Amir Nour Sudanese/American, 1936-2021
Serpent, 1970
Steel
225 x 80 cm
88 5/8 x 31 1/2 in
Dimensions (per quarter-pipe element): Ø 9 cm; span 21 cm.
88 5/8 x 31 1/2 in
Dimensions (per quarter-pipe element): Ø 9 cm; span 21 cm.
Courtesy of the Artist and Lawrie Shabibi
Amir Nour’s Serpent (1970) is an early expression of his ability to fuse minimalist clarity with the symbolic resonance of Sudanese visual culture. Hard patinated steel becomes a flowing, tensile...
Amir Nour’s Serpent (1970) is an early expression of his ability to fuse minimalist clarity with the symbolic resonance of Sudanese visual culture. Hard patinated steel becomes a flowing, tensile form, suggesting both the movement of a serpent and the broader ideas of continuity and renewal. Here, Nour’s concept of “brevity” is already present: a disciplined economy of form that carries layered meaning.
Created at a moment when Western Minimalism held sway, Serpent speaks to that formal language while drawing on the rhythms of Sudanese landscapes and vernacular design. Undulating lines, natural curves, and patterns familiar to daily life
inflect its abstract shape, anchoring the work in Nour’s personal and cultural
memory.
Created at a moment when Western Minimalism held sway, Serpent speaks to that formal language while drawing on the rhythms of Sudanese landscapes and vernacular design. Undulating lines, natural curves, and patterns familiar to daily life
inflect its abstract shape, anchoring the work in Nour’s personal and cultural
memory.
Provenance
Estate of Amir NourExhibitions
Amir Nour: A Retrospective (1965–Present): Brevity is the Soul of Wit, Sharjah Art Foundation from 12 November 2016 to 12 January 2017Mohamed Omer Khalil Etchings/Amir I.M. Nour Sculpture, at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. from November 1994 to February 1995
Literature
African Arts, Vol. 4, No. 4, Summer, 1971Join Mailing List
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