Guitar
1994 - Present
Description
The painting depicts a scene of my uncle, the martyred Palestinian artist Abdul Hamid Al-Kharti.
A three-quarter-length portrait of a seated male figure placed slightly left of center, the head tilted downward toward the instrument. He wears a white long-sleeved shirt with blue shading in the folds, over a dark navy sleeveless vest, with a white collar visible at the neck. Across his lap and torso he holds a large plucked stringed instrument with a pale golden body and a dark brown neck and pegbox, three dark circular rosettes set into the soundboard, both hands positioned as if playing.
The ground behind him is non-representational, built from vertical gestural strokes in greens, olive yellows, browns, creams, and whites. The figure is modeled with smoother transitions than the surrounding brushwork, which stays loose and directional. Warm ochres, oranges, and browns carry the figure against the cooler whites and blues of the clothing. Canvas weave is visible through the thinner background passages.
A signature in white paint appears at the lower left. It is not reliably legible at archival resolution.
Artist Notes
The painting depicts a scene of my uncle, the martyred Palestinian artist Abdul Hamid Al-Kharti.
Preservation Notes
STATUS Physical work destroyed, no longer extant. Recorded 2026-09-18 on the instruction of Sky, PAPA: the artist's studio and home were destroyed in Israeli airstrikes and no physical work in this collection is known to survive. This record documents a work that no longer exists. SURVIVING RECORD One digital image, 1600 x 1122 px, 249 KB JPEG. Good capture, sufficient for study, screen publication, and modest print reproduction. DIGITAL PRESERVATION The image file is now the artifact. Obtain the artist's original camera file if it still exists, store an uncompressed master alongside the JPEG, record a checksum, and hold a copy outside the Content Lake. Do not re-crop, re-compress, or color-correct the existing file. MATERIAL RECORD Oil on canvas, 100 x 80 cm. The largest recorded work in this collection. SUBJECT, HANDLE WITH CARE The description and the artist's notes both record the sitter as the artist's uncle, the Palestinian artist Abdul Hamid Al-Kharti, named as a martyr. Any public use of this record should use past tense and memorial framing for the sitter, and should keep the artist's own words rather than paraphrasing them. TITLE The title is the artist's own. It stands as given and is not to be amended, annotated, or reconciled against the instrument depicted. Arabic is the artist's language and his naming of his own work is the record, not a variance from one. CATALOGUING HISTORY Year created was empty until 2026-09-18, when it was recorded as 2023 on the confirmation of Sky, PAPA, given in session. No date is visible on the canvas in the archival photograph, so this value rests on that confirmation rather than on the object. OUTSTANDING 1. The signature at the lower left is not legible at archival resolution. 2. Whether Abdul Hamid Al-Kharti has, or should have, his own artist record in the archive.
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