SHAFIC ABBOUD, LIGHT AND COLOURS . Paintings, 1958-2002 .

From 15 October to 23 December 2014 - Galerie Claude Lemand

  • Abboud, Chambre avec tapis.

    Chambre avec tapis, 1991. Tempera on paper laid down on canvas, 41 x 44 cm. Monograph page 213. Donation Claude & France Lemand. Museum, Institut du monde arabe, Paris. © Succession Shafic Abboud. Courtesy Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris.

  • Abboud, Composition (Atelier).

    Composition (Atelier), 1973. Oil on canvas, 100 x 81 cm. Private Collection. © Succession Shafic Abboud. Courtesy Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris.

  • Abboud, La Psy.

    La Psy, 1981. Oil on canvas, 100 x 81 cm. Private Collection. © Succession Shafic Abboud. Courtesy Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris.

  • Abboud, Composition, 1973 a

    Composition, 1973. Tempera on cardboard, 35 x 35 cm. Donation Claude & France Lemand. Museum, Institut du monde arabe, Paris. © Succession Shafic Abboud. Courtesy Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris.

SHAFIC ABBOUD, LIGHT AND COLOURS . Paintings, 1958-2002 .

Shafic Abboud (quo­ta­tions):
- I only stop when both colour and light match. I cannot escape from colour, it is my fate and nature - my eyes must have been daz­zled for ever. The impact between two colours cre­ates light, but whether it be true or false, this “theory” does make me paint. (Mai 1982)
- The painter is madly in love with what he is seeking for (and which he there­fore does not know). (No date). I go to my studio with great desire and with that bound­less delight at the prospect of painting. I go in and look around with the delec­ta­tion of the lover as well as his fears. (March 1982)

Claude Lemand (quo­ta­tions):
- Shafic Abboud’s paint­ings are a man­i­festo for freedom, colour, light and joy, as well as being a per­ma­nent bridge between the art scenes of France, Lebanon and the Middle East. Shafic Abboud was very attached to Lebanon, to its land­scapes, its light and his own child­hood mem­o­ries.
- His mature works are trans­fig­u­ra­tive, a syn­thesis between his fairy-tale like child­hood world and his tech­nical mas­tering of abstract Parisian painting. He sought to tran­scend the latter, stim­u­lated by both Bonnard and de Staël, by giving it a soul of its own and a rich and lumi­nous tex­ture. Through his paint­ings, Abboud aimed to share his own view on both his inside and out­side worlds. Being nei­ther a devout fol­lower nor believer of any reli­gion, Abboud was nonethe­less very much influ­enced by the glory of the Byzantine Greco-Arab liturgy. Symbolically, Art tri­umphs over death.

Emmanuel Daydé (quo­ta­tion):
Shafic Abboud, whose paint­ings that are ine­bri­ated with light, woven with colours like car­pets, enclosed like the Garden of Eden and rustling like Persian minia­tures, appear as trans­fig­ured visions of an intan­gible reality. It seems that his entire oeuvre fol­lows some of the Bonnardian aspects of the joie de vivre. Abboud remains a mys­tical believer of the moment.

Available Publications:

1. SHAFIC ABBOUD. Monograph, Paris, 2006. Directed and pubished by Claude Lemand, in two vol­umes: texts in French ISBN 2-910263-04-5 – texts in English ISBN 2-910263-06-1.

2. SHAFIC ABBOUD. Catalogue, Paris, 2011. Directed and pub­lished by Claude Lemand, at the occa­sion of the IMA Retrospective, 68 pages in colour, 24 x 33 cm. ISBN 2-910263-07-X.

Translated from French by Valérie Hess.

Copyright © Galerie Claude Lemand 2012.

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