Paul Guiragossian

Private collection, Beirut (acquired directly from the artist in 1970); thence by descent 

This work is in very good condition and has been fully restored by the Paul Guiragossian Foundation. Some sign of restored craquelures to the lower left area of the canvas and light water stains can be noticed under the ultra violet light. The colours in the catalogue illustration are accurate, with the overall tonality being slightly softer in the original work.
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Painted circa 1969-70, Traditional Lebanese Supper is an exquisite work from the artist’s rarest and most sought-after period.

Paul Guiragossian was one of the leading pioneering artists of modern Lebanese art. Born in Jerusalem to Armenian parents, the artist moved and settled in Lebanon in the 1940s. His relentless passion for painting quickly led to recognition both in Lebanon and internationally. Guiragossian received scholarships from the Italian Government to study at The Academy of Fine Arts Florence, which was soon followed by a further scholarship from the French government to attend Les Ateliers des maîtres de l’Ecole de Paris, which resulted in multiple successful solo shows.

Guiragossian’s oeuvre maps his progression as an artist though different stages of technical experimentation. His recurring and abstract depiction of mankind was reshaped constantly throughout his lifetime, during which he continuously reinterpreted the colours, depth, form and size of his subjects. From the late 1960s to the early 1970s, the artist began to move from his figurative approach to an abstract-orientated, column-like stroke, defining the turmoil and atrocities his country was enduring. In the late 1970s to early 1980s, the artist abandoned any hint of figurative expressions to focus on abstract structures. The Lebanese civil war influenced the majority of his later works, however, throughout his career, the artist focused on portraying his surroundings: ‘I looked around me and painted those expressive images and faces that I encountered in my life and so dearly loved: I painted myself, my children, my wife, my neighbours, my folk and the street on which I lived’.

Traditional Lebanese Supper is one of three very similar works and perfect example of the artist’s early pivotal shift from figurative art to abstraction. This work reveals a strong expressionist imagery and the warm colours of the Levant at a time when Lebanon was experiencing its Golden Era of cultural, social and political growth. As opposed to the chaos of his later compositions, Traditional Lebanese Supper remains traditional in its subject matter; composed, soothing and silent, with the vibrant yellow hues that transport the viewer into what could only be interpreted as a typical Lebanese countryside market street, in this case possibly the Saj bread maker street. In this composition, the viewer can guess a butcher in the back with the hanging cow, and in front of him seated figures eating in front of a Saj bread maker. The grandeur and simplicity of the strokes aligned with the luminosity of the background defines the movement of the imagery, showing the liveliness of this rural area. The artist worked on similar scenes mainly for school book illustrations, thus explaining the mix of abstraction and illustrative style that may be found in the present work. Despite the work having the last vestiges of a figurative nature, the artists' experiments with thick brushstrokes which mesh to dominate the column-like theme that is the essence that is Guiragossian.