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ART

SALWA ZEIDAN: Eloquent simplicity and human depth. By Peggy North

Untitled - 2003 - chinese ink on paper, 34x32 cm

Salwa Zeidan stated: "My paintings are formed out of my impressions, observations and my emotional experiences I see reality as an endless process of conflicts and decisions , therefore the tonality of experience can never be resolved in a definite way. The texture of life is like the surface of a block of clay; it is shaped and molded by the circumstances of daily conflicts, personal and collective catastrophes and individual questioning. My work lives on this quest until it becomes a rite of realizations, a struggle for the possibility to order the sensation of consciousness."

Salwa Zeidan was born in the Bekaa valley of Lebanon. Daughter of a poet and a vivid student of world art and humanities, her attachment to inner world of human feelings and contemporary art metamorphoses enlarged the perimeter of her artistic creativity to include the simplistic yet eloquent expressions and forms of lyricism, romanticism and quasi-religious fervour embraced with delicate lines, curves and sensitive structural escapades. Relatively a newcomer to the abstract world, Zeidan succeeded in attracting the interest and attention of eminent scholars and art critics at home and abroad. She began to exhibit her work in 1989. In 2003, she won several awards including the the 4th place at the International biennale of arts in Italy, 2004.

Today, Zeidan is looked upon as the leading figure of a new school of art in the Near and Middle East: The school of intellectual lyricism. On one hand, we sense a simplistic expression of abstract structure, and on the other hand, an avalanche of emotions and deep feelings emerge through her autonomous lines and compositions, always depicted in intellectual surrealism and religious architecture.

The depth of her work is not freely expressed in complex structures and metaphoric colors but, rather in evocative messages which emerge from within, perhaps from a more complex internal and emotional struggle between the urgent necessities of a modern art, the competitive nature of artistic creativity and the mark she will leave on the terrain of conceptual abstract definition. Does she paint because art is an intricate part of the fabric of her soul or simply because, art is a way of making a living? We would not allow ourselves to ask such an impertinent question, for her whole universe is versed in and imbibed with every line she draws and form she creates. Art is essential to Zeidan. Art has become a way of life for Zeidan. A few years ago, she was relatively unknown. Today, she is the toast of the world art community. She believed in her work. She sincerely struggled with all the odds and fought her way to the top. She did, perhaps with tears, reluctance, determination, fear and great expectations. Her present work is a testimony to the perseverance, determination and persistent quest for an intimate universalism in art. Zeidan is a delightful messenger of the depth of the human soul, rebelliously and yet gently flirting with our emotions on the universe of her linen. Zeidan's eloquent simplicity, uncharged but emotionally structured compositions and artistic depth redefined the beauty, the revered and the transcendental expressions of romantic intellectualism in abstract art. In my book, she is one of the best artists of her generation. A new wave of talented artists so much needed to bring tranquility and transcendental beauty to our troubled world.

End of the artistic