FAYEZ BARAKAT
BEYOND OUR PLANET VOLUME 5
FAYEZ BARAKAT
INTRODUCTION
ARTIST STATEMENT
CATALOGUE
SIZE 6”x 6”
SIZE 8”x 8”
SIZE 24” x 30”
SIZE 12”x 16”
SIZE 12”x 10”
SIZE 61”x 61”
SIZE 61”x 92”
SIZE 14”x 24”
INTRODUCTION
An Artist Who Can See The Future Clearly Now
Fayez Barakat can see his future clearly now – and O, boy! – is he going to make it happen! Just when ordinary men are content to become OAPs and fall back on the crumbling cushion of their pension plans, sitting it out in God’s little waiting room, Fayez enters the fourth quartile of his life with a new vigour, embracing new visions of a new lifeand with a new wife - heading for new horizons. Throughout his life he has engaged in a scholarly self-educated struggle, and now he’s set consciously to make a right-angled turn in his life, back to the present, which is his painting. Fayez is all about living vividly in the moment, you see, as he lets the future take care of itself. When he dies, he will die young.
He was born 65 years ago in the Biblical town of Hebron, into the fourth generation of a Palestinian family who traded in rare artistic artefacts and sculptures, in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. His precocious talent manifested at age 2, when he started making etchings on his nursery walls. By the age of 15, however, he was meeting JohnPaul Getty himself, in the prestigious Art Deco Claridge’s Hotel in exclusive Mayfair, to sell Hittite sculpture.
Next he sold to Pablo Picasso and met Bella Chagall and saw her grandfather’s canvases, while the most expensive bronzes, glass pieces and coins passed through his knowing hands. He got used to cherishing, but selling, the rarest and best in every category. And after meeting Pablo, he picked up his own brushes for the first time ... but business had to come first in those far-off days.
He opened his first gallery in Amman, Jordan, in 1972. A decade later, somewhat bizarrely, he opened in Beverly Hills at 425 North Rodeo Drive, with a big flash aluminium frontage, next to where that Pretty Woman did her shopping, but he had only the finest Chinese items for sale - not for the likes of that pretty woman! - but for the cognoscenti, the
aficionados, the ones with the eyes to see, and they did see: Bakarat on Rodeo, with its extensive offering of Chinese artefacts and fine art, is now a rooted cultural fixture in LA.
Recent offerings have included exotic seventh century T’ang dynasty glazed artefacts in kaolin, such as a 21 inch high camel; a 33 inch glazed spirit guardian; an 18½ inch horse with saddle and bridle; a 20 inch horse and foreign rider; and a 1¾ inch high marble-glazed Terracotta bowl, with a beautifully rhythmic but irregular abstract pattern around its girth.
He repeated this expansion by opening in Abu Dhabi in 2010. But in 2003, he had already graduated with his gallery from France to fill a whole four-storey house at 58 Brook Street, right opposite the main entrance to Claridge’s itself, back to the scene of his first big sale, 40 years before. It is a veritable Aladdin’s Cave of rare objets from the east, from Palestine to India and beyond, with 1000 pieces from China alone.
Wandering around the premises in the autumn of 2014, my eyes fell on Mogul statues, Maya crystals and Egyptian funerary objects, including a sarcophagus fashioned and painted as a man, but in the Homeric tradition of being buried with what the interned one would need in the next life, but in this case with an enlarged penis and set of matching testicles, here proudly protruding on the outside! Outsiders, however, are excluded from the basement, but for good reason – more anon.
Fayez, however, is not looking back to old triumphs, back to the works of others, but only forwards now to his second career, to his own painting, which he has assiduously worked on under the radar screen for some six years, to the point where he is now ready to declare it, in a major new exhibition of his works in London’s XXXXX in XXXXX, 2015. As with everything else throughout his life, he taught himself to see, how to compose, how to manage colour and brush strokes, and to see and feel his inspirational points of departure, and how to paint with tricky acrylic paints.
