Dec 10, 20233 min read

Layers of Love - art series by Ibrahim Khatab

IBRAHIM KHATAB-JM Art Management — The Holy Family

The art of one of Egypt’s brightest contemporary stars, Ibrahim Khatab. Some philosophical traditions describe love as consisting of seven distinct stages or facets. These stages include attraction, infatuation, commitment, intimacy, passion, devotion, and compassion. Each stage represents a different facet of the complexity and depth of love. The journey through each of these is seen as the complete experience of love, with each stage contributing to the almost boundless tapestry of emotions that love entails.

Khatab’s meticulous layering of discarded newspaper and magazine fragments and cutouts mirrors this in his use of seven specific layers of acrylic paint, which he employs to create stirring canvases that reflect the multitude of love’s layers. The artist contends that love often remains hidden beneath the surface of our emotions, waiting to be properly explored and understood. Consequently, like the enigmatic nature of love, his art both conceals and reveals aspects of this underlying narrative, inviting us to venture beyond the surface and contemplate a deeper meaning, one that only love can entail.

Fittingly, this collection will also feature a special pair of works by Khatab’s wife, Fatma Omran, whose canvases tastefully combine her accomplished interpretation of Farsi art, with her original take on her husband’s complex layering technique, attributing her works an altogether unique aesthetic.

Vibrant colors, applied in seven separate yet indiscernible layers within his artworks, breathe life into the emotional spectrum he depicts. Khatab's work is a testament to the multifaceted nature of love, inviting viewers to reflect on the diverse array of sentiments it emotes and the profound impact it exerts on our lives. At the heart of Khatab's art lies that ubiquitous message "لا نحتاج غير الحب" ("all we need is love"), this mantra carries both an existential and philosophical weight, encouraging us to contemplate the fundamental role of love as an inseparable and unifying, yet often misconstrued, force in the human experience. Khatab's art is a symphonic fusion of disparate natural elements, regal and resplendent flora and fauna are intimately interconnected to human figures that are often seen in states of rejoicing and jubilance, in celebration of the act and promise of love. He accentuates these organic aspects with his characteristic stylized and deconstructed poetic Arabic calligraphy, which he tastefully intersperses throughout his canvases, never encumbering yet always edifying the intrinsic message and composition of his art.

The grand congregation of these symbols underscores the profound interconnectedness of all living beings when interpreted through the indiscriminate lens of love. Where human figures embody notions of wisdom and dominion, animals represent primal instincts, birds signify freedom, water connotes purity and clarity, and flowers exude beauty. Collectively, they constitute the complex interplay between the abundance of Mother Nature’s assortment of bounties, and their shared experiences, all bound by the timeless threads of love.

In the final act of his artistic process, Khatab deliberately blurs parts of the artwork's surface, revealing details of the core layers of his composition, remnants of the original paper's surface used in its initial stages. This act holds both philosophical and aesthetic significance. It symbolizes the need to peel away superficial layers in our own lives to uncover what is genuine, moreover, it is spiritually paradoxical in that it is an act that obscures to reveal. Aesthetically, this practice enhances the cohesion of his canvases, as his unique approach challenges us to reconsider our understanding of this most paramount and intricate of emotions, inspiring us to meditate on its profound significance. Philosophically, Khatab's art will always serve as a potent reminder of love’s all-encompassing and transcendental force.