ALIVE Georges Bassil
April 2017
ALIVE Georges Bassil
ALIVE
Perception is reality. I choose to perceive life where beauty flourishes in spite of the darkness and violence that have come to personify our times. My work is a testimony to our instinct to live, and to be alive. – Georges Bassil
Alive is at once a visual celebration of, and an ode to, the indomitable nature of the human spirit. While acknowledging the darkness and violence that exist around him,Georges Bassil chooses to celebrate all that is good and beautiful. The choice is a firm one, borne not out of delusion or as a desperate attempt at escapism. It is an act of defiance, gentle yet deliberate.
Bassil resorts to his characteristic 'contrast of thick, textured brush strokes with delicate and expressive subject matter.' (Wilson-Degrazia, 2015), making Alive stylistically consistent with his earlier work. His colour palette, however, is strikingly warmer with gold, tan and even earthy browns replacing his trademark reds. The dark backgrounds recede, focusing attention on Bassil's elegant, solipsistic dancers. Characterized by an abject lack of detail, the often solid-black background further isolates the subjects from the viewer by frustrating the latter's ability to discern any reference to a place or a time, firmly rendering both irrelevant. Although inspired by Bassil's love of music, evident in the paintings' romantic lyricism, the works themselves exude a peaceful silence which feels like a complete absence of sound. The subjects, predominantly female, though at times androgynous, dominate the canvas. Their large, heavily made-up eyes are averted, their attention focused inwards. Though seemingly peaceful, their mood remains inscrutable, leaving the viewer securely shut out of their world. Bassil’s happiness is clearly achieved through detachment rather than acceptance, but he appears keenly aware of fragility the fragility of this state. Thus, he insulates his beautifully theatrical subjects in a timeless bubble to shield them from the violence.
Sulaf Derawy Zakharia 2017
Alive Acrylic on canvas 150 x 110 cm 2016
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Alive Acrylic on canvas 152 x 115cm 2016
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Alive Acrylic on canvas 152 x 120cm 2016
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Alive Acrylic on canvas 152x120cm 2016
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Alive Acrylic on canvas 152x115cm 2016
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Alive Acrylic on canvas 156x125cm 2016
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Alive Acrylic on canvas 180x150cm 2016
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Alive Acrylic on canvas 150x170cm 2016
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Alive Acrylic on canvas 193x140cm 2017
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Alive Acrylic on canvas 138x246cm 2017
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Alive Acrylic on canvas 197x142cm 2017
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Alive Acrylic on canvas 165x129cm 2016
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Alive Acrylic on canvas 152x128cm 2016
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Alive Acrylic on canvas 110x212cm 2015
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Alive Acrylic on canvas 145x112cm 2017
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Georges Bassil
Raised in lebanon, artist Georges Bassil (b. 1965) is a self taught artist whose career started in Beirut in 1995. Based in Amman, Jordan since 2010, Bassil’s work focuses on the human figures and emotions that he wishes to capture. In a world that grows increasingly fanatical, he recreates what he sees on warm fabrics, engaging the human soul in a dialogue by his at times transparent use of pigment. His figures exist in their own world without judgement, lost in thought.
Albareh Art Gallery P.O. Box 26282, Adliya, Kingdom of Bahrain Tel +973 1771 7707 art@albareh.com www.albareh.com