Lost or Escaped
- Artist: Hamed Abdalla
- Date: 1966
- Medium: Oil paint and wood on board
- Dimensions: support: 1160 x 892 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is “Lost or Escaped” by Hamed Abdalla. Abdalla, trained in calligraphy, blends that discipline with the strict symmetry of Islamic geometry. In this 1966 oil‑on‑wood painting the rounded, interlocking shapes suggest fragmented bodily forms, and together they spell out the Arabic title *Al Sharida*, meaning “the mentally escaped.” That phrase is more than a literal label; it mirrors the artist’s frustration with Pan‑Arabism, the late‑1960s movement that sought to unite all Arab peoples into one state. By portraying escape, Abdalla comments on the political disillusionment felt in his native Egypt. The piece feels both abstract and figurative, inviting viewers to consider how geometry can convey personal and collective longing.
See it in person
Lost or Escaped is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
