The Constant Traveller Chaouki Chamoun profile profile From the beginning of time, people of all creeds have affirmed that nature is greater than man. Myrna Ayad meets Lebanese artist Chaouki Chamoun at his Beirut studio and finds out just why he believes in this doctrine so passionately. I n the mid-1930s, an Oxford University professor conceived an entire world populated by good, evil, greatness and humility; this world became the epic The Lord of the Rings. Over half a century later, a New Zealand film director brought the sweeping vistas and overwhelming landscapes to life on screen. Fans of JRR Tolkien’s literary mag- num opus and Peter Jackson’s cinematographic tour de force can relate to the paintings of Chaouki Chamoun. Just as these storytelling masters presented the world – in prose and film – with a mythical earth based on mortal virtues, the perpetual search for truth and goodness and a profound respect for nature, so too does Lebanese-born Chamoun through his wistful paintings. Expansive terrains of vibrant oceanic vistas, arid desert landscapes and snow-blanketed winter panoramas fill his canvases. But there are people in his paintings too – diminutive figures, just big enough to decipher, lined along the bottom. “Tourists?” I ask. “I love the word ‘tourists’,” he smiles, “we are all tourists in this world and whether we like the term or not, we are in fact always wandering.” He picks up painting after painting but suddenly frowns. “I haven’t watched The Lord of the Rings,” he says, Opening spread: (Detail) Waiting in the Distant Blue. 2009. Acrylic on canvas. 200 x 200 cm. Facing page: Shadows of the Black Tent I. 2008. Acrylic on canvas. 232 x 232 cm. “We are all tourists in this world and whether we like the term or not, we are in fact always wandering.” The Sightseers Chamoun’s ‘tourists’ are dwarfed by the topogra- phy they stand against – an intentional metaphor on the artist’s part to illustrate man’s minuteness in the face of nature’s power. In this way, he offers man humility and holds nature in unequivocal esteem. “However important art may be in terms of technical purposes, end results and a thorough comprehension of materials, our main sources of inspiration are man and nature,” he says. In all of Chamoun’s paintings, his ‘tourists’ have their backs to see the bigger picture; for he can see them and what is facing them, whilst all they can see is the landscape before them. “But no,” he says, “I am among them; we are all looking in the same direction and they are a part of this vastness.” The idea to include the ‘tourists’ in his paint- ings came to him in the early 1990s when Leba- non was besieged by conflict, forcing its citizens to flee, many of whom, including Chamoun, stood in long lines at the port of Jounieh to board ships that would sail to Cyprus. “Standing in those a little frustrated. to the viewer, allowing him, outside the canvas, lines waiting, not knowing what was going to 100 101 profile profile “We’re always in waiting mode, we’re Previous spread: (Detail) The Night of the Big Fall. 2003. Acrylic on canvas. 145 x 154 cm. happen… those were the most contemplative moments of my life,” he says solemnly. Waiting in all journeys must involve a direction of travel and destination, Chamoun’s outlook is an optimistic always in transit… there is always Above: (Detail) Waiting for the Knight on a White Horse. 2009. Acrylic on canvas. 200 x 200 cm. the Distant Blue (from the Water Reflections series) seemingly nods to this event and yet, looking one. “I discovered that waiting is always positive,” he says, “there is always hope in waiting; even in hope in waiting; even in the worst at it, the vibrancy of the blue and its envelop- ment of the canvas is refreshing and buoyant. the worst cases, there is some hope in there.” This belief has meant that Chamoun has never artisti- cases, there is some hope in there.” Within the chaos and unpredictability of that pro- longed, collective experience, Chamoun arrived at a ‘universal order’: “we are all waiting,” he says cally expressed any injustice, frustration or misery in his work, preferring instead “to keep such feel- ings to myself”. Despite the many traumas that with conviction, “you waited for me to confirm the wars in Lebanon have caused him on per- this interview’s time, I waited for your arrival, you sonal, geographic, familial, economic and political are waiting to write this article… we’re always in levels, he vowed “never to let anyone live off any waiting mode, we’re always in transit.” And while pain in my work”. 104 105 profile profile “I didn’t feel like it was the first time I was [in the desert]. I really felt like I had returned.” The Art of the Arid Region colours, moving elements, even “pushing people Facing page: A Window to Tomorrow. 2008. Acrylic on canvas. 140 x 140 cm. Some of his works seem to depict a nomadic Ara- around on the canvas” are all part of a process that All images courtesy the artist. bian journey – a caravan crossing a barren, deso- begins with an intention but one which achieves late tract under a moonlit sky. Like The Night of the unexpected outcomes. “Something new is always Golden Moon (from the Desert Experiences series) happening,” he says, “which is why it’s important Chamoun’s desertscapes are his homage to the for artists to keep their eyes open at all times.” Arab world’s ancestors. “Our people came from there at a certain point in time,” he adds. His love A Curious Drive affair with the desert began early on, but only His first experimentations with oil happened in made its way onto his canvases with the onset 1959, when Chamoun, then 17, began teaching of the 1990 Gulf