Galerie Claude Lemand

Tribute to the sculptor MONA SAUDI, who passed away in Beirut on February 16, 2022.

Jack Lang, President of the Arab World Institute, Paris:
“ Sad news for con­tem­po­rary art and for the IMA with the dis­ap­pear­ance of the lumi­nous Mona Saudi. A coura­geous, com­mitted, free woman... She was a pow­erful, gen­erous, inspired and won­der­fully caring artist. Originally from Jordan, she fled to Lebanon at the age of 17 to live her voca­tion, studied in Paris, dia­logued with poets and exhib­ited all over the world. Very rare are the women sculp­tors who engage in this hand-to-hand combat with the stone which she cuts, engraves, smooths to infinity...

Her abstract works imprinted with musi­cality and spir­i­tu­ality are in the col­lec­tions of great museums of the world, including that of the Arab World Institute in Paris, which has sev­eral of his works, including her mas­ter­piece Geometry of the Spirit, donated by the Kingdom of Jordan to the IMA since its inau­gu­ra­tion in 1987. Recently restored, it is posted on the fore­court of the entrance. I invite you to visit this mon­u­mental stele in her memory.”
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Mona Saudi was only 17 when she fled Jordan to orga­nize her first per­sonal exhi­bi­tion in Beirut. A coura­geous, free and cre­ative woman, she had set­tled there and par­tic­i­pated in the golden age of the City of Light of the Levant, which she had adopted and which had adopted her in turn. She con­tinued to live and sculpt there, refusing to leave the country now blood­less and in ruins, fighting valiantly against the cancer that took her away.
Mona Saudi’s sculp­ture was fea­tured in Lights of Lebanon exhi­bi­tion. Four of her impor­tant sculp­tures are in the col­lec­tion of the Arab World Institute Museum, including the mon­u­mental Geometry of the Spirit, placed on the façade of the IMA since the inau­gu­ra­tion of Jean Nouvel’s building in 1987.