A hefty book, a
sprawling show
November 03, 2012 12:04 AM
By Kaelen Wilson-Goldie
The Daily Star
Saliba Douaihy, “Ehden,”
1952, oil on plywood, Naji and Hoda
Skaff Collection.
excerpt from the
article:
(...)
Still, there are moments of brilliance.
One emerges from a sequence of paintings
by Saliba Douaihy, all landscapes that
show the staggered stages of his
transition from realism to expressionism
to hard-edge abstraction.
Another comes from “Exultation,” a
riotous, De Kooning-esque canvas from 1968
by Halim Jurdak. Another still comes from
a fascinating selection of paintings by
Khalil Zgaib, a so-called outsider artist
with an abiding affection for radically
collapsed compositional planes, whose work
is in dire need of a monograph and a
retrospective.
Yet another comes from a glimmering essay
in the book by the photographer, teacher
and art historian Gregory Buchakjian, who
casts aside all the pretense and pomposity
of the project to compose, after
André Malraux, his own musée
imaginaire.
Using a thoughtful selection of works –
almost all of which are privately held and
known to us only through rumor and books –
Buchakjian pieces together a delicate but
deliberate story that winds through
artists studios and historical episodes
with ease. Using art as a narrative
trigger, he also asks something of us,
which is to imagine a little more for the
future from the place where we live today.
“Art from Lebanon: Modern and Contemporary
Artists, Volume I, 1880-1975” remains on
view at the Beirut Exhibition Center
through Dec. 9. For more information,
please call 01-962-000 or visit
www.beirutexhibitioncenter.com.
