At Palazzo Cipolla the first Roman retrospective of Iraqi artist Ahmed Alsoudani

The Museo di Palazzo Cipolla in Rome welcomes In Between, a retrospective tracing the career of Iraqi-born American artist Ahmed Alsoudani, from March 26 to September 20, 2020. This is the artist’s absolute debut in Rome and the exhibition is curated by Mary Angela Schroth: it brings together forty or so works made by Alsoudani from 2004 to the present. Also on view will be new and previously unseen paintings from his studio and a selection of significant works on paper along with a more recent painted bronze sculpture.

Alsoudani’s art aims to break down not only social and cultural barriers, but also ethnic and religious ones. Beginning with early works in which the horror of war is clearly visible, he progresses to a more elaborate and mediated exploration of grief.

Central to his production is drawing and in particular the draft, which takes on, for the artist, the significance of a physical and primal act involving body, mind and experience. The traces of graphite and charcoal on the rough canvas are the first experiences that later lead the artist to the exploration of color.

“Ahmed Alsoudani’s art is impactful, striking the senses and imagination, sometimes even disturbing the viewer, as only art that communicates something relevant is really capable of doing. Alongside his reflections on the themes of life and death, triggered by the fact that he lived through two wartime conflicts in the years of his youth, Alsoudani also complements his research on contemporary society and its pace of life, which in their own way are also ’violent’ and depersonalizing,” explained the president of the Fondazione Terzo Pilastro - Internazionale, Emmanuele Francesco Maria Emanuele, who in the Iraqi artist has found the ideal interpreter of the foundation’s inspirational philosophy focused on the interaction between the West and the Middle and Far East.

The exhibition, conceived together with the Marlborough Gallery, is promoted by Fondazione Terzo Pilastro - Internazionale and is realized by Poema S.p.A. with the organizational support of Comediarting and Arthemisia.

Image: Ahmed Asoudani, Rome (2019; acrylic, charcoal and colored pencil on canvas, 180.4 x 254 cm; private collection)

At Palazzo Cipolla the first Roman retrospective of Iraqi artist Ahmed Alsoudani

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