It's always a pleasure to be introduced to an artist for the first time, but the surprise about the Lebanese painter and sculptor Saloua Raouda Choucair is not only that she turns out to be immensely talented but that she has been producing highly original work for five decades (she was born in 1916) without attractting much attention either in Europe or in her native country.
She spent a few years studying in Paris, including a stint in Leger's studio, and if she had stayed in Europe she would probably be much better known. But her main influence was Islamic art (which she studied in Cairo before going to Paris) and the mystical Islamic Sufi tradition (she is a member of the Druze minority), so it's not really a surprise she chose to return to Lebanon. Although her early works are figurative and show contemporary French influence, she is now thought of as the Middle East's first abstract artist (it seems odd that the connection had apparently not been made before, given Islam's rejection of representations of the human form).
The range of her work is remarkable, from figurative to abstract painting, to three dimensional work which varies from solid interlocking pieces to delicate works of apparent insubstantiality. None are particularly large, though she planned monumental public works which never saw the light of day. She clung fiecely to her own vision, and lived with the consequences, including not selling anything until the early 1960s. An easier route is suggested by a remark by the Lebanese ambassador at a 1952 show of her work in Paris: "Have you not done any Lebanese works for us?" But her vision was not personal or historical, it related to a depiction of the essence of spirituality, similar to the vision that drew Kandinsky to the abstract in early 20th century Europe.
As Choucair now has Alzheimer's disease she is not aware of her late recognition, which some have seen as "tragic": while there are certainly sad aspects to her life, it is difficult to see it as tragic, as she managed to do mostly what she wanted to in a situation where being a female Middle Eastern abstract artist, from a minority religious group which some see as heretical, was seriously disadvantageous. A triumph of the will I, for one, would never have been able to sustain.
She spent a few years studying in Paris, including a stint in Leger's studio, and if she had stayed in Europe she would probably be much better known. But her main influence was Islamic art (which she studied in Cairo before going to Paris) and the mystical Islamic Sufi tradition (she is a member of the Druze minority), so it's not really a surprise she chose to return to Lebanon. Although her early works are figurative and show contemporary French influence, she is now thought of as the Middle East's first abstract artist (it seems odd that the connection had apparently not been made before, given Islam's rejection of representations of the human form).
The range of her work is remarkable, from figurative to abstract painting, to three dimensional work which varies from solid interlocking pieces to delicate works of apparent insubstantiality. None are particularly large, though she planned monumental public works which never saw the light of day. She clung fiecely to her own vision, and lived with the consequences, including not selling anything until the early 1960s. An easier route is suggested by a remark by the Lebanese ambassador at a 1952 show of her work in Paris: "Have you not done any Lebanese works for us?" But her vision was not personal or historical, it related to a depiction of the essence of spirituality, similar to the vision that drew Kandinsky to the abstract in early 20th century Europe.
As Choucair now has Alzheimer's disease she is not aware of her late recognition, which some have seen as "tragic": while there are certainly sad aspects to her life, it is difficult to see it as tragic, as she managed to do mostly what she wanted to in a situation where being a female Middle Eastern abstract artist, from a minority religious group which some see as heretical, was seriously disadvantageous. A triumph of the will I, for one, would never have been able to sustain.
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