“Acrylics melt with each other and die,” he explains, “but know how to manipulate them in that first moment – in a split-second! That’s my hot moment too ...” We are onto technique now, and Pointillisme is his latest interest. “I start with a departure point, stars that my mind sees, and manipulate the strokes ... as in Pollock’s dripping technique, and do splashing, and splashing with grooving ... creating forms on the canvas ... sculpted forms like leaves, birds and butterflies flying, fish swimming ... work to make the colours set up vibrations, subtle vibrations in consciousness.”
His pointillist stars are not like Seurat’s uniform blobs, but are like little multicoloured beads with mini-jewels hidden in them ... creating a multi-layered expressionist relief across the surface, like the bas-relief of those old cartographic maps. You can touch and feel his surfaces, knowingly, and appreciate seeing the detail, the life, the consciousness of the shining colours in every fraction of an inch.
Fayez’ entire life has been dedicated to the realisation of beauty, but along with
understanding its creativity. As an artist he is increasingly inspired by Twentieth Century Masters and has now dedicated a series of works serenading their genius: “I carefully studied these Masters’ schools, but no artist lived long enough to realise or complete their dreams to their own satisfaction.”
Yes, but to complete the realisation of one’s dreams is but to run out of road on the creative journey, like a philosopher who stops because he thinks he knows all the answers – and forgets to be in the seeing, in the seeing, as old Rūmī was wont to phrase it! Yes, Fayez, coming from the desert, knows all about the great poet, the Sufi Desert Father Rūmī, as he is a natural philosopher too, and knows how to dissolve his whole body and being in Seeing.
“Beholding the beauty of these masterworks that came before me”, continues Fayez, “I have not only appreciated the ingenuity of these creations, but have been mesmerised by their accomplishments and the complexity of their techniques ...” Fayez is now carefully picking through the threads of these modern Masters’ styles and techniques, and has made an amazing discovery: these themes and strands have further life in them, further inspiration to be drawn from them, further creative development potential to be exploited and made manifest, to be given to everyone who’s on the big journey. (His study parallels Nureyev looking at still photos of the great Nijinsky dancing: “I can feel the movements that led into those poses, and flow out of them”). Fayez has ordered these Serenade themes, under such headings as Paradise, Meditation, Nirvana, Euphoria, and Fantasies such as Winter, Marine and Veiled, and so on.
Fayez’ Serenades embrace Claude Monet, Vincent Van Gogh, Gustav Klimt, Clyfford Still, Umberto Boccioni and through to Juan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky, Joan Mitchell, Jackson Pollock and Sam Francis. Fayez’ recent paintings have picked up these treasures for the taking, and transformed them into his ground-breaking artistic visions, from 2011: Marine Fantasy (55 W) and Winter Fantasy (72 B) reflect Matisse’s late Water-Lillies; Purple Paradise recalls Klimt’s poetic vision; Veiled Fantasy (72 A) out-pollocks even Pollock; while the black tones of Nirvana (36 H), suggesting how the lengthened and deeper rhythms of mantra have a deep effect, enhancing the potential of the chakras – from Mulādhāra to Sushumnā especiallyand remind us of the darker tones and rhythms of Umberto Boccioni.
Yes, he’s put his foot to the floor all right, leaving those old former Masters of the French Impressionist and the New York schools in his rear-view mirror, as he steps on the gas. His paintings are dancing with more colour, more fully orchestrated, greater arabesques, with finer detail, as though Owen Jones Grammar of Ornament had decided to stop being a wall-flower and dance the Tango with him instead, but with added brio, resulting in his glorious and subtle Golden Nirvana, amongst many others.
His former client of antiquities, old Pablo himself, adjured: “Inspiration does exist, but it has to find you working!” And Fayez has been working all right, producing some 5,000 canvases, and he has increasingly found his inspiration, in all sorts of forms appearing – Japan, Van Gogh, the coral sea-bed, a spagyrical dream here, a serenade
to a Master there, whatever – images that become his “DNA prints of his emotions, which have their own energy fields”.
The whole planet, for him, is redolent with images that others do not see, but can feed his imagination, become his inspiration. And he has developed his own palette of tricks and colours, and techniques of application. He is now emerging as a mature and accomplished abstract painter: abstractionism for him means realism, and now he is ready to go public in the west, to get real himself.
