When she passed away in January, Saloua Raouda Choucair was 100 years old. Although she had been deeply respected as the undisputed doyenne of abstract art in the Arab world, it was something of a late blooming for the artist in the West. Choucair was 97 when she was given a show at Tate Modern. It was her British debut and the first major exhibition outside her native Lebanon.
She was a sculptor, whose most celebrated works are those made of interlocking pieces that can be taken apart and re-ordered, as in a Sufi poem. In a review for a 1952 exhibition of Choucair’s work, fellow artist Georges Cyr gave some advice to visitors: “do not look for the subject of the painting for there isn’t one. There are lines and surfaces (forms) and relationships between these, in other words, a symphony of qualities, colours and plains. Listen to this symphony with your eyes as you would listen to a concerto with your ears.”
Some UAE art fans might have seen Choucair’s work in the Sharjah Art Museum as part of the 12th edition of the city’s biennial. She was also given a major retrospective in 2011 at Beirut Exhibition Center.
This year, Art Dubai will pay tribute to Choucair’s masterful talent during the first Modern Symposium. Saleh Barakat, the founder of Agial Art Gallery and Saleh Barakat Gallery in Beirut will be leading the tribute.
“Having Saleh speak of Saloua’s life and legacy is apt: he knew her personally and has been instrumental in her international recognition, primarily through curating her major show at the Beirut Exhibition Center in 2011,” says Myrna Ayad, director of Art Dubai. “Saloua is, in many circles, recognised as a pioneering artist, not solely because she is a woman but rather for her major contributions to modernism in the realms of spirituality, abstraction, minimalism and her plethoric use of varied media.”
Choucair and other leading women in Arab Modernism from a later generation will be also discussed in a panel. These include Princess Wijdan Al Hashemi and Sonia Balassanian, who have both have contributed to the discussions on modernity in different respects. Princess Al Hashemi is also a major patron of the arts having established the Jordan National Galler while Balassanian combines varied influences – Iranian, Armenian, poetry, abstraction, cultural and social issues.
* Art Dubai's inaugural Modern Symposium begins on Monday March 13 at 5pm. Find out more on the fair website
