Hanibal Srouji

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Hanibal Srouji (born 1957 in Beirut, Lebanon) is a Lebanese painter. He graduated in 1987 from Concordia University, Montreal. He lived in Canada and France before returning in his country. Srouji developed a technique of burning holes in his paintings [1] after having participated to numerous workshops in America and Europe, including the Triangle Arts Trust. [2] He currently teaches at the Lebanese American University.

Contents

Life and work

Srouji's art deals with his nostalgia for Lebanon, as he emigrated at the beginning of the Lebanese Civil War. [3] At the beginning of the war, Srouji served as Red Cross volunteer in Southern Lebanon, an experience he later compared to horror movies. [4] He ultimately escaped from Sidon by boat to Cyprus before emigrating to Canada. Shortly after the end of the war, Srouji traveled back to Lebanon to try to pick up the pieces. [5]

Hanibal Srouji became known for using a blow-torch to create small hales and lines. His paintings remind one of bullet-marked walls of crippled buildings in Beirut and encompass the human emotions in the aftermath of the civil war. [6] Another series has been dominated by vertical lines that represent the bars of a cage, as signs of confinement, but can also be read as bars of a musical composition. [7]

Although Srouji is considered as an abstract painter, [8] his recent work, Terre/Mer ("land/sea"), evoked landscapes.

Awards

Publications

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions

References

  1. "L'ARTISTE DU WEEK-END: Hanibal Srouji". L’Agenda Culturel. Archived from the original on 3 February 2023. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
  2. "Hanibal Srouji ('95), ZIG ZAG 2010 22nd ÉDITION". Triangle Arts Association. April 2010. Archived from the original on 3 July 2011. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
  3. "SROUJI Hanibal – Beirut Exhibition Center". Beirut Exhibition Center. Retrieved 23 January 2012.
  4. Buchakjian, Gregory (2010). Boustany, Nora (ed.). New Art from Lebanon (PDF). APEAL. ISBN   978-9953-0-1680-1.
  5. Maha Majzoub. "The War Inside". Ragmag. Archived from the original on 8 September 2012. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  6. El-Zein, Roula (2007). "Hanibal Srouji: A song for freedom". Canvas Magazine. 3 (5). Mixed Media Publishing. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  7. Kaelen Wilson-Goldie (2006-04-18). "A matter of artistic perspective". The Daily Star. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  8. "June Kelly Gallery". Artnet. 2011. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  9. "Hanibal SROUJI". Europia Productions. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  10. "Hanibal Srouji : peindre le feu, l'eau, la terre et l'air". AntoineOnline. Archived from the original on 17 January 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  11. Stoughton, India (April 24, 2013). "On the impermanence of imagery". The Daily Star. Retrieved 11 May 2013.
  12. Lahoud, Cherine (April 13, 2013). "Abstraction of a mystical bent". The Daily Star. Retrieved 11 May 2013.