War’s Operation Desert Storm, drawing at a boarding school in Lebanon to help during which Chamoun was living in New York. finance his education. People in the town knew It would be almost two decades until he fulfilled him as an artist and one day, a man randomly his dream of visiting the desert, which he did in approached him to paint portraits of Lebanese 2007 through his participation in the Signs and political leaders. “He asked me to paint them in Calligraphy exhibition at the artparis-AbuDhabi oil,” he laughs, “I couldn’t afford oils, had never fair. During a dinner party hosted in a tent in the used them and didn’t even dare dream of them!” desert, he wandered around, overwhelmed. “It Chamoun was given a handsome down payment was my first real encounter with the desert and I – “more than my father’s monthly army retirement drawing, which would prove beneficial for him Unyielding Discovery much do you think your artwork will sell for?’” he was astounded to be there!” he exclaims, “not driv- salary!” – leaving him nervous but determined years later when he worked as a designer and Chamoun’s style initially veered towards the ab- laughs, “so I told them, ‘I don’t like to bury my head ing along the highway or seeing it from a plane, nonetheless. He bought a set of oils and canvases draughtsman for several leading American de- stract, occasionally tipping into Cubism. As he in anyone’s pocket and there’s an artwork on the but actually in it!” Enthused, Chamoun put down and in the two weeks until the man showed up sign firms. shows me painting after painting spanning over floor right now that’s waiting for me and that’s all his feelings in writing in the aim of preserving this with the photographs, Chamoun’s understand- Chamoun was then accepted at the Lebanese three decades in art, the development is clear – the I care about now’.” memory. “I didn’t feel like it was the first time I was ing of colour had changed forever. “I remember University, graduating with a BA in Fine Art with constant was nature, the style evolving. Another This is exactly what Chamoun is driven by: a there,” he says, “I really felt like I had returned.” He seeing colours in my dreams; I’d wake up at night honours in 1972 and was then awarded a schol- immutable is his indifference to gallery represen- relentless quest to journey to new inspirational scoops the air with his hands, “the feel of the sand, and mix the oils on my face to match the colour arship to Syracuse University to pursue his MFA, tation and making sales – “my interest is not to territories, whether by dreaming – “if we don’t the way it slipped through my fingers,” he pauses, of my face,” he says seriously, “and when I learnt graduating in 1975. By this time, he had been ex- paint and sell right away, that’s not something I dream, we die” – or by travelling in person. “I live “it was like water, it had body to it.” As he says this, how to mix, I was taken entirely and since then, hibiting regularly in New York and in 1979, com- respond to” – preferring instead to commit with with my eyes and I die with my eyes,” he smiles. Chamoun’s expression takes on a faraway gaze I have never taken a colour for granted.” The man pleted a PhD in Art and Aesthetics from New York one dealer (Beirut-based Amal Traboulsi). “I just Eight days after our interview, he sent me an and with his hand still raised in midair, his chis- arrived, preferring instead a portrait of himself, University, going on to teach at all three of his love having my work around me,” he says hon- email: “Man may reach the limits of the universe elled profile looks like it could belong in a Roman which upon completion, Chamoun gave him alma maters. He currently teaches drawing and estly, “and I love showing in Lebanon.” Aside from some day, but his imagination will never have lim- senate 2000 years ago. He seems timeless. along with all of the money, save what he had painting at the Lebanese American University – participating in numerous solo and group exhibi- its. I finished watching The Lord of the Rings and Sensory perceptions are a fundamental as- paid for the art materials. “I would love to get that a post he has held since 1997. It is precisely this tions worldwide (recently at Washington’s Ameri- also completed the painting you saw laying wet pect to Chamoun’s work. Just as he had held the painting back,” says Chamoun who has recently “exchange” which he enjoys most about teach- can University Museum through the exhibition on my studio floor. May God make dreaming, and desert sand, the media with which he chooses to started searching for this anonymous man. ing; it is a profession, he explains, which tells him Convergence: New Art from Lebanon – Canvas 6.3), the ability to realise our dreams, a lasting blessing paint remains a fascination, as does the contin- He studied drawing via correspondence with “how much more I know and how little I know”. Chamoun’s works are in international public and for us. A splendid journey.” ued novelty of its textural and colourful transfor- an institute in London for a year, contributed cari- His frowns again. “I don’t like not knowing things,” private collections and have appeared at Dubai mations. “The only thing that is accidental is what catures to some of Lebanon’s daily newspapers he says, “like I feel bad that I haven’t watched The Christie’s sales. “Auction representatives visited my For more information visit is happening with the material,” he says. Mixing and even took up evening classes in engineering Lord of the Rings.” studio to consign works and they asked me, ‘how www.chaoukichamoun.com 106 107
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