Lebanon - Galerie Epreuve d'Artiste - Art and Culture
Nishee
By Helen Khal
Special to The Daily Star
The two artists at Galerie Epreuve d'Artiste this week one a Lebanese
male and the other a French female are as divergent in style as they
are in gender and national origin, which had me wondering what brought
them together in the same show. Shouldn't they be sharing some common
thread in their work, whether in concept, content, technique, style,
material or motivation?
It turns out that, apart from the equally high caliber of their art, the
only link is friendship. Amine el Bacha, one of the leading figures in
Lebanese art, met Diane de Longuemar four years ago when she was
exhibiting in Beirut and admired her work. In no time at all, the young
Frenchwoman became a close friend of the el Bachas and gradually the
idea of a joint exhibition began taking shape.
We all know the distinctive watercolors of Amine El Bacha. They first
brought him prominence in the 1960s and, since then, have kept him at
the top of the field in that genre. No other watercolorist in Lebanon
can equal his free, exuberant application of color, his startling
precision of image, his subtle humor and wit in content. He paints
people, at play, at work and at rest; he paints a Noah’s Ark of
frolicking animals; he paints the sea and mountains, trees and flowers,
fish and fruits, all sparkling in Lebanon’s sunlight. He paints joy not
despair, laughter not tears.
Diane de Longuemar is a sculptor. She also is concerned with people, but
deals only with the expressive components of the face. The heads, carved
out of dense yellowed wood, weightlessly float like cosmic beacons of
spirituality. They dwell in somber silence, with eyes and lips curiously
poised on the verge of speech. Complementing the sculptures is a series
of black ink wash drawings of elongated figures appearing to be almost
headless. Here, it is the body alone, inescapably anchored in the earth
and heavy with thought, that speaks in sorrow.
l Chaouki Chamoun’s collection of recent acrylics now gracing the walls
of Galerie Janine Rubeiz all deal with one exclusive theme woman and
the veil. In both style and motivation, these works represent an
intriguing departure from his previous work. About them (and the
directions of his art in general), Chamoun says: “I’m in search of
quality, aesthetic quality. When I see it I leave my name on it, for
style is just a passing season in a lifetime of many seasons. Above
all, art is to dare.”
And dare he does. I first saw Chamoun’s work in Washington in 1991.
Then it was ordered minimalist in style and evoked imagined landscapes.
After that, he moved into an abstract expressionism that, according to
intent and emotive energy, could or could not include figurative images,
could or could not in painterly approach combine formal order with
chaotic impulse.
In each exhibition, Chamoun presents us with another facet of his art.
This year, he employs the illusive image of woman as the dominating
figurative element in his compositions. She is wrapped in translucent
veils of color, her body often disappearing into the curved or agitated
folds; her face, in contrast, provocatively defined by the scarlet red
lips of a femme fatale.
One may ask what he is saying about woman. That while her lips may
seduce, her body remains an evasive, impenetrable mystery? I don’t
think, however, that Chamoun intends his art to convey obvious message.
His aim, as mentioned above, is to arrive at “aesthetic quality.” In
this respect, it is not the portrayal of woman and veil per se, but the
synergistic mix of “formal order with chaotic impulse” that fires his
imagination and directs his brush .
l More and more artists these days are into conceptual art, which was
first introduced by the French artist Marcel Duchamp in 1917, when he
exhibited (whether with tongue in cheek or not) an ordinary urinal as
sculpture and titled it “Fountain.” His claim that ideas are more
important than the final product, that any object or activity can be
regarded as art, set off a revolution that profoundly influenced the
subsequent directions of art.
Generally, in conceptual art, idea and meaning, thought over sensuous
experience, takes precedence over the aesthetics of plastic form. Not
so with Elias Dib, whose assemblage of ready-made objects with paintings
gives equal weight to both idea and aesthetics. They are now installed
at the French Cultural Center, but when the show ends, they will be
dismantled and no longer exist as works of art an important aspect of
conceptual art to be considered, so see them while you can.
The installation, entitled “The Dynasties of Water,” consists of 14
separate stations, or “tableaux,” all made up of identical objects, but
combined into different arrangements perfectly round glass bowls
partially filled with water, from which Dib has suspended colored
ribbons and into which he has immersed a variety of paint brushes, tubes
of paint, vials of powdered color, crayons and so on. Behind each
arrangement hangs a painting of geometric design based on squares,
circles and stripes.
So much for description. In a catalog accompanying the exhibition, Dib
provides a lengthy and what was to me an obscure explanation of his
ideas. All I could gather was that they had something to do with the
process of painting, with establishing an interactive dialogue between
materials and the finished product. All further philosophical discourse
was beyond my comprehension.
I preferred to shut off my mind and indulge my senses. I let my eye
enjoy the lively marriage of colors and shapes. I let it follow the
stately repetition of crystal clear bowls and, as I moved slowly from
station to station, I discovered new and changing visual delights in
the interplay of reflections glistening on their round, immaculate
surfaces.
l An appropriate and welcome change during this Christmas month for the
eye jaded by too much modern art is the exhibition of Russian icons now
showing at Galerie Bekhazi. This is no minor collection. On display are
no less than 137 icons, dating from the 17th to the 19th centuries. More
saints than you can name and some you’ve never heard of are there:
George, Nicholas, Alexander, John, Michael, Joseph, Elie, Dimitri,
Serge, Trifan, Antoine, Panteleman, Sarouphim. Then, there are the
numerous depictions of the Virgin Mary (with or without Child), the
Trinity, and the Birth of Christ.
As with all antiquities, if you have a purchase in mind, tread
carefully. Ask for a certificate of authenticity or take someone with
you who knows icons. I don't.
* El Bacha and de Longuemar at Galerie Epreuve d'Artiste, Rue Sursock,
Achrafieh, until Dec. 12. Tel: (01) 563-911.
* Chamoun at Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Raouche, until Dec. 23. Tel: (01)
868-290.
* Dib at the French Cultural Center, Rue Damas, until Dec. 23. Tel:
(01) 644-853.
* Icons at Galerie Bikhazi, Achrafieh, until Dec. 31. Tel: (01)
200-749.