Untitled (041A7721), 2024
29.7 x 42.0 cm
Walid is one of Mohammad’s younger brothers. He was four when he started painting with Streetcolors. He had an issue with elocution and could not speak, and he had to undergo several operations. Even so, he had an intensity that was rarely seen in a child, says Karine Wehbé, founder of Streetcolors.
Wehbé describes how on his first day with them, he picked up the paper and threw lots of paint onto it, and over time he developed a swinging gesture that was amazing to watch. He would sometimes scream while using brushes in a crazy way. He was intense and many times he would paint and then scream because he could not speak.
Medium: Painting
Frame: unframed
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Close considerations
In Walid’s painting, made with diluted ink on paper, the dominant event is a large pink wash that pools and weighs down on the left with feathery edges where the pink water slipped away. The long drips running diagonally and vertically function as compositional vectors energising the mass on the left, are cut through by splatter and flicks in every direction in a speed that captures the moment of rupture. This vital energy is in the thick of it, and anchored by a denser maroon handle or head-like form that seems intact on the right while the empty white space with the fine streaks gives the image air.
In this stain-based abstraction, the diffusion creates the boundary. The bodily atmosphere feels like a bruise, cloud, flesh, which makes the maroon anchor read like a wounded organ in its coagulated state of probably the same substance.
The sensuousness of the tender pink is merged with its counterweigh marks of speedy and forceful splatter and streaks, cancelling the impact of one another. The white background taking up most of the space renders the pink form more physical.
Process
This ink and paint on paper work is made in the same way as most children's at Streetcolors Beirut; sat down, bent over, and standing over the work and through several sessions, and developing styles that are their own with specific sets of forms, colours of interest, and patterns distinguishing them from one another.
They are supported by the volunteers who help them handle their tools and prevent them from creating a violent mess. Children who started making artwork with them have found a balance in their mental states. Those who started out frozen and unable to speak found the ability to expand their scope and began making friends; and those who started out extremely violent and aggressive became more settled over time.
Visual echoes
Artistic styles most relevant in understanding this work include Helen Frankenthaler’s soak-stained concept where the pigment behaves like atmosphere and structures the composition; the liquidity and flow recall Morris Louis; and the drips being treated as a main form giving connects this work to Pat Steir’s Waterfall paintings.