Meditation
- Artist: Hamed Abdalla
- Date: 1969
- Medium: Acrylic paint on board
- Dimensions: support: 529 × 432 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is the “Meditation” by Hamed Abdalla. The canvas shows a tightly curled figure tucked into the lower corner, rendered in loose, gestural strokes that Abdalla calls “word‑forms.” He used a blow‑drying technique to crack the acrylic, giving the grey background a sculptural, almost tactile depth. The work fuses his own take on Arabic calligraphy with the experimental spirit of the CoBrA group he met in Copenhagen, where artists like Pierre Alechinsky and Christian Dotremont pushed the boundary between abstraction and figuration. “Meditation” invites you to feel the quiet stillness of a human shape while appreciating the spontaneous energy that underpins the piece.
See it in person
Meditation 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.
