Art from Ibb: painter Nabil Muhammad al-Kahsaa Speaks

Nabil Muhammad al-Kahsaa’s work moves between realism and impressionism although it focuses on one sole objective: to portray life and people from Ibb. Despite the fact that Al-Kahsaa is based in Sana’a since long time ago, he is also the director of the House of Art (Bait al-Fann) in his home town, where he tries to move forward art as he struggles for his own work to be also better understood.

Yemen Observer (YO): -How were your beginnings as an artist?
Nabil Muhammad al-Kahsaa (NMAK): -I started drawing when I was a kid, at primary school, and I continued painting since then until now. Now, I work as an artist and also I am the director of the House of Art in Ibb. I started to work in a professional way a long time ago. Although I did not study art –in fact, I studied business at university- I learnt on my own and I dedicated my life to painting. 

YO: -What are the schools of art or the styles you follow?
NMAK: -Mostly the French, Spanish and Russian schools. Among them I prefer Russian artists because I already feel the colors of Russian painters inside myself. 

YO: -Your work seems to be placed somewhere between realism and impressionism, how do you see it yourself?
NMAK: -Yes this is true, but I prefer impressionism. An artist must reflect reality, express reality, and for this I prefer impressionism. I need impressionism in order to express in my paintings Yemeni life and at the same time Yemenis must feel this through my work, which is why I mix both. 

YO: -How do people react to your work in Yemen?
NMAK: -People in Yemen do not understand abstract or surreal art; instead they understand realism and expressionism which makes my work acceptable to them. People here need to recognize in the paintings their own life or other people’s life. In this sense there is a lack of awareness and education about other schools of art and this causes Yemenis to not understand things other than realism. 

YO: -What are the main obstacles you find in your work as an artist in Yemen?
NMAK: -The lack of an audience ready to see something different. Also the fact that I can paint and paint, and make painting after painting, but then I have to stock them in a room because there is not market for them. I accumulated pieces because there is no one to buy them and this affects negatively the artistic environment. 

YO: -Is the state of art in Ibb different than in Sana’a?
NMAK: -It is actually more difficult in Ibb. The House of Art for example supports artists, but still the situation is hard. In Sana’a you have places for exhibitions, more culture or understanding in terms of art, but in Ibb culture is more focused on agriculture and qat. Ibb is also quieter and less active than Sana’a. In Sana’a there are artists and they appear in magazines, newspapers, TV, exhibitions, and in Ibb there is nothing. 

YO: -Is that the reason why you moved to Sana’a?
NMAK: -I moved to Sana’a when I was 17 years old to work as an artist but I also work in Ibb in the House of Art, which is different to the House of Art in Sana’a. In Sana’a the House of Art works as a gallery, which is a place where you can see artist’s works and buy them, whereas in Ibb we also teach kids and the youth how to draw and paint and we have workshops with other painters as well.  

YO: -Speaking about your work as a painter: what are your sources of inspiration?
NMAK: -Yemeni people above all: their clothes, their faces, their words. In my pieces the houses and the people you see reflect the reality of Ibb. I am a son of Ibb so my work reflects this. Because I am from Ibb I sense its people, I smell them, and I am more capable of portraying them than portraying people from Sana’a. Also all the artists draw and paint Sana’a, so we always see the same things, the same drawings. In my case, I draw Ibb which is a change. This way I paint something different. Artists always focus on painting Sana’a and Sana’a only but there are so many beautiful places in Yemen that also need to be painted. It ends up being boring to only see Sana’a and that is why we need to paint other places like Ibb, Zabid, Hadramawt. In my opinion Sana’a is not beautiful as a city: when you look at the houses here they all look the same, but in Ibb all the houses are different, each one has a different character and this is something that inspires me. I am not inspired by Sana’a because here there are only two or three colors: different tones of orange or brown and white. In Ibb you find that you can use all the colors you want. 

YO: -And the people you portray also change from one place to another? NMAK: -In Sana’a people are different in the way the dress: they wear a shal, the jambia and the same things over and over. In Ibb is more informal and there is more variety. In Sana’a there is like a dress code and in Ibb there are no regularities in the way people dress. There is a big difference among people in Ibb and in Sana’a because in the latter there is a certain repetition. For example the shals for men, all of them have sort of the same color and in Ibb you find orange, red, there is variety and contradictions. I think Ibb is the most beautiful place in Yemen, the nature, the landscapes, the people. Ibb is inside me, I take it wherever I go. Sana’a is good for business but is not as beautiful as Ibb, which is also more relaxing than the capital.  

YO: -Also in your paintings women are not covered and we can see their faces, is this your choice or another difference between the two cities? NMAK: -In my opinion women are beautiful in their own body. From my point of view, if a woman hides her beauty under the veil or the niqab, she is not a woman. If I can see the face and the hair, I can appreciate how a woman really is, whereas when a woman covers herself with the niqab I cannot appreciate any of that and I feel I have a “tent” next to me. With the niqab I feel I see “tents” and not women. In my paintings I try to reflect beauty and people’s spirit and I cannot feel Yemeni women because of this. Yemeni society does not encourage you to draw women and you find more discourage than encouragement in this aspect. 

YO: -What are your future projects?
NMAK: -I want to leave realism and now I am in conflict with myself because I want to draw what I have inside and stop drawing what I see. Painting is not arbitrary, there are rules in realistic painting and you have to adjust to them but I want to explore other possibilities. I now draw following these rules and that is why realism exhausts me, I want to do something different. Now I focus on the painting and the people I draw but in the future I want to focus on the colors, on the hidden things and not only on the people. For the future I hope to always draw, to never ‘recover’ and always feel the need to draw… to be sick and to need as a medicine drawing. In that sense I want to always be sick and never recover, I want to continue to feel the need to draw in order to never stop. 

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