Situation

‘Situation’ reveals an intensely individualistic practice: an isolated figure, standing in a kind of non-place, seems to wait for the unfolding of an action locked in a fragmented state of existence. ‘Situation’ belongs to an important series of paintings made by the artist at night while he worked in a furrier’s studio during the day. The painting serves as a psychological self-portrait that gives expression to his exile condition and the personal impact of the political and social conflicts (particularly the Arab-Israeli war of 1973) that shook the Arab world in the second half of the twentieth century.