Young artist makes it with talent and skill
Asad Bunashi
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| asad bunashi - self portrait - root exhibition 2012 report leadia |
vanguard
creative artist
This is the first in a series of articles
on Ased Ahmad Salem Bunashi, a
vanguard creative artist, painter,
writer and film director.
— Editor
❑ ❑ ❑
By Lidia Qattan
Special to the Arab Times
Asad Bunashi is an ambitious creative
young artist well versed in painting and photography, as well as an internal
decorator and electronic web designer. In the art movement of Kuwait he stands
in the legion of van-
guard artists, the new blood which the local movement badly
needs in order to emerge from the lethargy in which it has sunk from the
eighties and got worse after the invasion.
Dynamic young individuals, such as Asad Bunashi and serious
young artists like him who can make a differ-
ence, and infuse the movement with vitality
and zest, as when it first emerged in the sixties and led to the golden era of
art in Kuwait. In the aftermath of the liberation there was an outburst of
creativity, mainly from debutant young
artists, but the flare soon died. Asad himself was one of those debutants, who
having gone through a terrorizing experi- ence during the
invasion, projected his feeling and emotions in a work with which he took part in the exhibition, “Effect of the Iraqi
invasion,” held in 1993. Asad was a
16-year-old teenager when he woke up on that fateful morning, the second of
August 1990, at the sound of firing guns and explosions going on in the
neighboring Kaifan, an area on the outskirts of Kuwait city,
where the first Kuwait resistance got organized.
Voluntary
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| asad bunashi - i believe i can fly 2002 - out of realty exhibition |
Young hearts are quick to respond to daring situation,
especially in defense of their country. Asad was one of those young people who
got involved in voluntary work helping around, baking bread, clearing the
garbage and do other useful works that gave to the people of Shamyia, his own
district, a sense of community and orientation in the midst of uncertainties
and impend ing dangers. What scared him out of his wits dur ing the invasion
was when he and his friend, a 15-year-old teenager were
told to retrieve the guns and ammuni tions buried in an area
that had
become surrounded by Iraqi soldiers. Wearing black garments the two boys crawled
their way to the place
and began digging-out the weapons. Suddenly realizing they
had been spotted, they froze on their position,
not daring to make a move when they overheard one of the
soldiers saying to his companions that, he had seen
something moving in the darkness. Luckily for the boys none
of the soldiers cared to go to investigate.
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| asad bunashi , butterfly effect , faces exhibition 2007 |
For two hours Asad and his friend were holding theirhearts,
terrorized at the thought of being captured and tortured; only when the
soldiers moved away, they summoned the courage to collect the weapons and sneak
out of
that dangerous zone. Such an experience remained indelible
in Asad’s mind;
the terror of that night persisted till in the aftermath of
the liberation he could project his feelings and emotions on
canvas.
Maturity
Born in 1975 in a large family of nine brothers and seven
sisters, Asad grew up surrounded by much love and affection that helped him to develop a healthy
minded disposition and reach emotional maturity at an early age.
From five years old, when his schooling began, gymnastics
became his main attraction; through the years
he won many tournaments in Kuwait and abroad, but when he
entered the second phase of his schooling he
switched from gymnastics to art.
Incidentally, his first introduction to art was by Sami
Mohammed, his first art teacher, one of the most gifted
painters and sculptors in Kuwait, and one of the pioneers in
the art movement of Kuwait. Another of his teachers during his early schooling
was the artist Mohammad Al Sheikh Al Faresi, a painter who was encouraging
young artists through his TV program, in which young Asad once took part with one
of his works.
That experience made him so proud that it awakened in him a
strong feeling for art. However, he only became
seriously involved when he entered higher school, it was
then that he was introduced to a variety of painting
techniques, of which oil painting has been his favorite
media ever since. At graduation from
higher school
Ased entered the art teaching college, got his diploma and
began his working
career, teaching painting and photography at the secondary
school of Ahmad Besher Al Roomi and at the
school of Abdul Aziz Hussein Al Tarkeet. He also teaches summer
courses which are organized by the National Council of
Culture Arts and Letters as part of its summer activities.
Promising
Asad made his debut as a promising young artist when he
joined the 1993’s exhibition in the aftermath of liberation. At first his work
mainly focused on Surrealism, to deviate from the usual trend practiced by most
artists leaning on traditions and folklore for inspiration. As revealed in his
first personal exhibition held in 2002, under the title “Out of Reality,” his
philosophical pondering on human life is clearly discernible
in a style verging on Circlism rather than on Surrealism,
because of his concern with the tangible hard facts of life
rather than with mere fancy. Being also a writer, of novels
and stories for short movies he directs and
produces with his group of friends, such an interest helps
him to come forward with fresh new ideas for paintings.
Incidentally, though he proved talented and skilled as a
young promising artist since he took part in the
1993’s exhibition, Asad had a hard time in being recognized
and accepted at the Kuwait Formative
Arts Society as a
member. At the
time it was founded in 1968, the society’s whole objective
was to encourage young artists to develop their potentials by spurring them to
prove their worth. Later
changes in the administration have vitiated the soul of the
KFAS with bigotry, jealousy and envy that defeat its original purpose thereby
thwarting the expectations of many talented young artists, who turning away
from it, establish their own groups. Far from being discouraged by the bigotry
he met with, Asad persisted till finally he gained membership in 2000, after
producing three paintings in front of the Society’s committee. That year taking
part as a member in the KFAS’s exhibition he got first prize. He also took part
in every other art exhibition held in the country in 2000. In 2002 Asad held
his first solo exhibition, “Out of Reality,” in which many of the works steeped
in feelings and emotions, and born of philosophical pondering on the reality of
what
was going on in the world and around him, are reminiscent of
the Circlism school.
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| asad bunashi . indian leader , root exhibition 2012 |
Evolution
Expressed in poetical form such works are powerful in their
communicative import, suggesting the emerging of a new phase in human evolution, while technically the
flow of lines and balanced masses testify to the congruity of the composition.Such works may appear
enigmatic,but there is nothing ambiguous about them; for, it represents a reality seen with the eyes of an
artist capable of grasping truths intuitively discerned, truths he recognizes and appropriates to a form that has
fullness, solidity, structure and spiritual steam. These
are the qualities in the paintings that make them
substantial and permanent, capable of withstanding the test oftime.
To be continued
