint. It’s a fascinating piece, wouldn’t you agree? Editor: It strikes me as incredibly dreamlike. There's a fluidity, a sense of things dissolving into one another. The predominantly cool blue palette evokes a certain tranquility, even a melancholic serenity. Curator: Indeed. The application of Abstract Expressionism, so popular at the time, to a figurative subject raises questions. What is the artist trying to convey about the figure? Is it an internal landscape rather than a straightforward portrait? In the nineties there was a significant conversation around identity being negotiated within both social and historical frameworks, which is fascinating to consider in relation to Al Khalifa's creation here. Editor: The symbolism feels intentionally veiled, doesn't it? That spiraling form, wound in red, contrasts so dramatically with the azure wash. The red binds this ephemeral form like twine, drawing an intensity from the tension that binds flesh, fragility and pain together. Curator: Exactly. His use of form reminds me a bit of de Kooning but also evokes questions that we also see in Jenny Saville’s works. There’s certainly an undercurrent that addresses cultural perceptions around gender, especially from that period. How does that shape his construction of the figurative image, and the very public role of art in dismantling, questioning, and reshaping expectations? Editor: I see how the artist uses this sense of the unfixed to question fixed forms. But I do agree that by deconstructing, we must rebuild anew. I read this image of "undoing" as being followed by a coming into new, even if unknown, territories of both being and selfhood. There's so much resilience in this visual of vulnerability, wouldn’t you say? Curator: It’s certainly an invitation to a deeper cultural reflection, one that I appreciate every time I visit it here. Editor: Absolutely, Rashid Al Khalifa gives us the chance to really question the symbolic weight that we ascribe to both ourselves and our world.