01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Jamil Molaeb's Jerusalem, with Footnotes #66

Jamil Molaeb

Jerusalem, c. 2021

Oil on canvas

75 by 55 cm. 29 1/2 by 21 1/2 in.

Private collection

Sold for 9,450 GBP in October 2022

The city of Jerusalem was a subject that Jamil Molaeb returned to over and over. In a succession of almost identical canvases, the artist repeated, with very slight variations of themes and colours, small architectural and figural elements inherent to the city whilst hinting at universal symbols. This work was painted as a bird’s eye view featuring the Dome of the Rock surrounded by houses, fruits, animals and the city’s dwellers, in a dense intersection of stone and nature. The brushwork is organized in layers derived from the artist’s preparatory studies, and from which emerge a clear structure in which both the sacred element of the city as well as its more mundane aspects are revealed, rendering it universal. More on this painting

Jamil Molaeb (1948) was born in Baissour, Lebanon. He started his artistic career in the seventies, after training under renowned artists such as Chafic Abboud and Paul Guiragossian at the Fine Arts Institute of the Lebanese University. In 1967, 18 years old Jamil Molaeb won the 3rd prize of sculpture at 7th Salon of the Sursock Museum.

Craving further discoveries and exposure to the world, he spent a year studying in Algeria and, in 1984, enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts program at New York’s Pratt Institute, to later obtain a doctorate in artistic education from Ohio State University.

Back in his native country in 1989, Molaeb started teaching art at the Lebanese University and the Lebanese American University of Beirut.

Since 1966 he has held different solo exhibitions in Lebanon, Algeria, France, Switzerland and the United States.

His work has been showcased in a number of Art Fairs: Art Abu-Dhabi, Beirut Art Fair, Art Dubai, Art14 London and La Biennale de Lyon.

Jamil Molaeb’s work has been exhibited at international museums such as the Gropius Bau Museum in Berlin, his paintings are acquired by public and private collections including The World Bank in Washington DC, the Institute de Monde Arabe in Paris and has been sold in international auctions. More on Jamil Molaeb

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

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