Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from the Mokbel collection, Beirut

Note:
This lot was featured in a collage piece exhibited in the Aref El Rayess Retrospective at the Sharjah Museum in 2022


"I was born in Beirut in 1979, but because of the war, we moved to Jeddah in the early 1980s. Those days weren't great. Dad painted most of the time and was barely home, working long hours under the sun. He would take me for little drives around town. He was always exhausted and would nap in the afternoon. He had a studio at home and I remember paint all over the house. He was very messy; all he cared about was creating art. He would give me little canvases and allow me to explore on my own. I later found that he had saved those paintings. I still remember the smells in his studio and his desert series as it was being created." - Hala Rayess, quoted in Rewind, Art Dubai, 2018

Aref Rayess was a Lebanese painter, sculptor, and thinker who made a notable impact on the development of modern art in Lebanon. Born in Aley, Mount Lebanon, in 1928, he began drawing and painting at the young age of eleven. A nomadic artist who travelled across Africa, Europe, North America, and the Gulf, he absorbed influences from his journeys and developed a distinctive style without receiving formal art training. Despite being self-taught, he worked alongside Nicolas Nammar to establish the Institute of Fine Arts at the Lebanese University in 1963 and taught there from 1966 to 1980. In 1969, he was elected chairman of the Lebanese Association of Artists and Sculptors and remained in that role until 1977. Rayess was not only a versatile painter, sculptor, and illustrator but also a thoughtful intellectual and perceptive observer. His philosophy was shaped by the Druze doctrine and its mystical teachings, which led him to believe in the deep connection between the universe, humanity, and time. His art often explored themes of human nature, identity, and the environment, while criticizing injustice, materialism, and shallow forms of nationalism in the Global South.