Curator Statement

Ken’s mastery of graphic communication combined with an artist’s observant eye, captures the mystery and romance of an Arab city in a way that very few artists have managed. The seated figure, demurely covered but with her body revealed in a way that Cubists would embrace, gazes both at the viewer and at the window. In Arab societies, it is very common for women to be kept inside a house or even a palace, where they look out through bay windows that are their only link with the life that is taking place literally on their doorsteps. In this painting we see a more modern woman of Morocco, but she is still inside, looking out on the sunlit, densely chaotic and brightly coloured housing blocks where life blooms without her. There are no shutters or lattices to separate her from the outside world, yet she remains on the inside, passively observing her world and the viewer. The mystery of the empty chair … is she waiting for someone or have they just left? A lover … a friend … a husband … is she sending us a signal of invitation or unavailability? The only plate on the table is in front of the empty chair … is she subjugating her needs to those of a guest, or is she waiting for us to join her? Is it a vase or is it a flask that’s beside the plate? There’s no glass … the fragment of a palm tree etched against black balances night and day on the same wall … how long has she been waiting … and how long will she wait? This is a painting that I lose myself in – the riotous colours contrast with black, that is the absence of colour – on which there are scratched outlines in white, that is the combination of all colours. This is probably my favourite painting.