The Unseen Works of Madi Hussein 1964 – 1970

Description

LebanonPostcard presents the book The Unseen Works of Madi Hussein 1964 – 1970, 28×24 cm, 135 pages, English and Arabic – Limited edition 360/500.

UNEXPECTED TROVE
Abed Al Kadiri

Hussein Madi (b. 1938) is best known for his minimalist take on the Arabic alphabet, as well as his boldly colored figurative work-shapely female forms, masks, feisty, wing-splayed birds all of which have raised his reputation among Arab artists. In 2013, my research on Madi drew me to his early abstract paintings- a surprising counterpoint to the brash figurative works that often saw him compared to Matisse and Picasso. The retrospective “The Abstract Work of Madi” shed light on the artist’s powerful abstraction methods, highlighting a body of work spanning over 50 years of his career. While this exhibition foregrounded many works from the 1970s, earlier paintings from the previous decade were scarce. Madi’s early Roman works, were always of keen interest to me. Yet they remained elusive due to meager documentation and murky provenances. A few works were found in the artist’s studio, others unearthed in private collections, but they had largely escaped any serious scholarship or consistent display.

Today, six years later, “Unexpected Trove – The Unseen Works of Hussein Madi”, traces the origins of Madi’s practice to his early years in Rome through never-before-seen landscapes and abstract paintings from 1964 to 1970. Crowning the exhibition is a 160 x 390 cm masterwork commissioned in 1968. His largest-scale painting to date, this work is a stirring summary of Madi’s foundational years in the Eternal City.

This limited edition book, published in conjunction with the exhibition, unfolds like a visual diary of the artist’s early interactions with the Italian environment he called home for twenty-two years. It also emphasizes his studio practice, developing his own rules of abstraction, ultimately expressing what he calls the universal order of things.

Serendipity is the background hum to “Unexpected Trove”. This body of work was entirely unknown; it resurfaced through Mazen Soueid’s persistent efforts and perseverance, the current owner of these paintings. Chance encounters with the early collectors of Madi’s Roman oeuvre sparked deeper investigation until the unseen trove was finally united and revealed. Ironically, these works mark a pronounced re-engagement with Madi’s native language, background, and Islamic visual history as wellsprings of inspiration.

Now a part of the Mazen and Loulia Soueid Collection, many of the works have returned to the artist’s home country, after having been lost without documentary traces for over thirty years. For the past three years, Soueid has been tracking and acquiring these paintings, constituting a major collection that highlights our shared appreciation of this outstanding phase in Madi’s career.

This book will introduce the viewer to a new facet of one of the pillars of Lebanese and Arab art, setting it within Madi’s vast body of work, while encouraging continued research and celebration of art and artists from the region.

LebanonPostcard will be responsible for sending the book you order, through a fast courier with a tracking number, guaranteeing reception of the package. The souvenirs may take three to five days to arrive, according to the country they are sent to.