Rabi Koria / Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso

Guernica

1937

oil on canvas

349,3 x 776,6 cm

Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid

I chose Guernica by Picasso. And since I'm a huge admirer of Edward Said I add a quote from him that matches the works Guernica and Raqqa. His discourse on imperialism has brought me in flux during my student days.

Rabi Koria, 2016

'Just as none of us is outside or beyond geography, none of us is completely free from the struggle over geography. That struggle is complex and interesting because it is not only about soldiers and cannons but also about ideas, about forms, about images and imaginings.' 

Edward W. Said

Rabi Koria (SY/NL)

Raqqa

2016

oil on ceramic tiles

120 x 180 cm

www.rabikoria.nl

Nour-Eddine Jarram / Jacob van Ruisdael

Jacob van Ruisdael

The Forest Stream

ca.1660

oil on canvas

99,7 x 129,2 cm

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The old master that came into my life in recent years is definitely Jacob van Ruisdael. Three years ago, I relocated from the city of Enschede to a small village near the border. There, I found a studio situated on a farm in the middle of rural Twente. All at once, I was confronted with the beauty of this landscape. Everywhere around me, I perceived the paintings of the old Dutch masters and of Jacob van Ruisdael in particular, who also worked for some time right across the border in the German town of Bad Bentheim. I became fascinated by the Romanticism in his landscapes, an idea that was employed in order to emphasize melancholy or Weltschmerz. The fact that Ruisdael composed his paintings according to his own taste, appealed to me and led me to reinterpreting his landscapes.

Nour-Eddine Jarram, 2016

Nour-Eddine Jarram (MA/NL)

No title (after Ruisdael)

2014

pastel on paper

103 x 150 cm