By Marc Tarazi
The late Lebanese geometric abstract artist, Gebran Tarazi (1944-2010), is a brilliant name in the Arab geometric artistic innovation. He spent his life in the Kingdom of Morocco and Beirut practising traditional Arab arts. He achieved dozens of artistic works. In 1988, he devoted himself to an enlightening artistic experience that spanned fifteen years.
This pioneering artist produced geometric drawings, planning and organising them on hundreds of sketches and maps before transforming and applying them to colourful paintings. As for coordinating the colours, this took a long time of contemplation, reconsideration, care, concentration and experimentation. It was an almost hysterical and mad process that challenged patience and defied time from morning to midnight every day for 15 years. Even standing for long hours made his feet ache.
All this in order to produce a work of art worthy of his name and status. In fact, each painting covers dozens of colour experiences, which means that a single painting can conceal 30 paintings or colour experiences, completed after several months of hard work. He believed in the ability of Levantine art to adopt modern art, without borrowing the experiences or methods of international artists.
This courage in initiating an artistic school and a school of modern Arab art spared Gebran Tarazi the need to praise or glorify the heritage of his ancestors in the traditional Levantine Arab arts. Indeed, the importance of his creativity has become more significant than belonging to the Tarazi family school of art, which roots go back to the Arab Golden Age. Indeed, he loved modernity, but not the one imported from the West; however, a modernity that is authentic to us, the Orientals.
The accuracy and seriousness of this message have made it difficult to convey the meaning of his artistic achievements, have confused people and have made the process of classifying his work within the framework of modern Arab art an impossible one that may take several decades to reach its full extent. He aims to be universal, not in the sense of international renown, but rather in the fact that he addresses and communicates with the whole world through a modern Arab message.
The essential point is not what has been achieved, but rather the artistic and philosophical approach that defies the artistic community, defies the past and defies the future in search of depth. In fact, Gebran Tarazi overturned artistic and literary hypocrisy and faced it head on, believing in what he was offering, defying pain, and knowing that after his death, people would understand what he had exposed, no matter how difficult it was during his lifetime, preferring to give rather than receive. Furthermore, his definition of the meaning of the Orient, which can include India according to his vision, is not to expand his geographical area in an unusual way, but the artistic Orient he speaks of is an alternative to the artistic West. In other words, he has transcended his dependence on both the past and on Western schools of art.
We can confirm that Gebran Tarazi has not combined various arts, but has brought originality and newness. In addition, the process does not stop there, but can inspire a young Arab generation to take advantage of this experience, i.e. to question the depth of the meaning of art, that revolves around method, depth and philosophy, which is more important than the answer represented by his paintings. As a result, the meaning of his paintings has escaped many people. As for the very few, they have supported him in his experience and the pain he has endured in this ongoing artistic endeavour.
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