Shining on your days

AMINE EL BACHA

1932–2019 / Born in Beirut, Lebanon　

Amine El Bacha is one of the artists from the generation that influenced the artistic foundation of Lebanon in the late 20th century, and is considered as a “master of color.” In his late twenties, El Bacha studied in France with scholarship support from the French Embassy, and through the various experimental attempts he made during the time, he laid the foundation as an artist. After that, he was active in Italy and Spain for a long time. El Bacha places his aesthetic foundation as an artist in where he was born and raised, and shows the landscape and colors of his homeland, Lebanon, in his works.

The best feature of El Bacha’s works is the combination of tones that are full of lights and the sense of musical rhythm felt within them. Music plays an important role in his works, and it shows in his background. His uncle was a painter and composer, and his brother, who grew up with him, was also a musician and composer. Painting and music were natural to him from a very young age. To the extent where the artist himself said, “One can hear music while looking at my works,” he was always accompanied by music while working, and this is revealed in his works. For El Bacha, music handles color as a poet handles language, to allow the experimental abstractions to be harmonized in a balanced way, and to make familiar objects become visually new. Therefore, to him, music works as a tool to liberate visual senses, and has influenced the composition of multi-layered scenes on a canvas like the structure of melodies in songs.

For El Bacha, the artistic source is the scenery of everyday life. He captures people coming and going at outdoor cafes or rooftops in downtown Beirut with a keen observer’s eye, and uses those aspects of everyday life as artistic source. He portrays the countryside, nature, and urban landscapes in semiotic, and reflected not only visual but also musical sensibility, light, temperature, and climate in his works, trying to convey the essential characteristics of the subject beyond what is simply visible.