Lebanon - Art - Moder Art Explodes On The Scene
Nishee
For a country without an art museum or a public school art program, Lebanon has
experienced its fair share of modern art. And if the recent trend to display
artwork in public places like restaurants and on the street is anything to go
by, that experience is likely to widen.
Pierre Hobeika, manager of News Cafe in Clemenceau, has for the past year
incorporated into his role the duties of an art exhibitor, showing the work of
different Lebanese artists every month at the cafe artists who would
otherwise have little opportunity to exhibit.
By the cake display case this month is an oil painting of the ocean. Still-life
in watercolor and landscapes emulating early Impressionism occupy the
staircase, while varying styles of landscapes and portraits are displayed on
the upper level.
“I don’t care about the style,” says Hobeika. “I just want to encourage
young artists whose work hasn’t found a home yet. We’ve had some abstract
work and we’ve had some landscapes. The only condition is that it has to be
decorative.”
Since Hobeika’s approach to art is more on the traditional side, I asked him
what was the most “outrageous” work the cafe had exhibited.
“We displayed works by 11-year-olds. They were really quite beautiful and
people couldn’t believe they were by children. I can’t display anything
really shocking, dark in color or in nature.”
For a few fine weeks in October, the Corniche was also an art-friendly
location. Unlike the cafe, however, the work on the Corniche was
non-traditional, attracting curious onlookers and in some instances proving
highly controversial.
Most people, however, generally welcomed the sculptures as decorative novelty
rather than experimental art.
Enjoying a white plaster nude female with two blue diamonds placed on the
pavement behind her, construction worker Antoine Saab said: “She’s nude and
independent like the sea. She belongs here. Even more so because she’s
something to look at and enjoy. That’s what makes her Lebanese.”
Saleh Barakat, owner of the Agial art gallery, feels the artwork displayed on
the Corniche was “a positive introduction to art” for those who got the
chance to see it. “It’s like a rose in your bedroom. It doesn’t change
anything, but it makes things nicer. They might not understand it, but it’s
nice,” he said.
Agial is a place where people can wonder in off the street, and some do. The
art that Barakat brings in is mainly by established artists. Currently on
display are Abousleiman’s Miniatures which incorporate traditional Oriental
themes and color swatches in oil paint on canvas. Also exhibited are Monkith
Saaid’s metal sculptures in delicate human forms, steps and frames. The works
are modern in that they are not directly representational; however, they are by
no means avant-garde. Like the art shown at News Cafe, the work of Abousleiman
and Saaid offers possibilities for decorative pieces for the home.
For many who saw the Corniche sculptures, it was not so much a question of
“understanding” what modern art was about, but simply enjoying it for what
it was.
Fishing by a giant red foot in the rocks, restaurant employee Samer Baraadi
said that this was art that “each person understands for themselves. You
understand it more and differently every time you come to the Corniche. I feel
I understand it simply because I enjoy looking at it so much.”