Ardabil

acrylic on formica plywood sheet

120.6 by 81.2 cm. 47 1/2 by 32 in

Executed in 1977.

Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai

Ardabil belongs to the group that⛎ preceded Nabil Nahas’ first solo exhibition in New York at the Robert Miller Gallery.

In 1973, after earning his MFA at Yale, Nahas was commissioned to paint a large mural for Yale University’s Chemist🌌ry Block.

This marked his first use of yellow as a background for a geometric painting, a practice he continued into the late 1970s. By 1978, he began incorporating more color into his work. Nahas’ geometric paintings of the 1970s reflꦯect his early fascination with Islamic art and the parallels he saw between tessellated, ever-expanding patterns and the three-dimensional repetition of volumetric forms—such as those found in stress structures෴. His work fuses different geometric systems, slowing the reading of the paintings and creating a complex visual experience.

The present painting and its companion piece are named after the Ardabil Carpets, renowned examples of which are housed at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Nahas first encountered Islamic art not in Egypt or Lebanon but at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Deeply influenced by it, he incorporated tessellated interlocking hexagons—evoking both tiles and molecular structures—above layers of lines inspired by square Kufic calligraphy and glass protection tape. During this period, he painted on sanded Formica wood panels, creating a smooth, absorbent surface.꧅ The yellow background was intended to enhance luminosity, giving the impression that light emanates from the painting itself.

Unlike many young Lebanese artists of the late 1960s and early 1970s, who studied in Paris or Rome, Nahas moved to the United States in 1968. His experiences there, particularly at Yale, shaped much of his later work. At Yale, he encountered leading contemporary artists, but it was Al Held, then a visiting professor, who became his mentor. Though Nahas quickly transitioned between styles, these early wor🍒ks demonstrate technical finesse and innovation. At the time, few Middle Eastern artists had explored such complex geometries, which balance order and chaos—a theme that later culminated in his well known fractal paintings.