Chafik Abboud

Chafic Abboud (Lebanese, 1926-2004) Untitled signed and dated 'Abboud 58' (lower right) oil on card 21 3/8 x 15 1/8in. (54.4 x 38.5cm.) Executed in 1958 PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, LEBANON 'There are times when we want to work on large surfaces, and others when I want to be sitting down doing small things. It is delightful because there is an entirely different connection with a small surface, whether it be a sheet of paper or a small canvas. This situation can last for one or two weeks , during which I only do small things, yet these are not necessarily preparatory sketches for bigger works. We only work using the wrist, whilst with large paintings, dramatic gestures, dance and the entire body all take part to these exploding times'. (Chafic Abboud, interview with Michel Chapuis, broadcast on the television program Le Pont des Arts, on the French television channel France Culture, 7 July 1979).

Chafic Abboud (Lebanese, 1926-2004) LE CHEMIN D'ALEP signed and dated 'Abboud 98' (lower right); signed, titled, inscribed and dated 'ABBOUD 2000 "LE CHEMIN D'ALEP" terminé 27.07.2000' (on the reverse) oil on canvas 74¾ x 80 7/8in. (190 x 205.5cm.) Painted in 1998-2000 The Park Gallery, London. Acquired from the above by the present owner. PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, UAE As the war raged through Lebanon from 1976 to 1992, Chafic Abboud was deeply affected by his inability to visit his native land as he used to. In the 1960s and 1970s, he habitually returned yearly to Lebanon between January and March, where he taught painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Lebanese University whilst simultaneously preparing exhibitions and meeting his audience. After the end of the civil war, Abboud travelled several times to Lebanon and Syria, in the 1990s, always accompanied by his companion Michle Rodière. Abboud went into the mountains as well as on the coast of Lebanon and re-visited the Syrian countryside and cities. He also returned to the monasteries of Saydnaya and Maaloula, two renowned villages, North of Damascus, where his mother used to take him on pilgrimages when he was a child. (see C. Lemand, Shafic Abboud, Paris 2006, pp. 354-355). Nonetheless, Abboud had never been to Aleppo before December 1994, when he convinced an Armenian taxi driver recommended by a friend from his native village Mhaydse, to drive him there. This driver regularly travelled back and forth between Beirut and Aleppo to visit family, and willingly gave a ride to both Abboud and Rodière on one of his trips. They had an adventurous journey, as they found themselves going through a Palestinian camp North of Tripoli during the night, whilst rivals were shooting each other. As it was very cold at that time of the year, the chauffeur even offered an Armenian man and his daughter a lift back to Aleppo as they were left freezing in the cold when Lebanese customs officers refused to let them enter the country. The artist and his companion spent three days in Aleppo, walking around the old neighbourhoods of the city, the citadel and the historical souks. Chafic Abboud was enthralled by these visits, being so sensitive to light and to the colours and textures of the products and fabrics he saw. It is the visual and emotional memories of his December 1994 trip to Aleppo that he captures in the present work Le Chemin d'Alep. Le Chemin d'Alep is the product of several sketches and preparatory stages, painted over a two-year period between 1998 and 2000. In this monumental masterpiece, Abboud presents a dazzling panoply of bright whites intertwined with gleaming pastel pinks, blues, oranges and touches of vibrant yellow. Whilst every shimmering pigment harmoniously responds to each other, Abboud builds up the surface of his canvas with various painterly textures, resembling lavish fabrics with unspecified organic or architectural shapes. What results is the painter's uncanny ability to grasp the essence of his memorable sensory journey to Aleppo a few years earlier. Measuring 190 x 205cm., the present work is one of the two largest known canvases painted by Abboud during the last decade of his life, the other one being Voyage en Orient of 2001, measuring 195 x 205cm. (illustrated, p. 286 in C. Lemand, ibid.). Although written 20 years before painting Le Chemin d'Alep, the following extract from Abboud's writings could to some extent refer to the present lot as the artist explains that: 'In the genesis of each painting, there is a visual trigger coming from an event which we have experienced. Why chose one or another moment of daily life? This is still a real mystery to me and there is no explanation for the reasons of my adherence. All in all, painting is like telling a story, yet my language is the paint and everything is enacted and decided on the canvas and within its making. The work is finished once the initial impact is restored and life is recovered, through trial and error. To sum up, the more I go forward, the less I know what the painting is'. (Chafic Abboud, October 1978, quoted in C. Lemand, ibid., p. 5).

Chafic Abboud (Lebanon, 1926-2004) Le Roi et La Reine de Café signed and dated 'Abboud 78' (lower right); titled twice 'Le roi et la reine de café' (on the reverse of each panel) oil on canvas; in two parts each: 31½ x 31½in. (80 x 80cm.); overall: 31½ x 63in. (80 x 160cm.) Painted in 1978 Private collection, France. Anon. sale, Christie's Dubai, 27 October 2009, lot 148. Acquired at the above sale by the present owner. THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR, AMMAN When looking at the work of Chafic Abboud, the viewer is struck with the spontaneity, richness of colour, density of subject and a very strong technique. Le Roi et La Reine De Café from the late 1970s is a fine example of abstraction based on a reality lived, witnessed and discussed by the artist. As rightly said in the words of Patrick Waldberg 'Between simplification and the outpourings that are the two paths of abstract painting, Abboud offers another approach to reality that is fusion. It might be said in a rather drastic way that he does not perceive reality, but that he dives into it, wallows in it, merges with it to such an extent that when he brings it back to us filtered through his desire, it has simultaneously been dissolved and reconstituted according to harmonic laws inside which, to quote the poet, 'Perfumes, colours and sounds answer each other'. (Patrick Waldberg, in Claude Lemand (ed.), Shafic Abboud, Paris 2006, pp. 349-350) The King and Queen as they are called in the Orient cannot literally be translated into real monarchs. but rather they are personifications of glory. The artist depicts a couple in love, sitting in a café and thus evokes love and the metaphorical crowns of happiness. Using his rich textures and radiant pigments to delicately hint this glimpse of reality is what makes Abboud's compositions outstanding. Abboud's work stands as a declaration for freedom, colour, light and joy.

