Hussein Madi

Hussein Madi (Born 1938, in Bekaatat Kanaan, kesrouan, Lebanon) is a Lebanese painter, sculptor and printmaker. He studied painting, sculpture and etching in Beirut (at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts) and Rome (at the Academia di Belle Arti). He lived between these two cities between 1973 and 1986. In Rome, he did advanced research on Arabic's cultural heritage and on Egypt. He went back to Lebanon in 1986 where taught sculpture and engraving at the institute of Fine Arts of the Lebanese University and, from 1958 to 1962, at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts. He has been exhibiting in Europe since 1965. His art has been showcased at the British Museum, the Venice Biennale and Tokyo's Ueno Museum.

Life and Work

Hussein Madi, Brown Bird, 22x23cm, 2014

Hussein Madi's body of works relates to modern European artists like Matisse and Picasso as well as the abstract designs of Islamic art. Madi outlines a silhouette of man on the entire surface of the canvas with two quick strokes of his large brush. A vertical line and a curved one make up the frame of this stylized painting. The features of his characters are those of the Oriental man clearly showing his cultural heritage. In their attitudes, two expressions are found: a static one which shows permanence in the face of the transitory, and the deep Oriental faith in immortality and eternal rest, and also a facial expression of cruel irony, playing the part of the mask in the Greek tragedy or an expression of suffering through stiff posture, like the loud outburst of a horrible cry, the terrible roar of the Assyrian lioness dragging along her crushed rump. This rending roar personifies the cry of Humanity. The Italian critic Joseph Silvaggi writes about Madi: "His drawings are filled with symbols and rich with artistic conventions in simplified forms; they are an enchanted script, a résumé of figurative art, the art of modern man."

Awards

Hussein Madi has won several prizes: the Sursock Museum 5th Salon Prize for Painting (1965–66), the 8th Salon's Prize for Sculpture offered by the Italian Cultural Centre in 1968/69 and the First Prize for Engraving, Citta di Lecce, Italy (1974). President of the "Association of Lebanese Artists" (1982, 1992).

Publications

Exhibitions

External links

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