Fayez prefers to work in that secluded Mayfair basement from 2.00 am in the morning, when the City is quiet and asleep. He wakes up, his consciousness decidedly alive and pregnant with subliminal images, strange promptings, assertive suggestions and compulsive visions, as he gets into his 6-speed gearbox-paintbox of creativity –a giant table covered with a sheet of metal, splattered with paint, in that cordonedoff sacred basement sanctuary. Speed is of the essence, to catch the composition, you see, as he doesn’t want the idea to flee away ... he is focussed entirely on the creative function to achieve his aim. The blank canvas holds all the allure for him of a naked woman, beckoning him close ...
As he gets into the painting, he begins to feel out of his body, and see that he is observing his hands and mind operate the brushes and his other application tools, as the picture unfolds before his vision. This is where he feels the inherent spirituality of what he is, or is not, doing, of which the canvas is the ongoing silent witness, as he retreats into the Witnesshood Itself, the realm of Not-Doing. At some point, an inner Socratic voice tells him the painting is finished, and he feels an immense joy, a spiritual satisfaction of sorts ... he has been the witness to a new creation, a new artistic orgasm, where he and the completed canvas are One, and he is lost in ecstasy, wonder, love and praise.
“I shock myself”, he explains, “by what I produce, I feel so elated – the artwork itself smiles at me ... I make the canvas happy to be with me and it makes me happy to be with it,” expounds the artistic gigolo in him. “I attack it ... I am not nervous! For me it’s a love affair, with revealing foreplay, until the ultimate climax takes place. The blank canvas is like creating a lover that you are creating in the void of abstractness, wherein lies the true realism; am within the DNA impression of a vibration, within the mind and thoughts, and consciously and sub-consciously feel out of the body, out of the mind ...
“I am in ecstasy,” he continues, “in multi-dimensional awareness, I dissolve the whole body in Discipline, Senses, Seeing, Appreciation, to see beauty within beauty, as everything is a level of consciousness ... a transcendental state I reach through painting ... I am just a vessel through which something happens ...”, he says, echoing Igor Stravinsky on his dance of The Rite of Spring.
It sounds like Fayez is knocking on heaven’s door OK, but definitely not on St Peter’s yet – there’s too much life, too much unexpired energy to unleash and too many tricks to manifest in this old dog yet, for any bony digit to appear and tap him on the shoulder. He just has too much living to do, too many paintings to execute, first ...
“In my spacious studio in Amman, Jordan,” he continues quietly, almost conspiratorially, “I like to paint ten blank canvases at the same time!” – Yeah, and ‘if all the girls from Vasseur were laid side-by-side, I wouldn’t be surprised!’ – “So can steal one idea from one canvas to another.” If this sounds like an uncontrolled orgy, he makes an apology: “I don’t know how to draw, I just paint! What I have produced has been pre-destined to happen ... there is so much beyond our control ... like death and the shortness of life ...so short!” he laments.
“My goal is perfection, and then just want to share it ...” he says like an evangelical teenager. This awareness of his forthcoming mortality, however, is driving him onwards to the final heights he knows he just has to climb, before the inevitable ... when at the last cometh the Black Camel which kneels before everyone’s gate.
On this his final embodied journey, when his art threatens to flourish to new creative and majestic heights, Fayez is joined step-for-step in his quest by Hwasun Lee, descended from Jeonju-Yi (Lee), the ancient Royal Family of Korea, who ruled for over 500 years until the colonisation of Korea by Japan in 1910, and who is now his new bride. “My art called her – for three years she waited; when we met proposed to her in five minutes, she smiled, nodded, and a few days later we married in LA, in 2013 ...”[Check].
She is a much younger, beautiful and statuesque princess, a gentle angel in flight, taking prayers to the feet of the Gods, and returning with streams of mercy. She is never far away from Fayez, always available but never intrusive, and her quiet presence is now his source of contentment and happiness in life, inspiring him onwards and upwards on his final climb to the heights.
There’s a twinkle in his eye when he talks of her, as he looks into the future ... I idly mention that Nietzsche said that when a man loses his libido he loses his creativity too, and the concept brings a smile to his face: “Yes, fucking is important too!” He happily admits that part of his final plan is that he wants children from her ... his elder son by his second wife died in his thirties from the Big C, followed in death by the mother.
