Chafic Abboud (Lebanon, 1926-2004)

When looking at the work of Chafic Abboud, the viewer is struck with the spontaneity, richness of colour, density of subject and a very strong technique. Le Roi et La Reine De Café from the late 1970s is a fine example of abstraction based on a reality lived, witnessed and discussed by the artist.

As rightly said in the words of Patrick Waldberg 'Between simplification and the outpourings that are the two paths of abstract painting, Abboud offers another approach to reality that is fusion. It might be said in a rather drastic way that he does not perceive reality, but that he dives into it, wallows in it, merges with it to such an extent that when he brings it back to us filtered through his desire, it has simultaneously been dissolved and reconstituted according to harmonic laws inside which, to quote the poet, 'Perfumes, colours and sounds answer each other'.
(Patrick Waldberg, in Claude Lemand (ed.), Shafic Abboud, Paris 2006, pp. 349-350)

The King and Queen as they are called in the Orient cannot literally be translated into real monarchs. but rather they are personifications of glory. The artist depicts a couple in love, sitting in a café and thus evokes love and the metaphorical crowns of happiness. Using his rich textures and radiant pigments to delicately hint this glimpse of reality is what makes Abboud's compositions outstanding. Abboud's work stands as a declaration for freedom, colour, light and joy.