Alfred Basbous
Untitled
1997

About the Item

Sculptor Alfred Basbous (1924 - 2006) was born in Rachana, Lebanon. His works express a lifelong exploration of the human form and its abstract properties. Throughout his life, Basbous won many awards including the Prix de l'Orient in Beirut in 1963 and the prize for the Alexandria Biennale in 1974. Upon his death, the President of the Lebanese Republic awarded him the Medal of the Lebanese Order of Merit in Gold. A national stamp of Alfred Basbous and his two brothers Michel and Youssef, also sculptors, was released in 2011 by the Lebanese State as a tribute to their contribution to Lebanese culture. The works of Alfred Basbous are part of the permanent collection of the Alfred Basbous Foundation in Rachana, Lebanon and are featured in many private and public collections, including the Musée Rodin, Paris, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, the Hakone Open-Air Museum in Japan and the Modern and Contemporary Art Museum (MACAM) in Lebanon, among others. His monumental works are present in the public areas of Beirut and many other Lebanese cities. At the start of his artistic career, Basbous took inspiration from elements in Greek mythology and ancient Phoenician sculpture. In 1961 Basbous received a scholarship from the French government to become a pupil at L'École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. This period was to have a lasting influence on his work. Having lived and studied in France in his early years, he returned to his hometown of Rachana near Beirut. In 1994, Basbous opened a sculpture park which was designated a UNESCO site in 1997. The open-air gallery and the rolling, dipping character of the Rachana landscape was hugely influential to Basbous’ creative output. He held annual sculpture symposiums until 2004, whereby he invited sculptors from around the world to create site-specific work thus creating a center for sculpture

Creator:

Alfred Basbous (1924 - 2006, Lebanese)

Creation Year:

1997

Dimensions:

Height: 13 in (33 cm)Width: 7.88 in (20 cm)Depth: 1.97 in (5 cm)

Medium:

Bronze

Period:

1990-1999

Condition:

Gallery Location: