Hassan Haddad

Ausstellungsbeteiligungen

2010           60.Bayreuther Kunstausstellung

   2009           3. Werkschau Spinnereistr.Leipzig

2009 Imke-Folkerts-Preis für bildende Kunst in Ostfriesland

2008     2.internationale Kunstausstellung Ostrale Dresden

2008    MK21 Galerie Hamburg-Bergedorf

2006         Nord Art  Carlshütte Büdelsdorf

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In one of his major works the painter Hassan Haddad depicts a situation at two different stages:

People are imprisoned and tortured in the basement of a dungeon, while outside, above ground,

a crowd of people appear to live in freedom, but they are taken hostage and humiliated by

poverty, hunger and misery. This painting particularly reflects on conditions in Iraq, the artist´s

home country, which has been in turmoil for decades under the rule of a tyrant, by war and an

international trading embargo, which left devastating traces. But, above all, questions of

philosophical nature arise: Where can humans really live in freedom? When can a human being be

human? How heavy a burden can a human being carry?  In the mentioned painting No Difference

there is a staircase leading to the imaginary.

Haddad may set his artistic vision in a concrete, epic context or he may express it through

symbolism and great visual intensity to convey his primary concern, which is to explore

humanity's chances and limits. Beauty that lies within itself peacefully and the aesthetic

expression of inapproachable, idealized completeness is not what he is looking for: it is the

struggle, the seeking and fighting for humanity with all of it's dramatic facets and vast forms

of expression - it is motion that creates a sense of life and the reason for life.

Hassan Haddad has been living in Germany for a few years during which he has created a

body of work that conveys a great sensitivity. He is not only a sharp observer, he is also

within the happenings. His painting is charged with commitment and astounding honesty.

There has been a great vehemence of impressions and influences from the very first days of

his exile: The cultural history of Europe and the world, daily life in a modern, free world of

superlatives and affluence, but also it´s cold and isolating sides collided with Haddad´s sense

of tradition and way-of-life

of predominantly Arabic Islamic cultural background. In the beginning he let his memories

come to life in his paintings again and again as an expression of his state of mind far away

from home, living in uncertainty and anxiety. There is a subdued melancholy, an emotional

moment of loss, pain and breakup like in Memjek and Relict 1-3. Brown and yellow earth

tones, alga green and a deep blue that sinks into black. There are visions and dreams, in

Visiting the sick (Krankenbesuch), are combined with oriental ornamentation.

He is a seeker, open for new impulses and he is interested in a critical discourse on modern

art, he experiments, but without giving up the figurative and objective visual language. His

recent work has developed new, sometimes surprising thematic and stylistic dimensions.

It     tells modern stories such as Normal Insanity (Der ganz normale Wahnsinn), the shocking

condition (a look in the mirror) of a couple living a sickening day-by-day life with decided

roles for each part, lacking any sense and feeling. In Kolja a lost childhood or in ...and didn't

speak a single word (...und sagte kein einziges Wort) a goodbye brings along so much

conflict, sorrow on the loss of love, so much yearning, finality and coldness that it makes its

beholder ask "Why on earth is it so?"

His portraits also represent a complex series of paintings that do not seek a smooth

appearance and are filled with dramatic suspense. The Observer and The Opium Cave are

mysterious, where as the The Cynic travels through the chaos of the world with a cold and

distant smile, which is warped by an emotional split Between Rage and Despair...The Artist

relates to each of his figures, each portrait in itself being a form or expression of Haddad´s

interpretation and an impressive reflection on the life of an individual.

The signals from the artist´s past are less frequent but more vivid in The Nightmare or with

The Demons, as they slowly take form by emerging from the thick material of the curtain, to

take possession of Haddad's old room at his home in Iraq, where his photo on the wall is all

that has remained. Hassan Haddad´s paintings can hardly be described as cheerful and, indeed,

to Haddad the world doesn't appear as such. His paintings demand the beholder to participate

in the concept, to share feelings, to discover and to enjoy. Who gets involved may feel

empathy with the strength and the pride of a fallen bird, beating his wings in a swamp in the

struggle to survive - broken but wide-awake and withstanding death to the greatest extent.

Or one might outgrow one's boundaries and take off with the Riders in the Sky (Himmelsstuermer)

to dizzying heights, to new, different and better places. A dream, a yearning and hope are always

present in Hassan Haddad´s work. 

Anja Reuter