Élie KANAAN (1926 Beirut - 2009) - Lot 116

Élie KANAAN (1926 Beirut - 2009) Houses under the snow cardboard Signed lower left, countersigned on the back and dated 1960 on the back 48 x 62 cm Élie Kanaan, born in Beirut in 1926 and died in 2009, was a painter who played an important role in the Lebanese art movement. From 1962 onwards, he organized several traveling exhibitions in Paris, New York, São Paulo, Belgrade, Moscow and Alexandria. The artist was inspired by all these places, but primarily by the Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Montparnasse of the 1950s-1960s. In 1967, he was awarded the Prix Vendôme, a European accolade. At the invitation of Galerie Gasper, the artist Élie Kanaan exhibited 22 oils, seven watercolors and two drawings in Morges (Switzerland) from May 17 to 29. The Lebanese artist, who divides his time between Lebanon and France, was well received by Swiss critics. "Contemporary painting in Lebanon is an integral part of the international art vocabulary", wrote one of them... "Combining his cultural roots with modernity, Élie Kanaan delivers a fluid, generous painting in a beautiful balance of forms and volumes. The brushstroke is broad and solid, animated by a confident, expansive and powerful gesture. Masses of color and shifting tonalities give her paintings a sensual, dynamic force. In its intensity, this painter's work remains one of the most representative of abstract painting today, even if the titles of his canvases evoke figurative subjects"...