01 Work, The Art of War, Tayseer Barakat's Shoreless Sea #40, with footnotes

Tayseer Barakat

Shoreless Sea #40, c. 2019

Acrylic on canvas

50 x 70 cm

Private collection

This is not an ordinary sea; this is a shoreless sea. Here swimming doesn’t end, and drowning is possible as well as separation from loved ones. Waves rise and clash fiercely, helicopters pass over boats, and refugees flee from bloody wars. Stolen intimate moments amid an atmosphere full of panic and hope is still possible.

In Shoreless Sea, Tayseer Barakat’s works manifest as an account on refugees’ desperate journeys to cross the Mediterranean to Europe in search for a normal life.  For Barakat, the Mediterranean was part of his life; he himself is a refugee who lived near the shores of Gaza as a child and by the shores of Alexandria as an undergraduate student. Yet, the Sea become colder since then. It also became merciless, and its appetite grew stronger. Suddenly, it hid its beaches, leaving people on board to wander in desperate search of ways to escape. More on this painting

Tayseer Barakat transcends beyond the materialistic world. He takes a journey to explore people and landscapes through a mystical lens, bringing an extraordinary dimension to his art. Barakat whose style reminds of prehistoric cave art uses acrylic on canvas to create artworks infused with the essence of life.

He touches upon metaphorical rituals, intimate moments, memories, and magical landscapes. His artworks show his perspective of the world as a spiritual place, and accordingly, they are shaped by deep mystical feelings stemming from a vision of an ideal place he imagines, rather than the actual harsh world of politics, traumas, and injustices that does exist. 

His characters look like divine beings appearing in sacred auras. Some are hidden around his canvases in tangled lines or around the intricate calligraphy he creates while others dominate the middle of the artworks practicing rituals, dancing, playing music, experiencing intimate moments, or even flying. His figures are ghostly and ethereal with certain fragile and delicate souls. Frames of images from memory occupy a few artworks backgrounds, yet in most of the works, dreamy landscapes dominate. He creates different textures on his canvases, using various techniques, which contribute to infusing the dream-like atmosphere around his characters.

Barakat, grew next to the sea in Gaza and has a deep connection with it. This can be seen clearly in some landscape works of the sea. More on Tayseer Barakat

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

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