Eve and her harmonies

CAIRO – 26 October 2017: Al Kahila Art Gallery is hosting an exhibition for Iraqi contemporary artist Taha Abdullal from October 16 to October 26. The exhibition is held under the theme of “Eve and the Music of Color.”

Art is often seen as an outlet for escape from the everyday stressful, chaotic life. It is a precious chance for self-discovery in terms of colors and lines.

Heading to one of the authentic exhibitions in Cairo such as “Eve and The Music of Color” is a fine choice for colorful enjoyment. The 23 exhibited paintings reflect Abdullal’s vision of a woman’s beauty, feelings, and femininity.


One of the exhibited paintings [Photo Courtesy: Kahila Art Gallery]
Heba Osama, the director of Al Kahila Art Gallery, told Egypt Today, “Abdualla was inspired by Picasso's words ‘a woman is a mixture of shapes and colors’.”

She added that Abdullal may not have taken up Picasso’s Cubism style, but he framed his own point of view with color usage.

Firstly, throughout the paintings, he adopted the physical appearance of the Iraqi woman as tall-bodied figurines with thick eye-brows, small faces and pop eyes.


One of the exhibited paintings [Photo Courtesy: Kahila Art Gallery]
Focusing on Eve, Abdullal portrayed her in different positions and emotional moods such as sorrow, loss, longing, satisfaction and happiness. Some paintings also reflect feminine mood swings, like nostalgia.

The artist combines golden and silver paper material with colors to enrich the quality of the portraits.

The colors are mainly taken from Iraqi nature. Blue reflects the cold soul, pure sky, and powerful rivers. Red reflects love, longing, and fire. Iraqi people have been masters of agriculture from the early chapters of history; an influence that may be clear in the green hues dominating some of the paintings.


The Exhibition [Photo Courtesy: Rana Atef]
Music is not only sound, but also the harmonic colors in the paintings. Listening to the imagination makes one dance with each line in a rhythmic, emotional unification.
Strange feelings of relaxation and enjoyment touch the soul while gazing deeply at the Iraqi artist’s portrayals.

The presence of musical instruments also enhances audio units in the paintings; one favorite was the female with the oud.

The violin, oud, flute, and saxophone were all employed in the painting. Each instrument carries a certain sign for example; the violin is the sound of the soul. As the most emotional instrument known, the violin is most attributed to women and representatives of the orient.

Each string in the oud addresses a certain part of the body such as blood and the heart. The saxophone is the major jazz instrument, and jazz music is composed to address the whole universe regardless of race, color, gender and religion.


One of the exhibited paintings [Photo Courtesy: Kahila Art Gallery]
As colors are taken from Iraqi nature, many oriental symbols are employed as well, such as crescents, sailing boats, fish, hens, mermaids, white pigeons, mirrors and rose vases.


One of the exhibited paintings [Photo Courtesy: Kahila Art Gallery]
Calligraphy and printing were obvious in the exhibited works.
The opening of the exhibition was attended by many artists, in addition to the Iraqi Ambassador to Cairo Habeeb Al-Sadr.


The Iraqi Ambassador with Taha Abdullal [Photo Courtesy: Kahila Art Gallery]