BEING ANACHAR BASBOUS

On the third anniversary of the assassination of the late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Beirut witnessed the inauguration of three monumental bronze masterpieces by Anachar Basbous. The fivemetre-high flame monument depicts five flags, representing the five Lebanese districts. Every day at 12:55 p.m. - the time of the assassination - blazing flames emerge from its core to the sounds of church bells and the Islamic call to prayer. A memorial obelisk, standing 10.52 metres high to symbolise the surface area of Lebanon, is inscribed with quotes and achievements of the late Prime Minister, as well as excerpts from the national anthem. A bronze statue of the late premier, rising to 3.25 metres high, was sculpted to appear as if he is taking a walk in his garden at home in Koreitem, and looking towards the sea.

In the hands of the artist, simple shapes - a square, a rectangle, a disc or a lens – are cut to pieces before being reconstructed and energised by welding the parts in a way that endows them with a soul. These disc and lens shapes, broken down and reconstituted in this exhibition, are the artist’s “shattered suns”, whose own relationship with sunlight provides a dynamic interaction that gives birth to their vibrancy.

Driven by a fascination with and the relationships between his sculptures and sunlight, Anachar Basbous’ works “pierce space upwards, like big astral machines in a perpetual dialogue with the sun, his sculptural works becoming pure reflection, the dialogue between nature and architecture, gravity and magnetism, the macrocosm and the microcosm, the body and the spirit, between man and the Cosmos”.

2013 Balance & Light Art Lounge / Beiteddine Palace, Lebanon

Does sculpture represent construction, or destruction? This and other dualities, or double possibilities, were at the fore in this exhibition, including the inspiration of violence expressed in a beautiful way. Here, highly geometric shapes – some purely mathematic, others more innovative, but always geometric – joined together and remained suspended in space in unexpected ways, defying the heaviness of their metallic composition and traditional laws of gravity.

2015

Agial Art Gallery / Beirut Lebanon

Freed from the confines of a traditional base, the works appear to seamlessly float, inviting the viewer to consider the mystery of their composition. Sharp disc/lenslike shapes merge as though drawn together by an invisible gravitational force. Collisions between various pieces never seem at a standstill; rather an illusion of continuous motion lends a potent dynamism.

2016

Art Dubai /AGIAL Art Gallery.

Christie’s acquisition / Art Dubai 2016

“I think the shape is beautiful, I love the surface, the texture is superb, the balance is wonderful, I think this is one for me...” Jussi Pylkkänen, Christie’s Global President.

2016

Abu Dhabi Art fair / AGIAL Art Gallery.

2017

ART CAPITAL / Grand Palais / Paris France.

2018

Saleh Barakat Gallery / Beirut Lebanon.

Representing a bold new direction for Anachar the individual, and for the Basbous legacy, this exhibition was unexpected in its scale and shapes: only a few pieces in the collection reached a metre in height. Contrary to the archetypal Basbous style, all flowing, feminine undulation, these pieces gave a masculine, martial energy. Comprising stone, steel and concrete geometrical shapes, broken and sliced, then rearranged in sometimes jarring patterns, the pieces evoked the chaos and ennui that so inspired artists of the mid-20th century.

2019

Abu Dhabi Art Fair / Saleh Barakat Gallery

2021

“Lumières du Liban”

IMA “Institut du Monde Arabe” Paris, France

“I believe that sculpture must be strong, must not be merely decorative, that beauty itself is not enough, that the work needs a soul to it...” Anachar Basbous

2021

“Between shadows and lights“ Art installation /Art in motion, Ixsir

2022

Dubai Art Fair / Saleh Barakat Gallery

2022

Artcurial - Monaco Sculptures

Anachar Basbous’ “Meteorite“ sculpture was presented among a selection of sculptures by iconic 20th and 21st century artists such as Marino Marini, Cesar, Francois- Xavier

Lalanne, Antony Gormley and Niki de saint Phalle and Bernar Venet, from the end of April to September 2nd, 2022, and included in the auction of July 20th organised by Artcurial SAM.

“MY CHILDHOOD WAS A HAPPY ONE. I WAS SURROUNDED BY A SCULPTOR FATHER, A POET MOTHER AND SCORES OF COUSINS IN RACHANA, A MYTHICAL VILLAGE SPARED BY A DEVASTATING NATIONWIDE WAR.”