Poetry in Color
Fahad Hajailan
Publication Details
The Art Library in cooperation with Rizzoli 2022
To devote oneself to art means to make it a daily concern. It means cultural and intellectual depth, daring and experimentation and lifelong learning.
“Poetry in ColorFahad Hajailan (1957-2018, born in Bilbeis, Egypt) is a Saudi painter, poet, and teacher whose artistic practice focused on form and color through the abstraction and manipulation of two-dimensional shapes and figures. His career spanned four decades of painting while based between Bilbeis, Riyadh, and Jeddah.
His practice was defined by constant research about the expressive properties of color and his bold reinterpretation of portraiture. Best-known for his female portraits, the works discussed in this book reflect Hajailan’s diverse subject matter and painting styles throughout his career.
His portraits fluidly transition from figurative subjects—with their characteristic double-colored cheeks and profound eyes—to abstraction. In his abstract portraiture, figurative details disappear in favor of broad brushstrokes, geometric shapes, and indistinct colored spaces to suggest the female form. These portraits find a literary counterpart in Hajailan’s poetry, which constitutes an essential and complementary element of his practice.