Still Life with Fish Skeleton and Shells
1979 - Present
Description
A still life arranged on a table bearing produce and prepared food. In the foreground, a bowl or plate holds a stylized fish skeleton drawn in white outline against deep blue, accompanied by three golden-yellow clam or shell forms. Behind it the composition rises through layered horizontal bands containing red tomatoes on the stem, blue produce that reads as eggplants or peppers, white vessels, and architectural or mountainous forms, resolving into a sky of pale blue and white at the top.
The organization is stacked and frieze-like, with clearly demarcated zones and strong dark outlines compartmentalizing each element to produce a stained-glass or Cubist effect. Space recedes from table through middle-ground objects to background landscape while the picture plane stays deliberately flat. The palette is saturated and limited: dominant deep and bright cyan blues, with bright red in the tomatoes and vessel interiors, mustard yellow and ochre in the handles and geometric forms, white in the outlines, sky, and fish skeleton, and dark navy and black in the contours and shadows. Brushstrokes are visible with variable impasto, most pronounced along the contours and in the transitions between color fields, over a matte surface with areas of dimensional relief. The stylization, particularly the anatomically exaggerated fish skeleton and the simplified geometric produce, indicates deliberate distortion for symbolic rather than descriptive ends.
No signature, date, or inscription is visible in the archival photograph.
Cataloguing note: Provisional descriptive title assigned during archival restructuring. This work was previously filed as a detail shot of Gaza Fish and is a strong candidate for the fish series. Medium, dimensions, and date are unverified.
Preservation Notes
Matte surface with areas of dimensional relief along contour lines; avoid stacking or surface pressure. Medium inferred from archival photograph only. Separated from the Gaza Fish gallery during the September 2026 restructuring. --- RECORD PROVENANCE --- Separated from the "Gaza Fish" record (29b2b0b0-54ef-4199-878d-7d47726b118d) during the September 2026 archival restructuring, where this work had been filed as a detail shot rather than as a work in its own right. Source file: Gaza fish10.jpg. Note added 2026-09-17. Sibling records created in the same restructuring and sharing the same unverified metadata pattern: Blue Interior with Fish, Interior with Fish and Cactus, Interior with Three Fish, Interior with Two Figures, Layered Landscape with Fish Skeleton, Lollipop Forms, Studio Interior with Chairs and Flowers, Village Harvest. --- TITLE STATUS --- "Still Life with Fish Skeleton and Shells" is a PROVISIONAL DESCRIPTIVE TITLE assigned by PAPA during archival restructuring. It is NOT the artist's title and there is no evidence the artist ever named this work. It reads as an artist's title in every interface that displays it, which is a risk. Mohamed Harb is living and can be asked. Until he supplies a title, this record must not present the provisional title as his in any public-facing or commercial context. --- UNVERIFIED METADATA --- The following fields are empty or unverified and must not be filled by inference: Year of creation: Unknown. The yearCreated field is empty and no date is visible on the work. Medium: Not recorded. The medium field is empty. The materials field reads "Canvas" and "Acrylic or oil paint" - the latter is an explicit uncertainty, not a determination. Acrylic and oil cannot be distinguished from a photograph and the two require different conservation treatment. Confirm with the artist or by direct examination. Dimensions: Unknown. No dimensions recorded and none recoverable from the photograph. Do not infer from image proportions. Location: Not recorded. Current physical location of the work is unknown. Signature: none visible in the archived photograph. The photograph is cropped on all sides, so edges and any signature, date, inscription, label, or stamp outside the cropped area cannot be assessed. The verso has not been photographed. --- CONDITION, FROM PHOTOGRAPH ONLY --- The following are observations from the archived photograph and have NOT been verified against the physical work. Support reads as stretched canvas with a standard weave. Moderate impasto throughout with dimensional relief concentrated along the dark contour lines and in transitions between colour fields. No significant craquelure, paint loss, flaking, staining, or discoloration apparent. The canvas reads flat with no visible warping or buckling. Minor scattered surface wear consistent with age and handling. Handling: avoid stacking and avoid surface pressure across the impasto contours. ASSESSMENT LIMITS: the photograph is cropped on all sides, so no stretcher bars, tacking margins, or frame are visible and the perimeter cannot be assessed. There is a slight cool colour cast from indoor lighting, so recorded colour values are approximate. Whether the physical work survives and its current condition: Not yet recorded. --- IMAGE ASSET --- Archived master is 1939 x 3281 px, 4.06 MB JPEG. This is a substantially higher-fidelity capture than other recent intakes and supports reproduction at approximately 16 x 28 cm at 300 DPI. The work is cropped in this photograph, so the master is not a complete record of the object. A full, square-on, uncropped photograph including edges, plus a verso image, should be obtained before this record is used for reproduction, insurance, condition reporting, or loan. Two additional images are attached in the gallery field and have not been assessed in this note. --- RIGHTS AND REPRODUCTION --- STANDING POSITION, stated by PAPA's Director of Operations and Art Collection Manager (Sky) on 2026-09-17, applying to EVERY artist represented on papaart.org and to this record without separate confirmation: CONTRACTS: PAPA holds an executed contract with every artist represented. PAPA'S GRANT: exclusive rights to reproduce the work as prints and to distribute those prints. COPYRIGHT: retained by the artist. PAPA is a licensee, not a rights owner. ARTIST REVENUE: the artist receives the NET profits from print sales. Net, not gross. Fulfilment, platform, payment processing, and shipping costs are deducted before the artist's share is calculated. CREDIT LINE: copyright is attributed to the artist, with PAPA credited separately as distributor rather than as rights holder. CUSTODY: executed contracts are held off-system by the Art Collection Manager and are not uploaded to this dataset. Contact the Art Collection Manager to consult them. Recorded on PAPA's authority. This is a standing institutional position and does not require re-confirmation for individual records. PUBLIC COPY CAUTION: because the artist's share is calculated on NET, public-facing material must not state or imply that 100 percent of the sale price goes to the artist. The accurate phrasing is 100 percent of net profits. ESTATES: where an artist record carries a year of passing, the counterparty to any print arrangement is the artist's estate rather than the artist. This does not alter the position above; it determines who must be contacted.