Chafic Abboud (Lebanese, 1926-2004) Intérieur gris signed 'Abboud' (lower right); signed, titled and dated 'ABBOUD 71 Intérieur gris' (on the reverse) tempera on panel 13¾ x 13¾in. (35 x 35cm.) Executed in 1971 Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner in 1971. Paris, Institut du Monde Arabe, Shafic Abboud: Rétrospective - Peintures 1948-2003, March - August 2011. 'There are times when we want to work on large surfaces, and others when I want to be sitting down doing small things. It is delightful because there is an entirely different connection with a small surface, whether it be a sheet of paper or a small canvas. This situation can last for one or two weeks , during which I only do small things, yet these are not necessarily preparatory sketches for bigger works. We only work using the wrist, whilst with large paintings, dramatic gestures, dance and the entire body all take part to these exploding times. It is a very intimate thing, which is whispered and murmured.' (From the interview between Chafic Abboud and Michel Chapuis, which was broadcast on the program Le Pont des Arts, on the Radio channel France Culture on 7th July 1979.)

Chafic Abboud (Lebanese, 1926-2004) Composition (Beirut) signed and dated 'Abboud 72' (lower right); signed, titled and dated 'ABBOUD Composition 72' (on the reverse) oil on canvas 39 3/8 x 31 7/8in. (100 x 81cm.) Painted in 1972 Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner in 1972. THE PROPERTY OF AN IMPORTANT LEBANESE COLLECTOR Paris, Institut du Monde Arabe, Shafic Abboud: Rétrospective - Peintures 1948-2003, March - August 2011 (illustrated in colour, front and back inside covers and p. 21). 'I only stop when both colour and light match. I cannot escape from colour it is my fate and nature - my eyes must have been dazzled forever. The impact between two colours creates light, but whether it be true or false, this "theory" does make me paint'. (Chafic Abboud, artist's notebook, May 1982) The tremendous success of the Chafic Abboud retrospective, which recently took place at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris (March-August 2011), clearly reflects the international recognition of Abboud as one of the most important modern Lebanese artists of the 20th century. Abboud's arrival in Paris in 1947 undeniably marked a turning point in his artistic career. With the death of one of the 'Nabis' fathers, Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947), that same year, Abboud's compositions would always subtly express in their own way the artist's admiration and interpretation of the way in which, both Bonnard and his fellow Nabis artist, Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940), sought to depict light and its intrinsic dimension. Yet Abboud also assimilated the different techniques and approaches to abstract art being explored by Roger Bissière (1886-1964) and Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955) at that time. His works of the early 1950s are a witness of Abboud's familiarity with abstraction as they show a conscious and sudden move from his paintings embedded with a folkloric Lebanese character towards an almost dream-like Parisian abstract art. Composition (Beirut) of 1972 is perhaps one of Abboud's most intriguing painting, through its unusual composition of a deep majestic blue background from which emerges vibrant pigments and organic shapes amalgamated into a small opening at the centre of the canvas. With no obvious figurative element present in this painting, giving it the label 'abstract' work would seem incorrect, as Abboud used these abstract shapes and juxtapositions of colours as artistic vehicles to capture the essence of light. Hence the seemingly kaleidoscopic area at the centre of the painting ingenuously creates not only a dramatic contrast with the monochrome background but further provokes a game of reflection of light between the different pigments, enhanced by the thick white and bright ochre streaks of paint to the right and below this dazzling flecked patch. Through these white stretches of impasto, Abboud seems to pay tribute to Nicolas de Staël and specifically to one of the latter's masterpieces, Le Parc Des Princes, executed in 1952. This series comprised of six paintings exploring the theme of the famous Parisian sports stadium called 'Le Parc Des Princes'. De Staël and his wife attended a France-Sweden football match there in March 1952, which transformed the painter with all its colours and movements, inspiring him for his series depicting the footballers in action. Abboud's Composition (Beirut) appears to particularly resonate the second version, one of the two most monumental compositions of the series. De Staël's Parc des Princes works were highly criticised by his fellow abstract painters as he was accused to have abandoned abstraction to give way to figuration. The paintings are nonetheless still very abstract, yet like Abboud's compositions, they refer to a specific scene or memory from reality. De Staël's flat organic shapes of impasto are employed to represent the footballers on the field, whereas Abboud similarly displays the paint onto the canvas with the aim of depicting the light and atmosphere extracted from the scene he is painting. Rich textures in the painting's surface, complex patterned areas, creative medleys of radiant pigments glowing on the canvas and delicate hints to reality are some of the ingredients necessary for the making of Chafic Abboud's unparalleled compositions, of which the present lot is a unique example. Vacillating between abstract and figurative art, his paintings are a manifesto for freedom, colour, light and joy, as well as being a permanent bridge between the art scenes of France and Lebanon, and that of Lebanon and the Middle East. Shafic Abboud devant la villa du Parc Montsouris, Paris, vers 1970. COPYRIGHT Photo Alain van Gindertael & Courtesy Succession Shafic Abboud, Paris. Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955), Parc des Princes (2ème état), 1952. Private collection. COPYRIGHT ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2012