AMIR NOUR

From the late 1960s, Nour created a new a visual language, combining African-derived forms and a minimalist aesthetic. His early sculptures were produced contemporaneously with those of the major names of Minimalist art, such as Donald Judd, Sol Lewitt and Carl Andre.

However, Nour maintained that his work is quite separate from theirs: “I grew up in an entirely divergent environment, culture and religion...Yet my work and Western minimalism share the simplicity and purity of forms. My minimalism is rooted in my experience and vision of my culture and history”. The title of Nour’s 2016 retrospective “Brevity is the Soul of Wit” (from an Arabic proverb) explains his divergence form Western Minimalism- for inspiration his work looks to African sculpture, adobe architecture, Sudanese landscapes (deserts and plains), cattle horns, calabashes. Using arches, geometric and hemispheric shapes, he worked in bronze, stainless steel, moulded plastic, cement and fibreglass.

Amir Nour received diplomas from the Slade School of Art and the RCA in London, and a BFA and MFA from Yale University. This education introduced him to the vocabulary of the Western modernist tradition, and on the other hand, gave him the opportunity to mix with other non-Western artists and students, a major impetus for the discussion and dissemination of decolonisation. From 1969 Nour was based in Chicago, where he later taught at the City Colleges. Here he encountered the Civil Rights Movement and had friendships with members of the AfriCobra group and other Chicago-based collectives, and Black sculptors such as Richard Hunt and Melvin Edwards.

His works have been acquired by significant international collections, including National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution; The Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University; Asilah Municipality, Morocco; the City of Chicago; and the Sharjah Art Foundation.

Courtesy Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai.