Biography
Asaad Arabi was born in Damascus to a Lebanese father and a Syrian mother. His father worked in transportation between Syria and Lebanon, which allowed him to visit Lebanon as a child and spend time in Sidon, where his family originated. Asaad spent most of his childhood in the Damascene house of his maternal grandmother, Khairiya Al-Bahlol, who was a Sufi following the school of the Islamic scholar Muhyi Al-Din Ibn Arabi (1165 –1240). His grandmother preserved books, including a manuscript on war and chivalry inherited from her Turkish grandfather. It contained original miniature drawings, which Asaad Arabi believes date back to the Mamluk era. His exploration of these drawings greatly influenced the beginning of his artistic career and shaped his later artistic vision, particularly in perspective and the directions of figures in painting.
Asaad began drawing at 15 and studied art in high school under the artist Nazem Al-Jaafari (1918–2015). In 1962, he joined the recently established Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus (founded as the Institute of Fine Arts in 1959, an educational institution affiliated with the unity government between Syria and Egypt (1958–1961) and specialised in the painting department. Among his teachers were Mahmoud Hammad (1923–1988) and the Italian Guido La Regina (1909–1995), the most prominent professors who encouraged abstraction during that period. Asaad graduated in 1966 with a project depicting the houses, neighbourhoods, women, and animals of Damascus. In this work, he also critiqued the project of the French architect Michel Ecochard (1905–1985), who sought to modify the architecture of the old city of Damascus in the 1930s under the French mandate.
Asaad’s paintings were considered pioneering in expressionism in Syria, and he earned a perfect score of 100 out of 100—the only time in the history of the Faculty of Fine Arts to date. Immediately after graduating, he was appointed a teacher in 1967 alongside his former professors. During this period, he shared teaching duties with Fateh Moudarres (1922–1999).
In 1969, Asaad Arabi co-founded Jama’at Al A’shra (Group of Ten) with fellow artists. Dialogues among the group aimed to inspire and advance the work of plastic artists. The group included Abdelkader Arnaout (1936–1992), Asaad Arabi (1941–), Ghassan Sibai (1939–2015), Naim Ismail (1930–1979), Ghiath Al-Akhras (1937–), Ahmad Draq Al-Sabai (1935–1987), Nazir Nabaa (1938–2016), Elias Zayat (1935–2022), Nashat Al-Zoubi (1939–), and Khuzaimah Alwani (1934–). It was later joined by Abdullah Murad (1944–) and Monther Kamnakhsh (1935–2019)—the group’s artistic orientations combined expressionism and lyrical abstraction. Jama’at Al A’shra held several exhibitions in Damascus, and some of its members showcased their works at Gallery One in Beirut in 1970.
In 1972, Asaad held his first solo exhibition in Beirut at Gallery One. In 1973, he collaborated with the Syrian short story writer Zakaria Tamer (1931–) to produce a children’s book titled The Arab Sun, which included Tamer’s texts and Arabi’s drawings. This was followed by several similar collaborations.
In 1975, Arabi stopped teaching and moved to Paris. There, he enrolled at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, graduating in 1983. He then pursued theoretical academic studies at the Sorbonne University, specialising in aesthetics. He initially studied philosophy and music to prepare for his research on the relationship between music and painting. In 1987, he obtained a Doctorat d’État (a French doctoral degree system in three cycles). During his years in Paris, Arabi’s intellectual activity was prolific. He wrote numerous articles for Arab magazines and newspapers, introduced dozens of Arab artists in exhibition catalogues, and lectured at conferences, particularly on Islamic art and miniatures.
Arabi did not return to exhibit in the Arab world until 1993 when he held an exhibition at Gallery 50x70. He considered this exhibition pivotal in his career following a long absence from Arab galleries. In 1997, he won the Grand Prize in Art Criticism at the Sharjah Biennial and published his book Al Musawer fi Miraat Al Naqed (The Painter in the Critic’s Mirror). His exhibitions in the Arab world continued, and in 2007, he began collaborating with the Ayyam Gallery. This collaboration led to exhibitions in Damascus, Beirut, Cairo, Dubai, and Jeddah.
Throughout his career, Asaad Arabi has produced hundreds of paintings and critical articles for newspapers such as As-Safir and Al-Hayat. He is regarded as one of the most prominent art writers in the Arab world. His published works include Sadmat Al Hadatha fi Al Lawha Al Arabiya (The Shock of Modernity in Arab Painting), published in 2010 by Ninawa Editions, and Shahadat Al Lawha fi Nisf Qarn (The Painting’s Testimony in Half a Century), published in 2008 by Ayyam Gallery.
Arabi currently lives and works in Paris.
