The Authenticity of the Land
2001 - Present
Description
A still life in dry media on pale blue-white paper, centered on a large round-bellied vessel with a flared, rolled rim that spans from the lower third of the sheet to just above center.
Bare forking branches rise from its mouth, spreading upward and outward to fill the upper half and running off the top and both upper edges. The branch at the right carries small pointed leaf or bud shapes clustered along its twigs. Two rounded fruit-like forms sit at the base of the vessel in the lower right quadrant, one partly overlapping the other, resting on a horizontal surface line that crosses the lower portion of the sheet. Further rounded shapes and loose hatching run along the bottom edge, partly cropped.
Warm reddish browns, sienna, and ochre-yellow carry the vessel, branches, and fruit, with sparse brick-red accents in the background at left and right. The paper is left largely bare in the upper area, with light blue and grey-blue tonal shifts around the edges. Yellow highlight concentrates on the right flank of the vessel while the left side is massed in dark brown.
The volume of the vessel is built with curved parallel hatching following its contour, heavier pressure and layered dark brown at the left, a smudged and blended yellow passage at the right. Branches are drawn with broad tapering strokes and some rubbed edges; leaves are short stabbing marks. The background carries loose open diagonal hatching and scribbled red stippling, with the tooth of the paper visible throughout.
Artist Notes
The painting evokes the richness of Palestinian heritage through branches and dry leaves that embrace the story and memory of the land. It brings together traditional Palestinian jars with lemon branches and fruits, symbolizing the deep connection between the Palestinian people, their land, and their natural heritage passed down through generations.
Preservation Notes
PROVISIONAL. All observations below are from visual inspection of a digital image. No physical examination has been carried out. DIMENSIONS Recorded as 42 x 30 with no unit set. The unit field is empty on this record and on all eight works in this collection. Not inferred. Requires confirmation. MEDIUM Recorded as "Fabriano Paper", which names the support rather than the medium. Note also the split within this collection between "Fabriano" and "Fabriano Paper" as two separate values for what may be the same support. Visual inspection shows dry media worked in directional strokes with visible paper tooth, rubbed and blended passages, and a slight sheen in places, consistent with coloured pencil, conte, or soft pastel. These cannot be distinguished reliably from a photograph and have not been recorded. If the medium is soft pastel or conte, the surface is friable and requires interleaving, fixative consideration, and flat storage. That is a materially different handling requirement from coloured pencil. Establishing which it is should be treated as a preservation priority rather than a cataloguing nicety. PHYSICAL LABEL ON THE WORK, ACTION NEEDED A small white rectangular paper slip bearing a handwritten inscription sits on or over the lower left of the surface in the photograph, read by automated inspection as "arf.bilal-ramadan" and almost certainly "art.bilal-ramadan" as it appears on two other works in this collection. Paper resting directly on a friable dry-media surface risks offsetting pigment. Whether the label was adhered or simply laid on for the photograph should be established and recorded. NAME SPELLING The label reads "ramadan" with a single a. The artist record in this archive reads "Bilal Ramadaan". Both spellings are attested within the archive. Not standardised. The correct form should come from the artist. SIGNATURE No signature is visible apart from the label, which is not part of the work. Whether the sheet is signed, and where, is unestablished. SOURCE FILE 3023 x 4031 px. Aspect ratio only. Physical dimensions not derivable from the file.
