 Rachid
Wehbi
I-Biography:
A one of the pioneers of contemporary art.
Born at Beirut in 1917.
Secondary education: El Makassed college. Frequented the studio of Habib
Srur (1860 –1938), the Lebanese artist, between 1932 and 1936.
Joined the college of Fine arts in Cairo and graduated in 1945.
Studied for two years in the high institute of dramatic art (critical
and artistic research section)
Visited European countries such as: Italy, France, Spain, Ussr, England
, Holland, Yugoslavia, Austria and Greece.
Organized and participated at numerous exhibitions in Lebanon and abroad
(the first participation held in 1931.)
One of the founders of the association of Lebanese Artists (Painting and
sculpture) in 1957 for which he was elected secretary for the period
1957-62, and president in 1962.
Professor of arts since 1947 in various institutes and universities.
Granted the decoration of knowledge, first degree in 1956, the national
prize of painting in 1971 and Said Akl’s prize on May 1972.
Died 1993
Il-Article:
Painter of the Human and nature.
Rachid Wehbi is a great name in contemporary Lebanese art. He is one of
the most brilliant pioneers in that field. From his works we can see
clearly the new developments in Lebanese painting and understand how it
attained a much richer standard in art and in beauty.
This standard is well revealed in a number of artistic features, on e of
the most important of which is the artistic concern in what is called
the play of abstraction (jeu d’abstraction). Where we see Rachid Wehbi
follow a personal and a unique course -an original one indeed. In it he
pays special attention to the firm relation between the two elements of
art- namely the abstract and the concrete, using the concrete in the
service of the abstract, with the consideration that the abstract is the
basic subject for the artistic activity. Thus the painting becomes a
piece of a splendid abstract fabric woven with concrete tangible
material, which enriches it with a complex and unique feature. It
actually displays and combines together realistic, impressionist, and
abstract elements.
One of the characteristic features of Wehbi’s paintings is the way he is
influenced by the two aspects of life-the objectivity and the
subjectivity. These two movements combine together in one artistic unit
which penetrates throughout the painting in line with the laws of growth
and development. Thus the painting stands out as a living being
completely built. Furthermore one feels in it the impulse of life
beating in a way of harmony which brings it to the level of poetry.
From the purely technical aspects there is projected in the paintings of
Rachid Wehbi his great ability in the usage of the method of
condensation and concentration. He treats this matter in an artistic way
comparable to the elements of rhetoric in literary art.
Rachid Wehbi is also concerned about the importance of the value and
strength of unity and about the organic adherence of the general
abstract fabric of the painting to the extent that it becomes difficult
to see a boundary or a limit to the ends of any color, or form, or
shade, or light, except where the boundary reveals a meaning to an
expression or to an artistic feature which is intended.
Finally one should mention Whebi’s love to elegance and sobriety in
formulating the expression in form and colour in a very subtle and
artistic way.
These are the most important artistic and aesthetic features which
characterize the paintings of our great Lebanese artist, and which have
paved the road for him to attain the well- deserved high position which
he holds in the field of art in Lebanon. They have also made his works
the forerunners of the new sound and serious movement in the Lebanese
art of painting.
Radwan Chahal
IlI-Article
in French: Rachid Wehbé
par l'artiste Joseph Matar
Girl, Oil on
Canvas, 57 x 42 cm, 1956
(Private collection artist Joseph Faloughi)
►► Some
of the artist's artwork
►►
Meet
the artist in Art Direct Sale!
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