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Lot Essay
Using a cheerful palette with nuances of pastel blues and greens, this impressive watercolor by the Lebanese artist Paul Guiragossian delivers a fresh and light perspective to his richly dense paintings, as seen by Lot 46 (Le Départ du Portefaix). A notable master for his sweeping gestural brush strokes, his watercolours are equally as impressive for their dynamic and versatile compositions, as compared to the black and white contrasts of Lot 30. The present lot contains decorative and playful elements, found in small patches of shading that convey a sense of depth to the heavy and light forms in an utterly abstract context. The pastel, summer-like hues, with variations of turquoise and lime greens are whimsically crafted into dots, zig zags, and gestural forms, outlining distinct features that come to embody the barely decipherable mass of men, women and children in the scene. Readily noticeable, a contrast to the muted silence and balance of form of the figures, Guiragossian strips one of the figures on the center left, revealing his skeleton-esque chest with corrugated, emaciated ribs. Behind the figure reveals a noticeable head in the group, amongst the veiled mass, dressed in white, a color the artist has associated with purity and life.
Similar works of his reference the motif of bestowing news, such as La Bonne Nouvelles, sold at Christie’s in April 2012 for US $20,000. However, this present work is more detailed and accented in such a way that reveals the many facets of Guiragossian’s oeuvre – his attention to detail, his whimsical nature of painting, the fast sweeping motions that bear witness to his quick sketches he many times performed outside en plein air, and his subtle clues of the current state of affairs in his homeland.
‘It was also during this time in the 1980s, that the Middle East was in a state of upheaval; Lebanon was undergoing a violent civil war, faced with a violent aggression in Beirut in 1986 with the Lebanese forces coup. Growing up in poverty, and surrounded by poor families, crying children, beggars on the streets and corpses on their deathbeds, Guiragossian illustrated these memories with an ephemeral glow that evinced an authentic reality of the suffering, anguish and fatigue of his people. 'There is a silence in my work. It is a silence that includes the innocence of children and the hope of youth and the wisdom of that who has come to know life for what it truly is.'
(The artist quoted in The Paul Guiragossian Foundation, S. Bardaouil and T. Fellrath, Paul Guiragossian: The Human Condition, Beirut 2013, p. 43).
The juxtaposition of the cheerfulness with suffering and hunger allows a subtle hint with the color choices that embody both playfulness and despair. In stark contrast to the enchanting and illuminated quality of the work, the nakedness of the subject is a subtle clue to the authentic human reality Guragossian wanted to reveal of the slums of Beirut.
Similar works of his reference the motif of bestowing news, such as La Bonne Nouvelles, sold at Christie’s in April 2012 for US $20,000. However, this present work is more detailed and accented in such a way that reveals the many facets of Guiragossian’s oeuvre – his attention to detail, his whimsical nature of painting, the fast sweeping motions that bear witness to his quick sketches he many times performed outside en plein air, and his subtle clues of the current state of affairs in his homeland.
‘It was also during this time in the 1980s, that the Middle East was in a state of upheaval; Lebanon was undergoing a violent civil war, faced with a violent aggression in Beirut in 1986 with the Lebanese forces coup. Growing up in poverty, and surrounded by poor families, crying children, beggars on the streets and corpses on their deathbeds, Guiragossian illustrated these memories with an ephemeral glow that evinced an authentic reality of the suffering, anguish and fatigue of his people. 'There is a silence in my work. It is a silence that includes the innocence of children and the hope of youth and the wisdom of that who has come to know life for what it truly is.'
(The artist quoted in The Paul Guiragossian Foundation, S. Bardaouil and T. Fellrath, Paul Guiragossian: The Human Condition, Beirut 2013, p. 43).
The juxtaposition of the cheerfulness with suffering and hunger allows a subtle hint with the color choices that embody both playfulness and despair. In stark contrast to the enchanting and illuminated quality of the work, the nakedness of the subject is a subtle clue to the authentic human reality Guragossian wanted to reveal of the slums of Beirut.