Picture this: palm tree branches waving their arms to the birds overhead, or playing hide and seek with the moon. The sound of an oud as one passes a village barber shop. From the high mountains of the cedar grove to the gentle Mediterranean coastal curves, the sleeping watermelon vendor, the fabulous houses of Yemen, Egypts’ slow moving Nile, the Damascus cloth vendors, the marvels of Aleppo, the Emirati mosques, forts, peacocks and majestic dhows… It makes us want to throw in the towel and book a long, enlightening road trip across the Middle East, equipped with little more than a journal and a pen. To Mouna Bassili Sehnaoui, such details trigger a desire to take out her brushes and paint. Well, art in any form is a celebration of human experience, so same difference, we say.
But let’s talk about the artist. Born in Alexandria, the prize-winning Mouna Sehnaoui is an established painter, celebrated both in her native Lebanon and globally. With a style that is heavily influenced by her Middle Eastern cultural heritage, Mouna has dedicated a life to expressing the experiences that matter the most to her. To date, she’s exhibited in the States and most major European cities. Her work features at museums in Alexandria and Beirut, as well as in various private collections. It’s only natural then, that with Abu Dhabi growing into the Khaleeji art hub, we should be next in line to receive her.
But what was gallery director, Salwa Zeidan’s incentive for bringing Mouna’s art to Abu Dhabi?
‘I am constantly on the lookout for exceptional artists who have been able to add value to their societies by developing a unique style and message,’ says Salwa. ‘It’s always interesting to see how each artist has the ability to individualize their artworks to fit their personal perspective of life, and Mouna is no exception!’
So what is Mouna Sehnaoui’s perspective? Having completed her studies in the States, her breakthrough was something of a revolt against her Occidental education. And as with most breakthroughs it came after an artistic identity crisis. Returning to Beirut after graduating, Mouna found herself frozen artistically, questioning how she would continue to create outside the bubble of the academic process.
‘The trouble was that I felt empty… burnt out… the art work that I had seen in places like Greenwich Village in New York meant nothing to me. I was over trained and felt that I carried the weight of Occidental art on my shoulders. Each line I tried to put down on paper seemed void of meaning and feeling.’
She chose to dig deep and throw out all her learning. She found like-minded friends in Persian miniatures, and soulmates in the icons of Byzance. The richness of Arabic calligraphy fascinated her, though she could not read or understand its meaning. So she chose to paint. ‘I would draw where my line took me. I would ignore the centuries of Western art and start all over…like the cavemen, the movement of my line would come from my guts.’
‘I had no use for perspective à la Raphael… colours were flat… Volume was created by line, spacial perspective with colour. Importance became a matter of size; subject matter: the things I cared about. Olives, labneh and mint on a table. A row of potted plants on my balcony. The stories of Arab heroes like Antar.’
Now Mouna brings her personal revelations to the capital. Her visit to the Emirates has instilled in her a poignant appreciation for how the people of this arid desert region have survived over centuries to develop a way of life that allowed them to overcome many hardships. Now in this chapter of profound development in the UAE, where we see fantastic cities rising in the desert terrain, her paintings are described as a plea: to keep the memory and rich culture of the Emirates alive, in spite of its rapid progression. ‘Words’ she says, ‘are there to exchange, do commerce and build. But wisdom of tradition, fashioned by thousands of years, must be remembered. The basics should not be forgotten.’
Arabian Roots is open Sunday to Thursday from 9am-7pm until December 30 at the Salwa Zeidan Gallery, Al Khaleej Al Arabi St. 30, villa 256 (02 666 9656).
