ZEINA
signed in English and Arabic JAMIL MOLAEB lower right
oil on canvas
157 x 110cm; 61 3/4 x 43 1/3in
(unframed)

Property from a Private Collection, London

Provenance
Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Dubai Art Fair, 2012

Jamil Molaeb grew up in the village of Baysour in the Aley District of Baissour, in the Chouf region of Lebanon. He studied at the Institute of Fine Art at the Lebanese University in Beirut, where he gained a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts. Amongst his teachers there were a number of prominent Lebanese modernists, including Paul Guiragossian and Shafic Abboud, whose influence can be seen in his oeuvre.

Molaeb travelled to Algeria to further his studies at L’Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts. There, he specialised in human anatomy and figurative art, encountering ancient Near-Eastern, Egyptian, Islamic and African art. After spending time in the US at the Pratt Institute in New York City and Ohio State University, he returned to his native village in the Chouf, where he lives and works today.

A multi-media artist, Molaeb concentrates on his own culture and traditions. His practice encompasses painting, drawings, mosaics, stone sculptures and woodcuts, which he deploys to depict village life including workers toiling in fields and celebratory occasions. Recurrent motifs in his work range from birds and fruit to women and children. Referencing his training as a mosaic artist, Molaeb often brings fragmented elements into his canvases - miniatures, symbols and icons are focal points, extracted from their usual order to be given a new, independent lease of life on canvas, sometimes scattered, almost aerial-like in view, as evidenced in the present lot.

Molaeb’s art is held in prestigious public and private collections, including The World Bank in Washington DC, Gropius Bau Museum in Berlin and the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris.