March 6 2004, Saturday, 10am-5.30pm
LEBANESE ART (POST-1974) PLUS TWO OF H.R.H. PRINCE CHARLES' ITALIAN WATERCOLOURS ON VIEW AT "LEBANON: THE ARTISTS VIEW II" EXHIBITION, HOSTED AT TWO NEIGHBOURING ART GALLERIES IN MAYFAIR
Last Monday - virtually minutes before the Lebanese flautist, Wissam Boustany, accompanied by the pianist, Nigel Clayton, were about to give a 75-minute concert - we came across a very interesting selection of essentially Lebanese art being displayed at two neighbouring art galleries in London's Mayfair. We say, 'essentially,' as two of the works on display at the smaller of the two galleries, were by H.R.H Prince Charles. Yes, the organisers are fortunate to have the loan of two of Prince Charles' watercolours, both of which feature differing and expansive views from Casa Bosci, near Siena in Florence, Italy. Looking at the Lebanese artists that have a couple of works on show, we counted ten: Rima Amyuni; Youmna Asseily; Rached Bohsali; Fadia Haddad; Rafic Majzoub; Romanos Moukarzel; Raouf Rifai; Ghada Saghieh; Hanibal Srouji and Anita Toutikian. The latter, from Beirut, we were fortunate to meet just before the concert. As well as being an artist, Anita Toutikian (Artonaute.com) is also a psychologist and writer. Her two works on show are: "Inter subjectivity" (180cm x 120cm, £1,587.30/$3,000) which is an acrylic on canvas and - our favourite - "Cast the first tone,"listed as an interactive intersubjective painting installation (100cm x 100cm x 7.5cm, £2,116.40/$4,000). Our other favourite is Nada Akl's oil on canvas, "Baskinta," (£2,679.08/$4,976.39) which is one of the few - if not the only - Lebanese geographical scene on show. But, it should be noted, as curator, Nadine Majdalani Begdache (from Galerie Janine Rubeiz) informed us, that the exhibition is not just about painted scenes of Lebanon but it encompasses all type of art, both figurative and more abstract.
Prices for the works on show, which have mostly
been produced within the last three or four years, range from £370.37/$700 for two of
Joseph Chahfe's mixed media on canvas works up to £15,873.02/$30,000 for Nada Sehnaoui's
sole-work-on-show, "Portrait of the Azouri family" - a mixed media work, on ten
wooden panels. Several of the artists are fortunate to have as many as either three or
four works on show. These are Nadim Karam, Joseph Harb and the already-mentioned, Joseph
Chahfe. Go along and discover more, as today is the last day for the current exhibition.
Unfortunately, we ran out of time on the day we visited and did not have a £30 ticket for
the classical music concert, which was just about to get under way, so we slipped away -
into the night, and visited a botanical art exhibition in another gallery in Shepherd's
Market...
MENU A: Free
E: (see websites)
L: Gallery 27 & The Gallery in Cork Street, 27 & 28 Cork Street, London, W1
N: 020 7794 7595
T: Green Park (Jubilee, Piccadilly and Victoria lines)
W: http://www.artonaute.com/
http://www.britishlebanese.org/
http://www.galeriejaninerubeiz.com/
http://www.galleryincorkstreet.com/
