 Hussein
Madi b. 1938
Biography:
Hussein Madi was born in Chabaa, a
border village at the foot of Mount Hermon in South Lebanon.
Painter, sculptor and engraver, he received his initial training
at ALBA. Subsequently, he went to Rome where he enrolled at the
Academia di Belle Arte and at the Academia di San Jacomo. In Rome
he did advanced research into the cultural heritage of the Arabic
East and of Egypt.
He went back to Lebanon and taught sculpture and engraving at the
institute of Fine Arts of
the Lebanese University and, from 1958 to 1962, at ALBA. Since 1964
Madi has been living
between Beirut and Rome. He has been exhibiting in Europe since
1965.
Madi has participated in numerous group shows. These include the
Biennales of Alexandria (1965, 1967), and Bagdad (1974), the Salons
of the Sursock Museum, Beirut (1965, 1966, 1988); Galleria La Satdera,
Sulmona, Italy (1971); Galleria Del Sole, Rome (1972); Ueno Museum,
Tokyo (1972); Ministry of Tourism exhibition, Rome (1972); Galleria
Cortina, Milan (1972) and the Association of Lebanese Painters and
Sculptors, Beirut (1983). He also took part in the British International
Print Biennale in Bradford, England (1984) and exhibited paintings
and sculptures in Gallery Platform, Beirut (1988). He has held one-man
shows at the Association of Lebanese Painters, Beirut, (1965); Dar
el Fan, Beirut (1968); Galleria II Poliedro, Rome (1968); Galleria
Magna Graecia, Taranto, Italy (1970); Galleria d'Arte Cavour, Milan
(1972); Galerie Samia Tutunji, Beirut (1977, 1978); Galleria Tri
Falco, Rome (1973); Galerie Contact, Beirut (1973); Galerie Modulart,
Beirut (1974) and Galleria Esagono, Lecce (1976). In 1979, he had
an important retrospective exhibition at the Lebanese Ministry,
Beirut, and in 1984 he exhibited at the
Petra Gallery in Amman; Kuwait Biennale (1984); 23rd International
Biennale, Sao Paolo, Brazil (1996); Euro Art, "Special Liban",
Geneva (1999); Paintings, Sculptures, Drawings, Aida Cherfan Fine
Art (2000, 2001, 2002); Signature of the Book: "The Art of
Madi" (May 2004); Paintings, Aida Cherfan Fine Art (April 2006).
Hussein Madi has won several prizes: the Sursock Museum 5th Salon
Prize for Painting (1965-66), the 8th Salon's Prize for Sculpture
offered by the Italian Cultural Centre in 1968/69 and the First
Prize for Engraving, Citta di Lecce, Italy (1974). President of
the "Association of Lebanese Artists" (1982, 1992).
The Italian critic Joseph Silvaggi writes about Madi: "His
drawings are filled with symbols and rich with artistic conventions
in simplified forms; they are an enchanted script, a résumé
of figurative art, the art of modern man."
Hussein Madi makes use of the art of calligraphy, today consisting
of symbols which were originally pictograms. Madi tries to take
these symbols back to the time when writing was half-picture, half-symbol.
He has thus reconciled the real, represented by a partial image,
with the symbolic, connected with the inner life of man. Between
these two poles, he has built marvelous worlds, the realistic one
which binds man to the earth and the symbolic one binding man to
his conception of the world. In this manner, he satisfies both the
eye and the mind at the same time.
With exceptional power, Madi outlines a silhouette of man on the
entire surface of the canvas with two quick strokes of his large
brush. A vertical line and a curved one make up the frame of this
stylized painting. The features of his characters are those of the
Oriental man clearly showing his cultural heritage. In their attitudes,
two expressions are found: a static one which shows permanence in
the face of the transitory, and the deep Oriental faith in immortality
and eternal rest, and also a facial expression of cruel irony, playing
the part of the mask in the Greek tragedy or an expression of suffering
through stiff posture, like the loud outburst of a horrible cry,
the terrible roar of the Assyrian lioness dragging along her crushed
rump. This rending roar personifies the cry of Humanity.
In Hussein Madi, statues one finds a creative power which translates
human feelings. It already existed in the Oriental artistic heritage
and has started again to play its civilizing role in the art of
today.
Publications:
"The Art of Madi", 2004 ,Al-Saqi Publisher
E. Benezit, Grund 1999, Volume 8, page 945
75 x 180 cm, Oil on canvas, Nude, Gallery Zamaan collection
Hussein
Madi qui êtes-vous?
Par Pascale Chécri (Esquisse Magazine d’art n’2 Novembre
2000)
►► Some
of the artist's artwork
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