La Boda del Mar (The Wedding of the Sea)

Provenance

The Artist's Collection.

Notes

The present lot is part of a larger series of Rashid Diab’s works called The Old Kingdoms. It combines etching, Aquaforte, and aquatint techniques and depicts a mix of motifs, creating a mythical interaction or ‘wedding’ of figures at sea. These prints by Diab are rare. The artist is better known for his abstract works and landscapes with Sudanese women, which catapulted him to prominence in Spain and the rest of the world.

In 1986, he acquired a licentiate degree (a professional qualification between a master’s and a doctorate) in printmaking. After completing his PhD, he became a master printmaker and went on to teach printmaking at the Complutense University of Madrid. He was the first African teacher at the University and a professor there for a total of 9 years.

Diab’s printmaking era between the 80s and 90s reflected a time of remembering his roots and reconnecting with the different elements of Sudanese culture. He was experiencing feelings of nostalgia as he thought of Sudan. Furthermore, he was acquiring and honing printmaking techniques that the College of Fine Arts in Khartoum could not provide.

Rashid Diab was in Spain as it transitioned to democracy, resulting in a huge explosion of art. Studying in Spain in the 80s therefore meant gaining access to an uninterrupted lineage of graphic genius stretching back to Goya. Spanish academies held rigorous standards for traditional intaglio, woodcut, and lithography techniques. At institutions like the Fábrica de Moneda y Timbre (Royal Mint) and the top Fine Art Faculties, technical precision in heavy-ink viscosity and complex acid-etching met the wild, raw aesthetic of contemporary painting.