Transmutation III

1991

Not on view

Basil Alkazzi studied at the Central School of Art in London and went on to live in multiple Western cities. Throughout, he has maintained a core sense of the spiritual and metaphysical in his work. His abstract images and symbols of nature are often inspired by a search for the sacred and the meaning of life. He paints dreamlike nightscapes, landscapes, and representations of cosmic space. The double triangle reoccurs in his later work, one denoting the body with its base on earth and reaching upward toward the heavens, the other symbolizing the soul based in the heavens and pointing earthward to support the body. In 1986, Alkazzi established the Basil H. Alkazzi Foundation Awards at the Royal College of Art London and in 1987 he founded the Basil H. Alkazzi Award for young and emerging U.S. painters.

Artwork Details

Object Information

Overview

Inscriptions and Markings

Provenance

References

Title: Transmutation III
Artist: Basil Alkazzi (Kuwaiti, Kuwait 1938–2025 Monaco)
Date: 1991
Medium: Gouache on paper
Dimensions: 30 × 22 in. (76.2 × 55.9 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Gift of Ronald A. Kuchta, 1996
Object Number: 1996.264.3
Rights and Reproduction: © Estate of Basil Alkazzi Kuwaiti
Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

By Basil Alkazzi

In the same medium

From the same time and place

Whispering Silence II, Basil Alkazzi Kuwaiti, Gouache and metallic paint on four sheets of paper — Whispering Silence II
Basil Alkazzi
1991

Street Scene in Paris (Scène de rue à Paris), Félix Vallotton Swiss, Gouache and oil on cardboard. — Street Scene in Paris (Scène de rue à Paris)
Félix Vallotton
1897

Transmutation IV, Basil Alkazzi Kuwaiti, Gouache and gold metallic paint on paper — Transmutation IV
Basil Alkazzi
1990

Pool Parlor, Jacob Lawrence American, Watercolor and gouache on paper — Pool Parlor
Jacob Lawrence
1942

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