Yes, Hwasun is indeed bringing Fayez back to life after his recent losses, tragedies that made him pick up his brushes again but this time with serious intent, six creative years ago now. “She is my Muse ...” he adds softly, smiling, sighing, as the conquistador in him contemplates the far-off heights that must now be scaled together, the journey that knows no end, but is now undertaken at least ... in partnership with Love.
So, Fayez, what’s it all about, then? Where are you going? Why are you driven so manically to do all this painting? What, exactly, are you seeking? Whose philosophy are you emulating, with your Gestural Abstractionism of Objectless Reality? The answer is, of course, philosophic: Fayez is searching for the Beautiful, as in Plato’s Beauty, which the divine philosopher equated with his Platonic Good, which should be understood as the Consciousness of the Self Itself - (there is no word in Ancient
Greek for Consciousness Itself) - when he wrote:
Beauty is certainly soft, smooth, slippery and therefore of a nature which easily slips in and permeates our souls. For affirm that The Good is The Beautiful.
Lysis, 216 c-d
Yes, Platonic Beauty has subliminally slipped into and permeated Fayez’ soul, but only because he’s earned it. Plato then develops this vital equation, in that great dialogue of Socrates at the dinner and drinking party, to the point where the aspirant breaks through the Veil of Reality, through pursuing his chosen discipline, and upon an instant finds himself - through Grace - standing in his own home ground of Consciousness of the Self, in Love.
He who has been led by his teacher in the matters of Love to this point, correctly observing step by step the objects of beauty, when approaching his final goal will of a sudden* catch sight of a nature of amazing Beauty, and this, Socrates, is indeed the cause of all his former efforts ...
Symposium, 210 e
*exsaiphnēs, or subito in Ficino’s great translation, means suddenly, unexpectedly, instantaneously
It is rightly said that Consciousness lights all objects in the universe, but destroys them on contact, meaning that the notion of Objects being separate from the Self is destroyed utterly for individuals standing - by Grace - in their own home ground of Consciousness Itself. Then there is no need to give the painting, the object, a second glance ... and that is the true function of painting, and of all the other arts as well. Language cannot explain the mystery, but painting can, as long as the painter pays heed to the injunction of the late Francis Bacon: “The purpose of art is to deepen the mystery”.
That is why Fayez is knocking on Heaven’s door with such zeal, deepening the mystery all right. When that door opens, instantaneously, he will find himself, the Self, not on the other side, but on the same side, as the Self is everywhere! The door, that final step, never did exist, except in the Subject-Object of Duality, just like a veil. And he will then find there is nothing to say, nothing to be proven, as it cannot be proven, only experienced; and once experienced, there is no need of any proof anyway. Then there is no painter, there is just painting, a gift to be given. In the meantime, Fayez can console himself with the thought that, as his painting matures, that it may acquire the power to open that non-existent door for others, also on the big journey towards Higher Consciousness, that some call Life.
Stephen R. Hill – 2015
It is my belief that feelings, sensations, thoughts, expectations and dreams are frequencies that respond to colors, shapes and forms that are embedded in our subconscious minds.
When I paint I try to share my experiences through this vibration of colors. Discipline on my distribution of my memories is reflected in the paintings.
It is my hope that my paintings will enhance the aesthetic frequencies of the viewers to a higher level of their present consciousness, enabling them to see the beauty of their genetic impression on the abstract forms and shapes created.
The ecstasy feel after the completion of each artwork is the basis of a new creation and a process of spiritual growth. To share this journey with my viewers is my ultimate joy in the brief experience we call life.
After a lifetime of involvement in the art world, it is with great excitement that share with you my passion for painting. I wish to reveal my artistic creations and expand my presence in the contemporary art world. Employing a variety of exciting techniques and diverse styles, these paintings are representations of pure emotion, the delight of fantasy, and the power of color.
It is my sincere hope that you enjoy the works you see in this series and that they connect with your mind, heart and soul.
