Rachana’s Own Star

BY DR CLAUDE LEMAND

A number of Anachar’s emblematic sculptures are worthy of being inscribed in the artistic heritage of Humanity. What joy it would be to own a large garden with one of his sculptures in it. What joy it is for a population - whether one is a solitary walker, with family, friends or children, in Lebanon or anywhere else in this vast terrain of our global village - to be able to visit a public garden, take a seat on a bench, to rest, meditate and commune with the soul of an artist’s sculpture inhabited by grace, and with nature surrounding it. And to be able to walk around it. Let us dream!

Let us dream, when all the calamities of the world fell on the people of Lebanon and on its Eden-like landscapes. Famine, disease, ugliness, violence, corruption ... all congregated in this corner of paradise and conspired against this people known across the world for their culture, their love of life, their talents, and their many merits.

Before opening The Galerie Dr Claude Lemand in 1988, Dr Claude Lemand was a university professor until 1988. His passion for painting, sculpture and artists’ books led him to drop everything in June 1988, in order to focus on building up a collection and founding a gallery in Paris.

From 1989 onwards, Dr Claude Lemand was one of the first gallerists to embark on promoting major Arab artists who had settled in the West, through the organisation of exhibitions, the purchase of works, the edition of bronze sculptures and the publication of important monographs.

Dr Claude Lemand is also a publisher who has a passion for poetry and original artist’s books. The inauguration of his gallery took place in October 1988 in conjunction with the publication of Marguerite Yourcenar’s `Le dernier amour du Prince Genghi’ in a beautiful book designed and illustrated with etchings by Abdallah Benanteur, printed as a limited edition of only 33 copies.

Since then, Dr Claude Lemand has published the monographs of Benanteur as well as that of Shafic Abboud. Furthermore, he organised many exhibitions around the subject of `Painting & Poetry. Artists of the Book’, which explore the richness of original manuscript and illustrated books. In October 2008, on the 20th anniversary of his gallery, Dr Claude Lemand opened a second gallery which is a space dedicated to the important works of his artists to be displayed and to the preparation of retrospectives or major exhibitions which he organises in France or in other countries.

Between 2018 and 2021, Claude and France Lemand donated 1700 works of art to the IMA. To date, as a researcher and curator, Dr Claude Lemand has organised eight exhibitions at the IMA, including the Shafic Abboud Retrospective in 2011, Lumières du Liban in 2021, Algérie mon amour, and Baya, femmes en leur Jardin in 2022-2023.

Anachar’s sculptures form a dialogue with the nature of Rachana, this gardenvillage of sculptures designed by his illustrious father Michel and his brothers, in harmony with this Lebanese land that is blessed by the gods, sung of by so many poets, and painfully missed by the Lebanese diaspora pushed into exile; in harmony with the blue sea, the air, and the light that is so particular to Lebanon, and which inspired so many artists; in harmony with its daytime sky and the myriad stars that cradle it at night.

I am happy and proud to have guessed, from the moment of our first meeting in Paris, that Anachar Basbous would be a sculptor capable of designing an installation on the forecourt of the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA), forming a dialogue with and homage to the facade of Jean Nouvel, then to remove all its stars to leave only one large meteorite, which will take its place in the IMA’s new Alley of Sculptures. His project exceeded all my expectations. Thank you, dear Anachar, for reminding us of our communal stellar origin, stardust. Thank you for making us dream!