Ziryab...Another Story (Arab-Andalusian Songs Series) 1995

Houria Niati made "Ziryab...Another Story" as part of her Arab-Andalusian Songs Series. The marks, like musical notes, create a rhythm across these vertical panels. Niati isn't trying to represent anything recognizable; instead, she's laying down a process, a journey of applying paint. Look at the textures; they're so physical! You can almost feel the grit of the material, the way the pigment has been layered, scraped, and built up. The paint isn't shy; it's right there on the surface. Notice, in the panel on the left, the build up of darker greens on top of the beige under painting. See how the artist allows small areas of the underpainting to show through? It's as if she's inviting you to witness the painting coming into being. Niati reminds me of Howard Hodgkin, another painter who built up layers of meaning and feeling through colour and texture. But unlike Hodgkin, Niati doesn’t want to make a window onto another world. Instead she presents a mirror reflecting an ongoing conversation between mark and idea. It's an invitation to make your own story from it.