Ray of Light | Walid Abu Shakra

Ray of Light | Walid Abu Shakra

Ray of Light | Walid Abu Shakra

Ray of Light

Walid Abu Shakra investigated the landscapes of his place of birth, Umm el Fahem, while living in Europe and occupying a European environment and climate utterly different from the East in terms of atmosphere and culture. Now his landscapes are awash in sizzling rays of sun; then they carry Eastern markers but are cast in a Western atmosphere and climate. Walid began to practice this artistic vocation in his country of birth before moving to Europe, but when he made up his mind to go, he took the themes of his art, freighted with the atmosphere, the legacy, and the styles of his place of birth, and planted them in the atmosphere and climate of the West. His consistent fealty to these themes and to his inner truth earned him immense appreciation as well as prizes and exhibitions in European and American galleries. Walid’s Eastern works, inserted into a Western atmosphere, recall those of Orientalist artists, in which Eastern examples and details are embedded. The Orientalists delivered the magic of the East to the West and many even appointed themselves as ambassadors who marketed the East and its culture. Walid’s love of the West and his respect for its attitude toward nature amplified the bond between him and his art, as the insertion of a European atmosphere into his works attests.