A British artist living in Dubai has created what could be the world’s largest canvas painting in a hotel ballroom.
Artist Sacha Jafari says when he started, he did not intend “The Journey of Humanity,” to be the largest canvas in the world. But he said he wanted to show where humanity had been, where it is and where it, in his vision, is going, and, he says, “it got bigger and bigger.”
Eventually, it filled the ballroom in Dubai’s Atlantis Hotel, a popular tourist landmark in the city. Jafari says the painting is 2,000 square meters, all of which he painted, meter by meter, with a two-inch-wide brush, on his hands and knees.
Jafari said he started the project in March, at the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown, so he was left alone to focus on the work. He said he was down on the canvas and he went into what he described as a trance or a meditative state and just let the “form, color and shape, narrative” flow out of him.
The work was physically demanding; Jafari ruptured two spinal discs during his work, but was able to continue with the help of a brace and painkillers.
The Journey of Humanity" has been submitted for a Guinness World Record as the largest canvas painting in the world, and Jafari is hoping for the designation. He hopes to auction the painting for as much as $30 million, all to go to children’s charities, and says the recognition will bring the artwork more attention.
The final piece will go on tour in the UAE and in December, it will be cut up into 70 panels to be sold.
