Hussein Madi.. The painting is another life
The departure of Hussein Madi is, above all, the departure of a friend. The passage to his art and to his person was not easy, but reaching it is an event in itself, and it remains that way. I was the writer next to him, and he was the artist next to me, and this partnership could become a moment in my life, and perhaps in his life. So, losing him is a loss of everything that art means to me.
Hussein Madi was not to me the person, as much as he was the artist, and it is more likely that the artist is what remains of him. The artist is present as a painting and as a sculpture, and is present behind the person and perhaps next to him, but he may also be less like him, and may even be, in a way, unlike him. Most likely, Hussein Madi was hidden in his painting and sculpture, which were always another life, but were always his hidden and implicit person.
Anyone walking around his home in Beirut will always come across these works that do not immediately welcome him. They often do not give a gift to anyone, they do not play, they do not sing, they do not go along, and they do not give themselves easily. They are events on the wall. They are integrated to the extent that they do not need an observer or a spectator. They are integrated to the extent that they are closer to silence, closer to distancing themselves, and to a kind of unity and independence. But as you walk among them, you feel that in its self-sufficiency, in its rigor, in its completeness, in this independence from the spectator, it possesses an existence that is similar to his existence, but rather it possesses a life in opposition to his life, and a presence in confrontation with his presence.
He may be one of the last in his generation, but he is unique among them
She does not gossip, does not gossip, and does not share herself and her story with him. But with this unity and this sufficiency, it is adjacent, confronted, and even befriended. In this way, you can experience the artist through his painting. You can even talk to him, talk to him, and hear from him through it as well. More than that, you can conjure stories from these works, and feel what they hold, and Hussein Madi’s paintings and sculptures are first and foremost what they hold and what they contain, without this being secret and hidden.
“Garden of Eden”, lithograph, 70 x 100 cm (2003)
If there is a feature of Madi’s painting and his sculpture, it is frankness, it is clarity, and it is above all the core and depth, it is the core of things, its organic basis, and its final word. His paintings and sculptures do not contain mysteries and hidden things, yet meeting them adds to the recipient, enriches the recipient, as they have a complete presence in front of him, they have an abundant presence. We are not surprised if this decoration gives us energy to play. We are not surprised if we find in this alphabet, with its sharp, cutting, and serrated alphabet, which may be derived from cuneiform without being it, if we find in it what resembles drama and conflict, and even what resembles play.
Painting is thus a game for the spectator. The painting gives him a story that may be his own. The women that Hussein Madi builds from what appears to be a single line. With this line, they convey lust and desire. Thus, they involve the manufacture of lust, of which they are made. They do not shout it, nor does it flow or emanate from them. It is the line from which they are made, the circles, angles, semi-circles and curves from which they are made, it is their overwhelming, full and complete existence, the singularity from which they are made.
“Pink Vase”, mixed materials on canvas, 51 x 51 cm (2008)
The woman here is alone but out of desire, as silent as she is active. A past painting or sculpture may be reduced to the main and the organic, to the foundation. However, they are drawn by the nerve within them. Rather, they are this nerve that turns them into an independent event. They are this nerve that does not chatter or raise its voice, as much as it grows and transmits. They do not say desire as much as they are desire itself. The animals and flowers of the past may also be this single entity, it is the foundation and the organic, it is its movement and its simple and physical reality.
Hussein Madi may be one of the last of his generation, but he is unique among them. Rather, he is among a few of them who created a picture and a special world for themselves. Madi’s painting is not a digression from another painting in Western art. Also, this painting is not the singing and elegance that characterize many paintings, but rather they print a large aspect, perhaps the largest, of Lebanese art at that time. Hussein Madi’s painting is not related to the salon art that prevailed at that time. It is not sweet, sugary, or singing. Rather, its jagged lettering is nothing but ciphers and cruelty, only observed violence present in silence. We do not know when it turns into movement, and what its material itself and its lines look like in return to… The origin, to the primary desire and longing. In this way, we can understand Hussein Madi’s exit and solitude, which was truly a special painting, and even a world.
* My Lebanese poet
