In this interview The Yemen Observer speaks with painter Talal al-Naggar, born in Taiz and currently living and working in old Sana’a city. He studied Fine Arts and obtained his master’s degree in Moscow, Russia. Al-Naggar has participated in several exhibitions around the world and is an active member of the artistic scene in Sana’a, where he is one of the founders of different art groups like the Contemporary Art Group or the Yemeni Plastic Art Syndicate. His work is permanently exposed at the atelier that him, Amnah al-Nasiri and Masher Nizar, entertain every Thursday morning near Bab al-Yemen.
Yemen Observer (YO): -Your work seems to be divided into two different lines, one realistic and another very abstract. What do you want to express though both of them?
Talal al-Naggar (TAN): -You know, when I started I only knew realistic art, European art, which is what I had learnt with my first teacher when I was little. But when I finished school, I travelled to Moscow and I studied in the Academy of Arts, academic art and realistic art. But one day in Moscow, I went to the library and saw this book about Islamic art thus discovering another art related to who I am. Until then I was working thinking about European art, but after that moment I connected with who I am and decided that my art must belong to me, to who I am, to being a Yemeni too. This art, Islamic art, also belongs to me and I belong to it. Now, in today’s world, art is international and if I want to do something new and add something to this, I can use the techniques, the materials, whatever I want from Europe but art, is also spirit, and my spirit is also from here. This way of thinking or of feeling is not related to chauvinism: my art is for all people, all over the world, but it needs to say something about who I am.
YO: - Your abstract work is mainly focused on the use of Arabic calligraphy; was that encounter with Islamic art at a library in Moscow that made you explore this line of work?
TAN: -From that moment at the library I started to find out what I wanted to express and I started to study our culture, because before I was not familiar with it. I did not know that there was another art that belonged to my culture, nobody had showed that to me before. Then I started to read about Paul Klee, Matisse, European artists that use and study our art getting something from it in order to create something new. In my case this is part of who I am, is already inside me. In my paintings the calligraphy I use sometimes means something and sometimes it does not. Sometimes I write Suras from the Qur’an, some other times the calligraphy brings to my paintings pieces of poems but sometimes there are just words, without meanings, just to play with the forms.
My calligraphic work is abstract art and Islamic art is also abstract. Islamic art looked at the world with the heart and not with the eyes, and this is how they drew people not exactly the way Europeans did, not in a realistic way. We look in different ways.
YO: -How would you define your work?
TAN: -My work goes in two directions or maybe three. One is pure realistic art: I draw with charcoal sometimes and I make portraits of men and women. The second is pure abstract, where I use calligraphy, and the third is a mix of the other two: In one drawing I make a portrait and I use our calligraphy, in one work I do three dimensions and two dimensions, a mix of my Arab background and the influence of living so many years in Russia, East and West. This is important in my work because I combine who I am in what I draw: I studied in Russia, influenced mainly by European and Western art, but I am from Yemen and Islamic art is part of me as well. Some people say that West and East must fight or cannot get together in harmony and peace, but for me this is possible in my work where I try to bring these two worlds together. Also Sufism is very present in what I do. I feel that spiritual life has lost sense in today’s society where everyone is worried about material things. I try to connect to that spiritual side when I work: I read about Sufism in order to be inspired, to be connected to the spiritual side of myself and not to material things, to feel things and thus remain in that atmosphere when I am painting. Only when you read and feel you are in this atmosphere, you can get new ideas, new feelings.
YO: -What other sources of inspiration do you have?
TAN: -I read Sufism mainly to get ideas and I studied Islamic art not only from Arab countries, also Indian art, Chinese art, art from the East. Furthermore, I studied Saba’ia art, which used symbols before we had Arabic calligraphy. All the things that human beings have done in art inspire me.
YO: -Women seem to be also a central part in your work. What do you see when you portray Yemeni women?
TAN: -It is difficult to explain. If you ask me how I see Russian women I can tell you because I studied in Russia and over there men and women work together, study together, talk to each other, live everyday life in contact with each other. In Yemen is difficult to talk about women because when we grow up here we do not see them, we do not talk to them. There is a barrier between men and women so I cannot tell you about our women because I do not know that much about them. Sometimes you know more about your colleagues but women cannot talk about their things freely with any men. It becomes difficult to know what they feel. Ok, I know my wife, I know my sister, but it is a complicated issue outside the family. When I draw them, I put my idea, my feelings, not theirs. Thus, what I do is a very different thing and is my personal interpretation. I drew some women from Taiz, from Jabal al-Sabr, who come every day to the city to sell fruits, qat, or flowers. They are strong women, peaceful women. You can see the faces of these women. Then the other women I drew are from Sana’a, where they wear mainly the niqab and you only see their eyes. I draw what I feel but without knowing what they feel. I try to draw what is inside that niqab, the fact that they are also humans, and like any other woman in the world they dream, they love…I try to express this human being underneath the niqab.
YO: -How do people react to these pieces?
TAN: -Some people critique it, but I explain that this is the type of woman I see here in Sana’a. For instance, in one exhibition a friend of mine was looking at these portraits of women in niqab and asked me why I wanted to worsen the situation and encourage women to wear the niqab. I said ‘look at the people in the exhibition, 99 percent of the women here are wearing the niqab, I just draw what I see.’ Some women told me that they were angry because I showed their body or their shapes even if they were fully covered, so is the opposite reaction. Also working on these portraits is complicated because in Yemen is difficult to get models. For this work I take photographs and then I choose one or two and I work on it. This is also problematic because you cannot take pictures of women. Sometimes I have problems but in old Sana’a, which is where I take all my pictures, people are used to tourists taking pictures so they feel it more normal.
YO: -What are the positive and the negative sides of being an artist in Yemen?
TAN: -I like very much to live in old Sana’a and in Yemen. Our country gives deep inspiration for artists and almost every way you look, you are inspired by what you see. You cannot obtain this feeling in other countries, like for example in the Emirates where everything is new. New houses, new streets…I cannot feel anything there. In Yemen everywhere you look inspires you. Also our people, old men specially…when I draw them I see not only the face; I see history. This is positive. The negative is that Yemeni people do not care about art, and when I say this I refer to all kinds of people: rich people, people related to the cultural world, almost everyone. Only foreigners seem to care, but since they want to take our work with them, they buy simple things, not very expensive and not very big. If you are reduced to this, is not really that much about art anymore. This is tourist art, and the real issue is that Yemenis need to care more about art. In Sana’a is easier because there are a lot of people from different countries living here and because many people come to visit the city, but outside Sana’a is more complicated.