Marwan: Early Works 1962–1972

The Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art presents an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Syrian artist Mohamed Marouan Kassab-Bachi, known simply as Marwan. The selected works, produced between 1962 and 1972, mark the beginnings of an oeuvre spanning more than 50 years, and a period of generative artistic experiment and reflection amidst tumultuous historic change, from a divided Germany following the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 to the Arab-Israeli War of 1973. Marwan's fragmented landscapes and portraits that become landscapes bear witness to an obstinately individual experience with painting, in which introspection and intimate obsessions come together with the expression of the restlessness and frustrations shared by a generation of Arab artists and intellectuals.

Organized by Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, and curated by Catherine David, Deputy Director of the Musée National d'Art Moderne at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, with an essay by Catherine David and an interview with the artist by Rasha Salti.