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Lot Essay
Terre Mouillée by Elie Kanaan is a strong example of the artist’s sensitivity for colour and composition. Regarded as a major force in the Lebanese modern art movement. Throughout his oeuvre, the artist plays along the border between abstraction and figuration, taking the viewers into a universe where reality and imagination are in a continuous, flirtatious liaison. Kanaan’s works are recognizable but not repetitive. His style is a testament of what can be described as the utmost appreciation for beauty, consisting of expressive and gestural brushstrokes that intertwine colour and form into a delicate and harmonious composition.
In the present work, Kanaan creates an abstract landscape by employing a mostly grey colour-palette and some delicate hints of red, green, and blue. While the artist cleverly uses light tones of grey to evoke a fantastical, floral atmosphere, almost heavenly-like, the top-left and right areas of the painting display darker tones. Through his ability to reconcile light and dark tones, Kanaan brings a sense of balance to the composition, which is also caught between abstraction and figuration – a characteristic of the eminent artist’s work.
The delicate and rhythmic dynamism of this work is produced by the artist’s vivid brushstrokes, which are carefully laid throughout the canvas and in a perfect dialogue with one another. Considering the communion of all these artistic elements, the present painting can be ultimately described as a graceful composition of open horizons and organized chaos. Kanaan cleverly captures the inexplicable reality of the vast outer world beyond its mere physical appearances in a form of existentialism.
Born in Beirut in 1926, Elie Kanaan started developing his distinctive style of painting in his early twenties, having studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. After spending a couple of years of soul-searching in Italy, he returned to his native Lebanon where he began to exhibit in the early fifties. His peculiar style and growing success led to both national and international recognition, he received the Prix Vendome in 1967.
In the present work, Kanaan creates an abstract landscape by employing a mostly grey colour-palette and some delicate hints of red, green, and blue. While the artist cleverly uses light tones of grey to evoke a fantastical, floral atmosphere, almost heavenly-like, the top-left and right areas of the painting display darker tones. Through his ability to reconcile light and dark tones, Kanaan brings a sense of balance to the composition, which is also caught between abstraction and figuration – a characteristic of the eminent artist’s work.
The delicate and rhythmic dynamism of this work is produced by the artist’s vivid brushstrokes, which are carefully laid throughout the canvas and in a perfect dialogue with one another. Considering the communion of all these artistic elements, the present painting can be ultimately described as a graceful composition of open horizons and organized chaos. Kanaan cleverly captures the inexplicable reality of the vast outer world beyond its mere physical appearances in a form of existentialism.
Born in Beirut in 1926, Elie Kanaan started developing his distinctive style of painting in his early twenties, having studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. After spending a couple of years of soul-searching in Italy, he returned to his native Lebanon where he began to exhibit in the early fifties. His peculiar style and growing success led to both national and international recognition, he received the Prix Vendome in 1967.