“The Blooming of Spring” – Usama Said
Galilee Spring, 2012, acrylic & jift on canvas, 80 cm × 80 cm
A hill budding with a plethora of yellow spring flowers was transformed into a shining and abstract splotched image on canvas by the artist Usama Said, in his work “spring” . The blooming of spring in the Galilee, the reflections of light and the beauty of nature, were sources of inspiration for Said (1957), who was born and still lives in the village of Nahaf in the Western Galilee. An examination of the works comprising his Galilee Spring series brings artistic associations from the close of the 19th century and the Modernism of the start of the 20th century into mind. At first glance, one of these works, titled “Spring in the Galilee,” makes reference to the reflections of light in Claude Monet’s “Water Lilies” series. Could it be that Said wanted to deal with the same perceptual problems that stood at the heart of the Impressionists’ works of art? While Monet’s splashes of paint where designed to serve as an image of a continuum of reflections of light that are a visual expression in themselves of the principal of continuity and to express peace and serenity, Said’s paint work is bold and screaming: an amorphous yellow blotch rises and floats against a dark background created of bold, random brushstrokes in shades of green, while red squirts of paint drip as though randomly on the canvas. There can be no doubt that this is not the most likeable image of spring flowers, but a fierce expressive image of feelings that explicate spring’s significance.