. | . | . | THE KUWAITI SCULPTOR
ISSA SAQER |
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By Lidia Qattan |
Issa Saqer
is one of the first artists in the art movement in Kuwait and among those
who founded the Kuwait Formative Art society.
He was born in Kuwait Town in 1940 in modest family surrounding
The place was provided with a library, material for painting and sculpture,
and teachers supervising and giving lessons, all free of change.
In
1961 Issa was the first artist to be sponsored by the Government.
In 1962 he was among the first group being sent to Egypt at the Art
Institute in Cairo. There his teacher, Jamal Alsigyni took a special interest
in him .At the end of his term Issa was awarded the prize of the
"Luxor Atelier- a four-years scholarship which he declined to return to
Kuwait where he was missing his family and friends.
Unfortunately they were too complex to be easily cast in bronze later he emerged with a style simple and congruous, full of human portent, comparatively easier for casting . In 1967 Issa held his first personal exhibition ,in it most of his works
were philosophical ;they were the product of a highly creative mind
still glowing with the intellectual atmosphere of Cairo .
In his second personal exhibition, of 1976 his style was changed considerably ,it was at once more direct in its communicative appeal; a true incarnation of Nobel simplicity and strength derived from knowledge of human nature ,of the habit of his people, the character of events and the significance of arrested action . By eliminating the superfluous and focusing the attention on the essential features of objects Issa has brought forth an intensified vision of his objective. Happily married he could express his concept of woman in many beautiful
sculptures, and paintings ,in which the soul of woman is brought forth
in all its humanity and tender appeal with a touching charm of its own
.
In his sculptures and paintings his human figures are solid
and permanently established ,yet plastic and free, the suggestion of freedom
being more emphatic in painting with their vaporous backgrounds of mystic
clouds and empty spaces
In the fall of 1981 Issa Saqer was in the U.S.A. at the Jonson Institute of New Jersey for a full course in bronze -casting. He was in his early forty at the time ,but the enthusiasm and fire of youth had already gone from him. Before he finished his training he had to return to Kuwait because his mother was dying. That missed opportunity he for ever regretted it. While he was at the Institute he learned to use his imagination on a
wider spectrum of interest and look at life in a different
perspective in which the essence of beauty is to delight the world, not
merely to express the artists feeling or emotions .
His contact with the outside world made Issa more keenly aware of the
social changes at home, which had been taking place since mid-seventies,
but only at his return he discovered the severity of the growing situation.
From then on a despairing apathy began to sink in his soul.
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