Aref el Rayess: An Artist from Lebanon 1928-2005

Discovering a major figure of the Lebanese cultural scene between the 1960s and 1980s. Wherever Aref el Rayess went, he would absorbe the culture and “spirit†of the time and place like a sponge, ingesting it, and making it his own. He would produce paintings with his distinct handwriting, which would nevertheless express the Zeitgeist of that society, and the specificities of the art scene of that period and location.

He was a traveler, an independent brain, breathing freedom into every work he produced. Freedom of thought, freedom of expression: whatever he felt within would radically change his painting style and subject. This very first extensive monography discloses his impressive, little explored as of yet, body of work.

It provides an overview of his complex chameleonic artistic practice between 1949 and 2005.