Farewell dear MADI. Those who love Art say THANK YOU!
Hussein MADI (Lebanon, 1938-2024)
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Claude Lemand. Hussein Madi has left us. He was the last great living representative of Lebanese modernity. Since October 2018, the museum of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris houses an important collection of works by this influential artist, thanks to the Claude and France Lemand donation.
Born in 1938 in Lebanon. After graduating from ALBA in Beirut, he finished his training in Italy: painting, sculpture and engraving at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, and mosaic and fresco at the San Giacomo Academy. His life and creative output were split between studios in Rome and Beirut until his definitive return home in 1987.
Hussein Madi developed two areas of speciality - abstract and figurative - in his painting, sculpture and drawing. He taught painting and sculpture in Lebanon from 1973 to 1986 and chaired the Lebanese Association of Painters and Sculptors from 1982 to 1992. He has had several solo and group exhibitions in Italy, Beirut, Paris, Amman, Kuwait, Dubai and other Middle Eastern cities. He represented Lebanon at the Sao Paulo Biennale in 1996 and at the Venice Biennale in 2003. His work is held in public collections in Beirut, London, Paris, Doha, New York, Amman, Kuwait, Dubai, and more.
Joseph Tarrab. Few contemporary Arab artists have devoted as much time, energy and passion to drawing as Hussein Madi, whose way of seeing the world inspires a jubilant fascination. Yet he is not interested in the material appearance or sensible qualities of beings and things, but their unchanging intelligible qualities: his continuing approach is to transpose the concrete in abstract terms. This two-dimensional graphic minimalism is visible in his paintings, iron sculptures and almost-calligraphic prints.
Hussein Madi’s work is caracterized by an extremely personal fusion of European and Islamic influences. Drawing inspiration from Western artists such as Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, Madi combines this with the principles of divine harmony that inform the abstract designs of Islamic art. Whether in two or three dimensions, the seeming spontaneity of Madi’s lines belies the exacting calculations that underline each work, a combination of meticulousness and sensuality, combined with his deep belief in God’s universal order, in which everything, while being different, is composed of the same fundamental elements. To reach such a degree of unity, by elaboration and sublimation, such a degree of diversity and of diversity within unity, conveys, under a misleading elemental appearance, a thorough and virtuous freedom of expression. It is a real tour de force, with no other message than the ability to enchant the eyes, the spirit, the heart and the body find themselves involved in a type of sensual ecstasy when addressing the endless spectacle offered by the world. Madi’s purpose is the pure pleasure of painting and sculpting this daily amazement.”
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Hussein MADI (Lebanon, 1938-2024):
Paintings :
Composition on red, 1992. Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 80 cm.
Composition on green, 1992. Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 80 cm.
Nude with flowers, 1996. Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm.
Birds, on blue, 2006. Acrylic on canvas, 140 x 140 cm.
Birds, on brown, 2006. Acrylique on canvas, 140 x 140 cm.
On the beach, 1997. Acrylic on canvas, 90 x 90 cm.
On the beach, 2002. Acrylic on canvas, 95 x 95 cm.
On the beach 1, 2006. Acrylic on canvas, 140 x 90 cm.
On the beach 2, 2006. Acrylic on canvas, 140 x 90 cm.
On the beach 3, 2006. Acrylic on canvas, 140 x 90 cm.
Lithographs :
Lebanese couple, 1980. Original litho, 50 x 70 cm.
Birds, 1994. Original litho, 50 x 70 cm.
Garden of Eden, 2006. Two original lithographs, 70 x 100 cm.
Mediterraneans, 1980. Twelve original lithos on paper, diameter 47 cm.
Birds, 1980. Four original lithos on paper, diameter 47 cm.
Alphabet, 1994. Original litho of 30 round drawings, 70 x 50 cm.
