News

1 March 2018

AZZAWI, SABRA AND SHATILA. Exhibition from April 11 to September 16. 2018. - Musée. Institut du Monde arabe, Paris.

AZZAWI, SABRA AND SHATILA.

On 10 April 2018, The Institut du Monde Arabe will be inaugurating its new exhibition space at the entrance of its Museum, with a display of the group of prints We are not seen but Corpses. The Sabra and Shatila Massacres, one of Dia Al-Azzawi’s historical and seminal works, and 18 silkscreen prints from the The Body’s Anthem. Poems illustrated for Tall al-Zaatar.

Dia Al-Azzawi was deeply moved in September 1982 by the massacre of civilian Palestinians in the camps of Sabra and Shatila. The Iraqi artist had first started drawing in his studio in London the polyptych entitled The Sabra and Shatila Massacres, mixed media on paper laid down on canvas, 300 x 750 cm, in the collections of the London Tate Modern since 2012. As often was the case, he took his inspiration from photographs of the massacre published by the media and international newspapers.

A few months later, in January 1983, he was inspired by Four hours in Chatila, a report that was written on the spot by the French writer Jean Genet, who has just reached Beirut with Leïla Shahid and who had visited the Palestinian camps the day after the massacres and it would be the source of inspiration for the images of nine original prints (eight etchings and one lithograph, 100 x 75 cm.) that he would publish in a portfolio with a title page and a page taken from Jean Genet’s text, in a trilingual edition: We are not seen but Corpses. The Sabra and Shatila Massacres - Lâ nara illa juthathan - Nous ne voyons que des cadavres, London, 1983.

« With Guernica, Picasso instigated a turning-point in my art and in all the history of art, he succeeded in inventing symbols that are simple and expressive, historical and universal, a style fit to our human and moral values of rejecting any use of violence against civilians, that cannot be justified by any ideology or political regime. ». (Dia Al-Azzawi, 21.01.2018. Translated from Arabic by Claude Lemand)

Ever since he was a student, Azzawi was committed to supporting the Palestinian people in its struggle for survival and in its battle to gain back it homeland. Since Black September, Dia Al-Azzawi has taken the habit to draw whilst listening to the stories recorded by witnesses of the events or to Mahmoud Darwish’s poems being recited by the poet himself.

In 1976, he realized around forty drawings on the siege and fall of the Tall al-Zaatar camp, situated on a hill overlooking Beirut. In January 1979, he published a portfolio of 16 silkscreen prints The Body’s Anthem. Poems illustrated for Tall al-Zaatar. - Al-Nashid Al-Jasadi.- Hymne du Corps. This portfolio was exhibited in Rabat and then in december in Baghdad. Dia Al-Azzawi published also a book that includes poems by Mahmoud Darwish, Tawfiq al-Sayegh and Tahar Ben Jelloun, in a trilingual edition, illustrated with the etchings inspired from these poems and with a selection of drawings of 1976.

Sabra and Shatila Massacres was exhibited in 1983 in Kuwait. In 2003, for the first time in the West, the Claude Lemand gallery exhibited this polyptych with the nine prints from the 1983 portfolio, the 1976 drawings on Tall al-Zaatar and the 1979 portfolio of the 16 silkscreen prints at the Cité du Livre of Aix-en-Provence, that held a Tribute to Mahmoud Darwish. The poet had requested to be surrounded by the works of Dia Al-Azzawi and Rachid Koraichi. Mahmoud Darwish had read out his poems in Arabic and his translator and friend Elias Sanbar had given the French, a recital of two voices in a perfect harmony. All these works were exhibited again in the Doha double retrospective in 2016-2017.

Claude Lemand
Phd in Comparative Literature, former Professor in Linguistincs,
Collector, Gallerist and Art Publisher in Paris since 1988

Translated from French by Valérie Didier Hess.

IMAGES available in HR:

- PHOTO. Dia Al-Azzawi in his studio in London in 1982, working on his polyptych The Sabra and Shatila Massacres. Photo © Dia Al-Azzawi. Courtesy Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris.

- PORTFOLIO. Dia Al-Azzawi, The Body’s Anthem. Poems illustrated for Tall al-Zaatar. - Al-Nashid Al-Jasadi, London, 1979. Portfolio of 16 silkscreens on paper, 65 x 65 cm. Signed and numbered by the artist, in a limited edition of 100 copies. Collection Claude & France Lemand. Photo © Dia Al-Azzawi. Courtesy Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris.

- PORTFOLIO. Dia Al-Azzawi, We are not seen but Corpses. The Sabra and Shatila Massacres, London, 1983. Portfolio of 8 etchings and 1 lithography on paper, 100 x 75 cm. Signed and numbered by the artist, in a limited edition of 60 copies. Collection Claude & France Lemand. Photo © Dia Al-Azzawi. Courtesy Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris.

25 February 2024

Manabu KOCHI. Spring Artist.

2 November 2022

BAYA. Femmes en leur Jardin

13 March 2022

ALGERIA MY LOVE. Artists of the Algerian fraternity, 1953-2021 - Exhibition from March 18 to July 31, 2022.

