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In her lecture on May 15, 2024 at the Rebirth Beirut Gallery in Gemmayzeh, Aïda Cherfan payed tribute to artist Hussein Madi. In collaboration with the H. Madi Foundation, she is also exhibiting his works through his different artistic periods until May 28, 2024. The public will thus be able to rediscover the brilliant career of this prolific artist with multiple facets and talents.
Hussein Madi was a versatile artist, both a painter and draftsman, engraver and sculptor. He defined himself as a contemporary artist marked by his oriental heritage, drawing from the conceptual principles of Islamic art such as arabesques and calligraphy, as well as hieroglyphics, making them the very substance of his art. This influence is manifested through the extreme simplification of pictorial figures, the geometrization of human, animal or plant representations. The anatomy of the woman, birds, fish or horses is articulated in semicircles or triangles, translated into stylized lines or arabesques, borrowing from Arabic script its curves, circles and interlacing patterns.
The almost obsessive repetition of forms, angles and lines creates movement and establishes a rhythm, scanned in the manner of an incantation or a prayer. Abstraction or synthesis does not, however, prevent the recognition of the distinctive characteristics or identifying signs of the depicted forms. The structural and aesthetic rigor of the work is also accompanied by a sensory shock, that of flat areas of vivid and saturated colors, bright oranges and cadmium reds that clash with the deep tones of electric blues or dark greens. A chromatic dissonance of loud or muted notes creates tension and diffuses a vibratory energy charged with emotion.
The artist enjoyed multiplying scenes and atmospheres, setting his decor in a bed or on a beach, in a living room or on the back of a horse or a bull. Nevertheless, Madi’s favorite theme was that of women in all their states. Sad or languorous, with a bent spine or curled-up body, she abandons herself to the viewer’s gaze, taking languid poses, the sensuality of which is accentuated by the torsion of the torso or pelvis. The artist also makes her sit enthroned on a living room sofa, neglecting no detail of her sartorial elegance or that of the furniture.
The monochrome nudes are thus infinitely combined in different postures and attitudes, translated into lines or arabesques that blend into the decor. They thus contribute to the graphic design of the chair, table, vase or curtain, at times reminiscent of certain works by Matisse. The same minimalist trend is found in iron or sheet metal sculptures when the artist captures the distinctive trait of the animal or object to keep its essence, portraying the essential.
This unprecedented exhibition offers a journey through time and space and leaves in its wake a scent of departure. Indeed, in Hussein Madi’s latest work, stylized birds seem to take flight to escape from the canvas, joining an infinite space of freedom. A farewell from the artist to the public, leaving the imperishable memory of a quest for perfection and truth, the awareness of an elsewhere, a taste of eternity.
