Beyrouth Amine El Bacha – Aquarelles et Dessins

Description

LebanonPostcard presents the book Beyrouth Amine El Bacha – Aquarelles et Dessins 1953 – 2009 – بيروت أمين الباشا – مائيات ورسوم
Edition Dar Nelson – Beyrouth Capitale Mondiale du Livre بيروت عاصمة عالمية للكتاب – Livre à couverture rigide avec protège, 33×24.5 cm, 241 pages -French, English and Arabic

Amine El Bacha (Extract of article)

Amine El Bacha was born in a beautiful old, classical Beiruti house, which was surrounded by a lush flowered garden, shaded by several palm-trees, the fourth of 5 siblings and the youngest of two rather creative brothers, his eldest being Toufic El Bacha.

One thing we will never know for sure is the exact date of El Bacha’s birth, and something which he has a lot of fun in blurring even more: “I can be any age you want me to be”. Guessing his age is not easy, with El Bacha’s unparalleled dynamism, his incredible energy, constant mobility and abundant productivity encompassing not only painting and his visual art practice but also his abundant writing of prose, commentary pieces, and theatre writing.

El Bacha grew up surrounded by the books of his father’s library, the colours of his family’s home garden, the sound of European and Arabic classical music and the artworks of his uncles.

His mother was very hospitable and always welcomed musicians and painters into her home including her talented brothers.

El Bacha’s family home was a hub for artists and thinkers of the time who often gathered in the family’s garden and salon, conversing about the arts and current affairs thus starting to attune the young Amine to future interests in Arab politics, notions of language, aesthetics, world travel, beauty and art.

Amine’s uncles contributed a great deal to the formation and maturing of Amine’s artistic direction in life from his early teenage years.

Khalil was Amine’s older uncle and was an accomplished artist: a painter and a musician and Wahib was a distinguished men’s tailor with an amazing flair for style and for the high fashion of his time. The youngest uncle Mounir was an ebonist whose creations filled the family home.

There have always been old photographs of Amine’s uncles in his different studios, emanating a highly poetical and romantic atmosphere.

There is an endless number of anecdotes and fond memories of his childhood and youth in Beirut as well as images of the buzzing life in the old souks, cafes, restaurants, cinemas, woods, streets and hills of the old city. A glorious past which the artist has never stopped believing was going to re-emerge in our current times.

In spite of the various long wars that the El Bacha experienced in Lebanon, for him war was just a passing phase and peace was just around the corner. Year after year, he never believed that war could persist; even in the midst of incessant bombardments, the artist’s positivism was unshakable. Indeed, optimism and faith are two defining characteristics of Amine El Bacha’s spirit.

Amine went to the Mkhalles School (Ecole du Saint Sauveur) in the Abdel Wahab el-Inglizi area of Beirut which composer and great family friend of the El Bachas Zaki Nassif had also gone to and was keen for the young Amine to also join.

It is at school that El Bacha’s love of writing grew stronger and was consolidated as one of the artist’s favourite mediums of expression. At school, his head teacher used to initiate regular short story, prose and poetry writing competitions which the young artist used to eagerly participate in. He published his first short story at the age of thirteen in a famous magazine of the time called Al Ahad. The short story revolved around the life of a musician.

El Bacha’s passion for writing continued to grow until the present day where he regularly contributes to Lebanese and Arabic newspapers and magazines including Lebanon’s Al Nahar, Kuwait’s Al Arabi, and Al Hayat. He is currently in process of publishing a book of his short writings, a theatre play and a children illustrated storybook. The artist’s writing encompasses social, artistic and literary commentary, fantastical and fictional text as well as play writing.

Amine takes his pen and writing pad out on a daily basis and sits in the midst of his favourite urban locations: buzzing cafes, surrounded by their hums, familiar smells and their constant comings and goings of people. After hours of people watching, sketching and ardent writing, Amine walks to his studio, either in Beirut or in Paris – his two beloved cities – where he might work some more on his writing if the mood takes him or move to drawing, painting, or composing painted wood works.

His love of composition, form, texture and play have lead him to create a great number of “objects” and sculptural works including unique pieces and limited editions of boxes, furniture, jewellery and others. El Bacha also works in textile: designing fabrics, unique editions of silk prints and tapestries. Many of these can be found in major governments’ and private collections around the world including Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, France, Spain and the USA among others.

El Bacha is an urban man par excellence. In spite of his love of nature and the creative genius which he sees reflected in everything natural, he is at his most comfortable in the urban landscape. El Bacha’s love of the city and of long promenades in the streets and sea-side of Beirut comes from his childhood days, when his father – a lover of urban living and of literature and poetry – used to take him every Sunday morning, on long walks around town. Father and son would stop at landmark Beiruti locations to greet friends and pick up snacks at habitual stop offs before settling by the seashore for some quality time spent pondering, reading and watching the sea and marine birds fly over.

In those early years, reading and writing were not El Bacha’s only loves; he was also meddling with playing the violin which was his favourite musical instrument and which his uncle Khalil played professionally. El Bacha used to spend hours with his uncle, listening to him playing music, observing him, learning and training for days on end.

Classical music could always be heard in his family’s home. His uncle and his brother Toufic who were both professional musicians used to often rehearse and in the family home, where they would sometimes bring their musical entourage and hold long sessions of listening to and discussing music.

One of El Bacha’s fondest memories are of the evenings when his entire family – old and young, boys and girls and men and women – would gather at his family’s house when the legendary Oum Koulthoum would perform on the radio and listen to her wholeheartedly for hours into the late nights…. …. etc…

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