24 June 2020

I.M.A.gination - CHRISTIE’S PARIS - Online Charity sale. From June 24 to July 16, 2020.

12 June 2020

THE ARTIST MAHJOUB BEN BELLA PASSED AWAY IN JUNE 11, 2020.

8 April 2020

The Circle of Friends of GUERMAZ pays tribute to Pierre REY.

4 March 2020

PHOTOS + VIDEOS FROM THE LEMAND DONATION.

16 February 2020

ZINEB SEDIRA WILL REPRESENT FRANCE AT THE VENICE BIENNALE 2021.

30 August 2019

VLADIMIR VELICKOVIC PASSED AWAY ON AUGUST 28, 2019.

10 August 2019

KAMAL BOULLATA (Jerusalem, 1942 - Berlin, 2019) buried in his homeland JERUSALEM.

28 January 2019

DIA AL-AZZAWI, Bilâd al-Sawâd (Black Land) - LE MONDE, 28.01.2019

22 October 2018

A PASSION TO SHARE. The CLAUDE & FRANCE LEMAND DONATION of 1300 artworks to the Institut du monde arabe MUSEUM, Paris.

29 August 2018

NUIT BLANCHE 2018 - YOUSSEF ABDELKE - A DONATION TO FIGHT DEATH IN SYRIA. - Institut du monde arabe, Museum. - 6 OCTOBER 2018.

25 May 2018

ETEL ADNAN - Exhibition from June 15, to October 7, 2018. - ZENTRUM PAUL KLEE, Bern, Switzeland.

16 May 2018

ABDALLAH BENANTEUR, THE SONG OF THE EARTH. Retrospective-Tribute. Exhibition from June 9, to September 9, 2018.

1 March 2018

AZZAWI, SABRA AND SHATILA. Exhibition from April 11 to September 16. 2018. - Musée. Institut du Monde arabe, Paris.

4 February 2018

PICASSO, GUERNICA. - Musée national Picasso-Paris.

22 January 2018

PORTRAIT OF THE-NON-EXISTENT-BIRD. Maison des Arts, ANTONY.

14 January 2018

ABDALLAH BENANTEUR PASSED AWAY ON 31 DECEMBER 2017.

12 June 2017

TONDO INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION - City of Issoudun Museum - France.

7 August 2016

DIA AL-AZZAWI TO LAUNCH RETROSPECTIVE IN DOHA.

24 February 2016

SEGUÍ, PAINTING IN MIRRORS. Musée de l’Hospice Saint-Roch, ISSOUDUN. From 27 February to 22 May 2016.

30 September 2015

MAHJOUB BEN BELLA, WORKS ON PAPER. La Piscine Museum, Roubaix, France. 24 OCTOBER 2015 - 31 JANUARY 2016

24 September 2015

FATIMA EL-HAJJ, THE SONG OF THE EARTH.

18 September 2015

MANABU KOCHI . Art Paris Art Fair 2015 .

18 September 2015

KEVORK MOURAD . Art Paris Art Fair 2015 - Mucem 2015 .

18 September 2015

ABDALLAH BENANTEUR . Art Dubai Modern 2015 - Booth M7 .

27 February 2015

SHAFIC ABBOUD . The Armory Show 2015 + Art Dubai Modern 2015.

25 February 2015

THE AL-AZZAWI EPIC . New York. The Armory Show 2015.

7 November 2014

ETEL ADNAN, Writing Mountains. Museum der Moderne Salzburg. Retrospective, 15 Nov. 2014 - 08 March 2015.

1 September 2014

GERD LANGE DESIGN. In the Context of Serial production. 1962-2007.

3 July 2014

ISSOUDUN - Musée de l’Hospice Saint Roch - Conversation between Claude Lemand and Tom Laurent - Art Absolument - July 2014

21 May 2014

City of ISSOUDUN - PORTRAIT OF THE NON-EXISTENT-BIRD - Exhibition from 22 May to 31 August 2014 .

8 May 2014

ETEL ADNAN AND THE ARAB MODERNITY .

19 March 2014

YOUSSEF ABDELKE - 2 EXHIBITIONS IN PARIS : GRAND PALAIS + GALERIE CLAUDE LEMAND

9 March 2014

TONDO INTERNATIONAL - ART BAHRAIN - ART PARIS ART FAIR 2014

10 January 2014

SHAFIC ABBOUD, THE PROPHET .

28 October 2013

ABDALLAH BENANTEUR. The River and the Volcano. Text by Claude Lemand.

16 October 2013

BENANTEUR, Paintings. LA GAZETTE DROUOT. Exhibitions by Lydia Harambourg.

5 March 2013

Grand Palais - Art Paris Art Fair - C21 Galerie Claude Lemand - 27 mars - 1er avril 2013. Dia Al-Azzawi, Bilad al-Sawad & other works, 1978-2011.

15 November 2012

Claude Lemand. A Passion to share.

20 May 2011

Spring in Paris, next year in Beirut.

Copyright © Galerie Claude Lemand 2012.

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