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Farid Aouad (1924 – 1982)
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Born in South Lebanon in 1924, Farid Aouad lived in Paris most
of his life. Aouad is best known for paintings that express
solitude. He used scenes of lonely strangers in bars and cafés,
people walking down the street, passengers embarking on trains
and fishermen at work to convey his own feelings of loneliness.
Moreover, his attachment to the familiarity between the streets
of old Beirut and Paris are a recurring emotional fixture in his
work.
In all the scenes he painted, his acute observation and ability
to capture the life of the moment, mixed with his free yet
mature graphic style of painting, were the key elements of his
success. Aouad became a rare witness of artistic boldness in his
generation and showed his art at numerous exhibitions in
Lebanon, France, Germany and Italy. Unfortunately, his work was
never fully appreciated during his lifetime and he lived out his
last years in ill health and poverty.
In a 1977 letter, Aouad wrote: “I produced very little this
year: always the same challenge with painting, looking for
something that is still missing.”
In 1979, he wrote: “It is cold, windy, and rainy. It is not easy
to work. The tourists are hiding the fishermen and their cases,
but I always try to find more evident perspectives.”
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