Samir Tabet, a beloved artist painter, continues to pursue his craft with unflagging dedication at the remarkable age of 102. His life story is one of resilience, passion, and devotion to art. Interview.
Egyptian by origin, Samir Tabet was born in 1923. Fascinated from a young age by visual art, he recalls, “I loved drawing everything I saw around me — objects, the everyday things of life.” However, his family urged him to pursue a scientific education because in those days, “studying art as a man was unacceptable.” He went on to earn a Ph.D. in Chemistry in London while also attending evening painting classes.
In Paris, newly married and with his doctorate in hand, he conducted research at the Sorbonne while pursuing his passion at an evening school, where he exclusively drew nudes. He later trained under two masters, Jean-Claude Janet and Jean-Pierre Alaux: “It was tough; everything was still life and portraiture.” He spent four to five years working in their studios. Later, he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne, gradually becoming a Sociétaire over the years.
For a time, he was a student of Pietro Annigoni in Florence, a Renaissance-style portrait painter known for his work with the royal family. He explained that painters had to attend the studio at specific hours, with eight to ten students present every day, all dining together with their mentor. “It was eight to nine hours of work each day as long as there was daylight.”
One day, destiny brought him to Lebanon; he was invited to oversee a cement factory project in southern Lebanon.
Initially, he planned to stay only a few days to assess the project’s technical feasibility. He was advised to use the laboratories at the American University to analyze soil samples.
He spent weeks conducting his analyses at AUB, and during that time, the Chemistry Department happened to be looking for a professor. He contacted his wife, who was in Cairo at the time, and without hesitation, she decided to join him in Lebanon.
Samir Tabet would spend nearly forty years at AUB, moving from professor to Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, then Vice President for Academic Affairs for fifteen years, and finally, Interim President. “It was a matter of good luck; I was there at the right moment,” he explains.
In 1985, after nearly four decades at AUB, he decided to change direction. He wanted to fully live out his passion, saying to himself, “Now I’m going to do what I’ve always wanted to do: paint.”
Classically trained, Samir Tabet specializes in still life, a reminiscence of his years in Paris where he loved to wander through his neighborhood in the 6th arrondissement, filled with hardware stores, where he delighted in discovering objects. His favorite object is the egg: “The shape is beautiful, aerodynamic — it’s not an ellipse. And there’s this texture, this grainy surface — it’s not porcelain, not bronze. An egg is a beautiful thing.”
For years now, in his studio in Kornet Chehwan, even at 102, Samir Tabet has not stopped working. “I paint every day, five to six hours.”
When asked what he loves most about the craft of painting, he answers, “The work. I was taught to respect work; I admire what represents labor. It’s a craft.”
With a life filled with experience and admiration for beautiful things he tries to express through his brush and long hours of work, Samir Tabet is an artist who embodies a classical era when teaching the craft was central. A humble man who loves life, he concludes our meeting by saying, “Luck helped me, but I worked hard.”
It is also a stroke of luck for us in Lebanon to have such a personality who has chosen to root his family, his life force, and his passion here, despite all challenges.
Article written by Nora Lebbos
https://www.agendaculturel.com/articles/samir-tabet-la-passion-du-metier
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