 Juliana
Seraphim
Biography:
The painter Juliana Seraphim has divided her professional career between
Lebanon and the great capitals of Europe. On three occasions she was
chosen by the government of Lebanon to represent her country, at the
Biennale of Paris, the Biennale of Alexandria and the Biennale of Sao
Paulo. French, Italian and Spanish scholarships gave her the opportunity
for pursuing advanced studies in the following academies:
-Academy of Fine Arts, Florence, Ialy.
Anatomy, History of Art,Oil-painting and drawing.
-Accademy of Fine Arts, Paris,France.
Copperplate Engraving.
-St.Ferdinando of Fine arts, Madrid, Spain.
Book illustration.
She was awarded several distinctions, namely:
-The Florence Prize.
-The Prize of the Ministry of National Education, Lebanon.
-The second Prize for Foreigners at the City of Viarregio.
As a painter of fantastic Art, Juliana Seraphim appears in the
Anthologie du fantastique of the Revue Planète and several works of
considerable rarity. In 1971 she completed twenty-seven engravings on
copper for Shorewood Publishers of New York, plates which illustrated
nine winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Yasanuri Kawabata, St.
John Perse, T.S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett, Thomas Mann, Gabriela Mistral,
Pablo Neruda, Erik-Axel Karlfeldt and Miguel Asturias. It is a strictly
limited edition. As painter, draughtswoman and engraver, Juliana
Seraphim played a role in the great movement of the parallel arts
including poster design. Her works were chosen by the French publishing
company Mic-Mac for printing in color, after which they were circulated
around the world.
MUSEUMS
Seraphim's canvases are exposed in the following museums:
Museum of the City of Viarregio, Italy
Museum of "La Femme Célèbre", Neuilly Paris
The "Musée du suréalisme", Paris
The National Gallery, Amman
The Nicolas Sursock Museum, Beirut
Museum of the Arab World Institute, Paris
INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS
LEBANON
La Licorne Art Gallery 1961
Elie Garzouzi Art Gallery 1964
Journal l'Orient Art Gallery 1965
Journal l'Orient Art Gallery 1967
Cassia Art Gallery 1969
Samir Nassif Art Gallery 1971
Brigitte Shehadeh Art Gallery 1975
Samia Toutoungi Art Gallery 1978
Bekhazi Art Gallery 1981
La Toile Art Gallery - Rimal 1987
La Toile Art Gallery - Rimal 1988
Khayal Art Gallery - Ehden 1990
Station des Arts Gallery 1992
FRANCE
PARIS
Tabet Art Gallery 1977
"X" Art Gallery 1978
Art 3 Art Gallery 1979
Art 3 Art Gallery 1985
CANNES
Suzanne Pons Art Gallery 1983
ITALY
FLORENCE
Internationale Art Gallery 1960
SPAIN
MADRID
Amadis Art Gallery 1989
KOWEIT
Alef Art Gallery 1980
JORDAN
AMMAN
National Gallery 1980
QATAR
Gulf Hotel Art Gallery 1985
SYRIA
ALEPPO
Hotel Chahba-Cham Art
Gallery 1991
JOINT EXHIBITIONS
Nicolas Sursock Museum Beirut 1961
Barcaccia Art Gallery Rome 1962
Chenill's Gallery London 1967
Motte Art Gallery with the painters
Dubuffet, Kaimakoff and Luc Simon Paris 1968
Smithsonian Institution, with selection of
seven Lebanese painters Washington 1969
First National City Bank, with selection
of seven Lebanese painters Beirut 1969
Imperial Museum of Tokyo Japan 1971
Bibliothèque Nationale, engravings
exhibited together with Dali and Picasso Paris 1971
Heirlooms Gallery, Arab-Alabama USA 1975
Museum of Neuilly Paris 1978
Belvedere Museum Tunis 1980
The ORTF (official French Radio-Television) devoted a 40-minute film
with commentary to Juliana Seraphim, which was shown in forty-five
francophone countries around the world.
Hachtar 40 x 80 cm, Acrylic
Work which enriches the West
This artist whose talent is well known and accepted in Europe,
particularly in Paris, expresses herself through two themes: first
through architecture of fabled wonder, beset with slender towers, spires
and rhythmic arcs, all flaming with gold and different materials, and
then through fantastic forms of the flower woman, in which are allied in
complete ambiguity both the human form and the richness of the vegetable
universe. One may perceive through this art a rare personality, creating
a strange atmosphere born of the deepest subconscious. Here we find a
spontaneous surrealism owing nothing to the traditional rites and
lexicon of the surrealist school. The multiple mutations of forms and of
beings are born, then flow, and then either merge again or affirm
themselves in an almost biological dynamism. The meticulous execution,
supple, elegant, charming at times, with tones that are ravishing and
rich, release a perfume of delicately pungent eroticism, of subtle
cruelty. This inspiration, physical, mental, psychic, has an alluring
and troubling sorcery. It seduces us the better to overwhelm us, to
plunge deep within us and to disturb us, and then it transports us into
a mysterious paradise, polyvalent and multiform, into a sublimation of
the thousand pulsations of the soul, of the heart and of the senses.
Oriental Artist, Juliana Seraphim retains the specific characteristics
and spirituality of her origins. There we find a deep poetry in the
inspiration, whether literary or plastic, of tradition. A transposition
of what is real into an imaginery world of fantasy dominates artistic
creation. External appearance keeps its qualities of elegance, giving
pleasure to the senses and above all joy to the eye. Light and colour
play a leading role as line and script weave a fabric both distributive
and suggestive, while the whole work lends itself to a rich play of
symbolism and adventitious signification. Behold then an achievement
which reveals to us an artistic conception which is both original and a
source of enrichment for the West.
Robert Vinat
Ex-President of the Association of Art Critics of France
Femme Fleur, Flowers Lady, Huile, 100 x 80 cm, 1966 - Collection
Dr. Georges Ghosn
►► Some
of the artist's artwork
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