A sublime dialogue of matter and light

BY THIERRY SAVATIER

ANACHAR BASBOUS WAS BORN IN RACHANA (LEBANON) IN 1969. HIS FIRST NAME IS ALSO AN ANAGRAM OF THE NAME OF HIS VILLAGE. FROM THE TIME OF HIS BIRTH, HE WAS IMMERSED IN ART IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD.

Thierry Savatier is an art historian and scientific exhibitions curator, with a specialisation in Gustave Courbet and Pablo Picasso. As well as being the author of several essays devoted to 19th and 20th century literature and art, he is an art critic, having written several texts on contemporary artists, notably Lebanese and Syrian.

His mother, Thérèse Aouad Basbous, was a poet and novelist; his father, the internationally renowned sculptor Michel Basbous, is one of the major 20th century Lebanese artists. His childhood was consequently marked by creation, the aesthetic importance given to forms, and the talent of Michel Basbous that he attentively observed at the workshop. He even proclaims - and we have to take this expression almost literally – to have been “born in a field of sculptures”.

As a precocious talent, Anachar Basbous perfected his first sculpture at the age of ten, which caught his father’s attention and ended up being cast and exhibited. Two years later, the passing of this beloved father and mentor left him with a deep wound. This may be the reason why he chose to study architecture rather than sculpture at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts. He then continued his studies at the National School of Applied Arts and Crafts in Paris, in another field: architectural mosaic. After returning to Lebanon in 1992, he worked on a number of decorations for the facades of public and private buildings. However, the experience he had acquired with Michel Basbous marked him deeply, which is why he soon decided to devote himself exclusively to sculpture. Stone, wood, bronze and steel would gradually constitute his universe.

While he admits to being influenced in his career by his parents, it was equally in his father’s library that this lover of art books drew on the resources to perfect his vision.

While he was attracted, like his father, to the figurative forms of Alberto Giacometti and Henry Moore, he also had a special interest in Constantin Brancusi, Jean Arp or Max Bill.

Although it is difficult to make a name for yourself in the art world, it is even more difficult in a dynasty of creators. Yet, Anachar Basbous succeeded in doing so, by not seeking to extend or imitate the artistry of his father but by creating his own aesthetic.

His sculptures, sometimes of monumental dimensions, favour refined formsparticularly curves - with their complexity appearing in the associations he chooses, occasionally suggesting a precarious balance while being imbued with spirituality. They instantly strike the viewer, whose eye must be tamed before the elegant arches, the sharp edges (less frequent), the whole geometry offered to the light and culminating in beauty and harmony. A harmony that is not fortuitous. The artist himself admits this; he does not commit to a new project without having previously studied the space that will host the artwork (luminosity, environment, materials, etc.). As for the subject, it is always secondary to him.

Among his preferred materials, stainless steel and, above all, self-renewing oxide patina (Corten) hold a privileged place.

Very few artists are attracted to this industrial material - with the notable exception of Richard Serra, Barnett Newman or Bernar Venet. Was it the study of architecture that familiarised Anachar Basbous with Corten steel, generally used in the construction of buildings and artworks? Is it his mastery of colours, essential to the practice of mosaic, that was seduced by the unique particularity of this alloy and its gradual colour modification when exposed to bad weather and other vagaries of time, since the oxidation process changes its appearance over the years from grey to orange, to deep brown tinged with reddish reflections? We can readily admit that the fact that nature participates in the elaboration of the work fits beautifully into the artist’s creative process.

From the beginning, the artist was undoubtedly fascinated by the mechanical properties of Corten steel, which tolerates all kinds of audacity. The range of possibilities offered, in terms of forms, including the most aerial ones, becomes almost infinite. This material is perfect for this sculptor, as his work frequently breaks free from the direct carving tradition, which consists of subtracting material from a block of stone, wood, etc. Rather, he prefers to proceed by additions, an assembly of modules, just like a builder. His art is modular and dynamic.

This results in mostly abstract compositions, which the viewer cannot capture from a predefined angle. Denying the provocation of Charles Baudelaire who stated, in his Salon of 1846, that sculpture was “at the same time vague and elusive, because it [showed] too many faces at once”, Anachar Basbous invites us to explore each of his works, to apprehend precisely all the aspects, to discover the movements, the metamorphoses and the contrasts that they suggest.

This invitation acts favourably on the intrigued gaze of the spectator since, in these sculptures, the void counts as much as the fullness, and the artist’s dialogue with light is as valuable as that with the material, to the point they result in mutual conversation. Moreover, the play of shadows evolves over time in the metal: the projected shadows move on the ground, the work appears to be alive.

It is always difficult to interpret an abstract creation when there are multiple guides to its reading, which are sometimes contradictory and most of the time imperceptible and mysterious. No narrative element comes to our rescue. This absence obviously allows us full leisure for appreciation, leaving us with a freedom of interpretation in which our imagination is the only limit. The concept proposed by Marcel Duchamp, according to which there are as many works as viewers, finds here, more than elsewhere, its concrete application. However, the most beautiful part of these sculptures appeals less to intellectualisation than to emotion, renewed throughout the 360-degree observation they offer. It is there, without a doubt, as our mind touches the peaks, ascending as if in a hot air balloon, that we become aware of their spiritual dimension.

Anachar Basbous has participated in numerous group exhibitions in

Argentina (2000), Morocco (2002), Turkey (2003), France (2017, 2021), Lebanon (Salon d’Automne 2004, 2007), Canada (2011), and Monaco (2022), in addition to personal exhibitions (Beirut Exhibition Centre, 2012; Dubai, 2013; Agial Gallery, 2015; Saleh Barakat Gallery, 2018).

In addition to his sculptures being exhibited in public places, such as the 2008 ten-metre bronze memorial commemorating the assassination site of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut, they are kept in public and private collections, notably in Canada, France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates. Anachar Basbous also preserves his father’s memory in an open-air museum located in the village of Rachana.