Asaad
Arabi
Sleepiness 150 x 150 cm - Acrylic on Canvas 2009
Vernissage:
From 10/12/2009 – 22/01/2010
Opening ceremony: Thursday 10th of December, 2009
at 7pm
Ayyam
Gallery, Beirut is proud to present the latest body
of works from Master painter Assad Arabi.
Assad
Arabi is an invaluable retrospect on a very particular
awakening in the history of Middle Eastern art.
Al-Nahda al-Arabiyya was an eminent Arab renaissance,
which flourished and accompanied the wave of the
innovative sixties. It was set out to embrace and
attain the lessons of the western world all whilst
similarly respecting the cultural denotations and
the local artistic heritage present in the region.
Assad
Arabi is an artist who is gorged with the effects
of this revolutionary generation and it is in this
spirit that the artist decides to take on the nude.
In a bold fashion, Arabi is resolved to counteract
the increasing hostility towards figurative painting,
a practice that predates pre-historic times, and
revive the essential and revered artistic matter.
"The
general dumbing down of art and culture in an intolerant,
bigoted art scene obsessed with the mantra of literalness,
depicting nudity has become an adventure, a sin
even"
Arabi
further strengthens the nude by placing her against
images of total concealment.
Ever
since the painter embarked on his in the sixties,
Arabi has been fascinated with contrast. It started
with the duality between black and white that led
to the sensation of hot versus cold through to today's
nude and veiled.
Ayyam
Gallery, Beirut
Beirut Tower, Ground Floor, Zeitoune Street
Across from Beirut Marina
Solidere
Beirut, Lebanon
T:
+961 1 374450/51
F: +961 1 374449
E: beirut@ayyamgallery.com
Monday
to Saturday, 10 am to 8 pm
