The ConsTanT Traveller Chaouki Chamoun 100 101 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, a little frustrated. 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 the viewer, allowing him, outside the canvas, 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 lines waiting, not knowing what was going to 104 105 happen... those were the most contemplative moments of my life,” he says solemnly. Waiting in the Distant Blue (from the Water Reflections series) seemingly nods to this event and yet, looking at it, the vibrancy of the blue and its envelop- ment of the canvas is refreshing and buoyant. Within the chaos and unpredictability of that pro- longed, collective experience, Chamoun arrived at a ‘universal order’: “we are all waiting,” he says with conviction, “you waited for me to confirm this interview’s time, i waited for your arrival, you are waiting to write this article... we’re always in waiting mode, we’re always in transit.” and while all journeys must involve a direction of travel and destination, Chamoun’s outlook is an optimistic one. “i discovered that waiting is always positive,” he says, “there is always hope in waiting; even in the worst cases, there is some hope in there.” This belief has meant that Chamoun has never artisti- cally expressed any injustice, frustration or misery in his work, preferring instead “to keep such feel- ings to myself”. Despite the many traumas that the wars in lebanon have caused him on per- sonal, geographic, familial, economic and political levels, he vowed “never to let anyone live off any pain in my work”. “We’re always in waiting mode, we’re always in transit... there is always hope in waiting; even in the worst cases, there is some hope in there.” Previous spread: (Detail) The Night of the Big Fall . 2003. Acrylic on canvas. 145 x 154 cm. Above: (Detail) Waiting for the Knight on a White Horse . 2009. Acrylic on canvas. 200 x 200 cm. profile profile 106 107 drawing, which would prove beneficial for him years later when he worked as a designer and draughtsman for several leading american de- sign firms. Chamoun was then accepted at the lebanese university, graduating with a Ba in fine art with honours in 1972 and was then awarded a schol- arship to Syracuse university to pursue his mfa, graduating in 1975. By this time, he had been ex- hibiting regularly in new York and in 1979, com- pleted a phD in art and aesthetics from new York university, going on to teach at all three of his alma maters. he currently teaches drawing and painting at the lebanese american university – a post he has held since 1997. it is precisely this “exchange” which he enjoys most about teach- ing; it is a profession, he explains, which tells him “how much more i know and how little i know”. his frowns again. “i don’t like not knowing things,” he says, “like i feel bad that i haven’t watched The Lord of the Rings .” unYielDing DiSCoverY Chamoun’s style initially veered towards the ab- stract, occasionally tipping into Cubism. as he shows me painting after painting spanning over three decades in art, the development is clear – the constant was nature, the style evolving. another immutable is his indifference to gallery represen- tation and making sales – “my interest is not to paint and sell right away, that’s not something i respond to” – preferring instead to commit with one dealer (Beirut-based amal Traboulsi). “i just love having my work around me,” he says hon- estly, “and i love showing in lebanon.” aside from participating in numerous solo and group exhibi- tions worldwide (recently at Washington’s ameri- can university museum through the exhibition Convergence: New Art from Lebanon – Canvas 6.3), Chamoun’s works are in international public and private collections and have appeared at Dubai Christie’s sales. “auction representatives visited my studio to consign works and they asked me, ‘how much do you think your artwork will sell for?’” he laughs, “so i told them, ‘i don’t like to bury my head in anyone’s pocket and there’s an artwork on the floor right now that’s waiting for me and that’s all i care about now’.” This is exactly what Chamoun is driven by: a relentless quest to journey to new inspirational territories, whether by dreaming – “if we don’t dream, we die” – or by travelling in person. “i live with my eyes and i die with my eyes,” he smiles. eight days after our interview, he sent me an email: “man may reach the limits of the universe some day, but his imagination will never have lim- its. i finished watching The Lord of the Rings and also completed the painting you saw laying wet on my studio floor. may god make dreaming, and the ability to realise our dreams, a lasting blessing for us. a splendid journey.” for more information visit www.chaoukichamoun.com The arT of The ariD region Some of his works seem to depict a nomadic ara- bian journey – a caravan crossing a barren, deso- late tract under a moonlit sky. like The Night of the Golden Moon (from the Desert Experiences series) Chamoun’s desertscapes are his homage to the arab world’s ancestors. “our people came from there at a certain point in time,” he adds. his love affair with the desert began early on, but only made its way onto his canvases with the onset of the 1990 gulf War’s operation Desert Storm, during which Chamoun was living in new York. it would be almost two decades until he fulfilled his dream of visiting the desert, which he did in 2007 through his participation in the Signs and Calligraphy exhibition at the artparis-abuDhabi fair. During a dinner party hosted in a tent in the desert, he wandered around, overwhelmed. “it was my first real encounter with the desert and i was astounded to be there!” he exclaims, “not driv- ing along the highway or seeing it from a plane, but actually in it!” enthused, Chamoun put down his feelings in writing in the aim of preserving this memory. “i didn’t feel like it was the first time i was there,” he says, “i really felt like i had returned.” he scoops the air with his hands, “the feel of the sand, the way it slipped through my fingers,” he pauses, “it was like water, it had body to it.” as he says this, Chamoun’s expression takes on a faraway gaze and with his hand still raised in midair, his chis- elled profile looks like it could belong in a roman senate 2000 years ago. he seems timeless. Sensory perceptions are a fundamental as- pect to Chamoun’s work. Just as he had held the desert sand, the media with which he chooses to paint remains a fascination, as does the contin- ued novelty of its textural and colourful transfor- mations. “The only thing that is accidental is what is happening with the material,” he says. mixing colours, moving elements, even “pushing people around on the canvas” are all part of a process that begins with an intention but one which achieves unexpected outcomes. “Something new is always happening,” he says, “which is why it’s important for artists to keep their eyes open at all times.” a CuriouS Drive his first experimentations with oil happened in 1959, when Chamoun, then 17, began teaching drawing at a boarding school in lebanon to help finance his education. people in the town knew him as an artist and one day, a man randomly approached him to paint portraits of lebanese political leaders. “he asked me to paint them in oil,” he laughs, “i couldn’t afford oils, had never used them and didn’t even dare dream of them!” Chamoun was given a handsome down payment – “more than my father’s monthly army retirement salary!” – leaving him nervous but determined nonetheless. he bought a set of oils and canvases and in the two weeks until the man showed up with the photographs, Chamoun’s understand- ing of colour had changed forever. “i remember seeing colours in my dreams; i’d wake up at night and mix the oils on my face to match the colour of my face,” he says seriously, “and when i learnt how to mix, i was taken entirely and since then, i have never taken a colour for granted.” The man arrived, preferring instead a portrait of himself, which upon completion, Chamoun gave him along with all of the money, save what he had paid for the art materials. “i would love to get that painting back,” says Chamoun who has recently started searching for this anonymous man. he studied drawing via correspondence with an institute in london for a year, contributed cari- catures to some of lebanon’s daily newspapers and even took up evening classes in engineering “I didn’t feel like it was the first time I was [in the desert]. I really felt like I had returned.” profile profile Facing page: A Window to Tomorrow. 2008. Acrylic on canvas. 140 x 140 cm. All images courtesy the artist.