Fayez Barakat
BARAKAT
6” x 6” | 15 x 15 cm size
Fayez Barakat · Beyond
Acrylic on canvas
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas 6” x 6” 15 x 15 cm
Fayez Barakat · Beyond
Acrylic on canvas
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Fayez Barakat
Fayez Barakat · Beyond
Planet
Acrylic on canvas
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas 6” x 6” 15 x 15 cm
Fayez Barakat
Fayez Barakat · Beyond
Acrylic on canvas
8” x 8” | 20 x 20 cm size
Fayez Barakat
Fayez Barakat
Acrylic on canvas
Fayez Barakat
24” x 30” | 60 x 76 cm size
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol
Acrylic on canvas 24” x 30”
60 x 76 cm
Fayez Barakat
Fayez Barakat
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas 24” x 30” 60 x 76 cm
12” x 16” | 30 x 40 cm size
Fayez Barakat · Beyond
Acrylic on canvas
Fayez Barakat Beyond
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet
Acrylic on canvas
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas 12” x 16” 30 x 40 cm
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas
12” x 16” 30 x 40 cm
Fayez Barakat · Beyond
Planet
Fayez Barakat
12” x 10” | 30 x 25 cm size
Fayez
Fayez Barakat
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas 12” x 10” 30 x 25 cm
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas 12” x 10” 30 x 25 cm
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol
Acrylic on canvas 12” x 10” 30 x 25 cm
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas 12” x 10” 30 x 25 cm
Fayez Barakat · Beyond
Planet
Acrylic on canvas
x 10” 30 x 25 cm
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas
61” x 61” | 155 x 155 cm size
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas 61” x 61” | 155 x 155 cm
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas 61” x 61” 155 x 155 cm
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet
Acrylic on canvas
x 61”
155 x 155 cm
61” x 92” | 155 x 234 cm size
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5 Acrylic on canvas 61” x 92” 155 x 234 cm
Fayez Barakat Beyond
Planet
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas 61” x 92” 155 x 234 cm
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas
x
x
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5 Acrylic on canvas
x 92”
x 234 cm
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas 61” x 92” |
x 234 cm
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas
x 92” 155 x 234 cm
Fayez Barakat Beyond
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5 Acrylic
16” x 24” | 40 x 60 cm size
Fayez Barakat · Beyond
Planet
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5 Acrylic on canvas
x
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas 16” x 24” | 40 x 60 cm
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet
vvvAcrylic on canvas
x 24”
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas 16” x 24” | 40 x 60 cm
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5 Acrylic on canvas 16” x 24” 40 x 60 cm
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas 16” x 24” | 40 x 60 cm
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet
Acrylic on canvas
Fayez Barakat · Beyond
Planet
Acrylic on canvas
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas
x 24” |
x
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5 Acrylic on canvas
x 24”
x 60 cm
Fayez Barakat
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5 Acrylic on canvas
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas
x 24”
x 60 cm
Fayez Barakat
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5 Acrylic on canvas 16” x 24” 40 x 60 cm
Fayez Barakat
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5 Acrylic on canvas 16” x 24” 40 x 60 cm
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5 Acrylic on canvas
x 24”
x 60 cm
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas
x 24”
x 60 cm
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas
x 24” 40 x 60 cm
Fayez Barakat · Beyond
Planet
Fayez Barakat · Beyond
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet
Acrylic on canvas
Fayez Barakat
Fayez Barakat
Fayez Barakat
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5 Acrylic on canvas 16” x 24” 40 x 60 cm
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas 16” x 24” | 40 x 60 cm
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5 Acrylic on canvas
16” x 24” 40 x 60 cm
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas 16” x 24” | 40 x 60 cm
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5 Acrylic on canvas 16” x 24” 40 x 60 cm
Fayez Barakat · Beyond Our Planet vol 5 Acrylic on canvas 16” x 24” 40 x 60 cm
Fayez Barakat Beyond Our Planet vol 5
Acrylic on canvas 16” x 24” | 40 x 60 cm
Edited by: Sofia Baraya
Photography by: Evelina Sarupiciute
Design by: Sofia Baraya
LOS ANGELES LONDON SEOUL HONG KONG AMMAN MARRAKECH