Henry Jabbour

Henry Jabbour This Life to Me UNIONgallery 4 Drumsheugh Place Edinburgh EH3 7PT t. 0131-225 8779 w. www.uniongallery.co.uk Twitter. @UNIONgallery1 Facebook. Union.Gallery.Edinburgh Henry Jabbour This Life to Me 03.03.17 - 01.04.17 UNIONgallery 'Who lifteth up the spirit, Say, who is he?' 'Who gave in the beginning This life to me.’ Jalal El-Din Rumi (1207 -1273) This Life to Me When Henry Jabbour entered Leith School of Art in 2005 to take an evening class in drawing and painting, in order to gain some respite from a busy life working as a senior scientist with the Medical Research Council, he could not have imagined the journey that lay before him. Henry’s engagement with art soon took hold and deepened to the point where he gave up his career to focus on painting, joining the Painting Course at Leith School of Art. After two years of intensive study, Henry was ready for post graduate work at the New York Academy of Art and has since been working as an artist full-time, from his garden studio in Cambridge. It is reasonable to imagine that an extensive training in science and post graduate art studies at New York’s traditional academy might lead to an objective approach to looking, underpinned by a rationalist philosophy. Not so Henry Jabbour, whose painting is made from a reaction to his subject matter rather than a mere depiction. It is a reaction that is raw and strongly felt, a rich sensibility that is then immersed in the paint, the printmaker’s ink, oil pastel and drawing materials. The main subject of the work in this exhibition is a single figure; male and female, young and old. The beautiful paintings of the choir boy of St John’s College (Cambridge) are a homage to the great Chaim Soutine and they proclaim the lessons learned in making colour an expressive force and drawing out the character of the person with a dextrous application of the unwieldy medium of oil paint. The expressive [ 1 ] use of colour is made from a gradual building up of layers that concentrate the feeling Henry has for his subjects, seen particularly in the paintings of figures with flowers. In both paintings and prints the natural and visceral qualities of the materials that have made them are allowed space to be themselves. This is not an oversight or a desire for superficial effects but rather each scratch, drip, blot and splatter contributes to creating the character of each piece and of the person drawn or painted. The academic tradition has been learned and absorbed but it is held lightly so that each artwork is not stilted by technique and a depth of character is clearly experienced, radiating life. The west coast American artist, Richard Diebenkorn, said: “It may seem momentarily magical that shapes, colours and variously applied paint can have the power autonomously that they do but for power and magic man’s painted image is supreme”. It is the figure and the human condition that drives the work of Henry Jabbour. Such works continue to reward us when we look and look again, in order to appreciate the wonder this artist has for life and his fellow human beings, reaching an accord across seven centuries with the mystic Sufi poet Rumi who finishes a poem on this subject with the words ‘This life to me’. Philip Archer Principal, Leith School of Art [ 2 ] Morning Ritual III Oil on Linen, 40 x 45 cm, 2016 Foreword Henry Jabbour has been a real discovery for me. The figures in his paintings and lithographs strain between individuality and universality, and in the process become truly compelling. In some, the faces tell you a lot about the person being portrayed. In others, though, the faces merge into abstraction and it's the gesture, the position, the suggestion of movement or stasis, the way the figure stands or sits, that tells you everything you need to know - not just about the person depicted, but about the wider range of humanity beyond. These paintings and lithographs tell us much about ageing, about determination and stoicism, about aloneness and about our human relationship with the world that surrounds us. They have a strange way of drawing us in to our own imagination. In so doing they are both disturbing and affirmative. And they are definitely worth a second and a third and a fourth look. Lord Chris Smith Chairman of The Art Fund [ 3 ] [ 4 ] Man with Dark Ear (two colours) Lithograph edition of 15 Image size: 31 by 37 cm Paper size: 42 by 51 cm [ 5 ] Seated Man II Oil on Linen, 90.5 x 105 cm, 2016 [ 6 ] Red Heads (Diptych) Oil and Oil Pastel on Board, 12.5 x 18 cm each panel, 2016 [ 7 ] Girl Holding Cup Oil on Linen, 30 x 30.5 cm, 2016 [ 8 ] Woman with Flowers II Oil on Linen, 76 x 81.5 cm, 2016 [ 9 ] Seated Man with Dog Oil on Linen, 76 x 81.5 cm, 2016 [ 10 ] Woman in Yellow Top Holding Cup Oil on Linen, 55 x 60.5cm, 2016 [ 11 ] The Green Cup Oil on Linen, 55 x 60.5 cm, 2016 [ 12 ] College Porter I Oil on Linen, 30 x 30 cm, 2016 [ 13 ] Seated Woman Lithograph edition of 15 Image size: 28 by 33 cm Paper size: 38 by 45 cm [ 14 ] Choir Boy – Homage to Soutine I Oil on Linen, 50.5 x 65 cm, 2016 [ 15 ] Choir Boy – Homage to Soutine II Oil on Linen, 50.5 x 65 cm, 2016 [ 16 ] College Porter II Oil on Linen, 33 x 33 cm, 2016 [ 17 ] Man with Walking Stick (Homage to Oliveira) Oil on Linen, 90.5 x 105 cm, 2016 [ 18 ] Veronica Seated Lithograph edition of 15 Image size: 29 by 32 cm Paper size: 38 by 44 cm [ 19 ] Threshold Lithograph edition of 15 Image size: 39 by 52 cm Paper size: 51 by 67 cm [ 20 ] Woman in Landscape Oil on Linen, 76 x 81.5 cm, 2016 [ 21 ] Woman with Flowers III Oil on Linen, 55 by 60 cm, 2016 [ 22 ] Man with Walking Stick 2 (two colours) Lithograph edition of 15 Image Size: 40 by 55 cm Paper Size: 52 by 69 cm [ 23 ] Seated Man 2 Lithograph edition of 15 Image size: 43 by 54 cm Paper size: 52 by 70 cm [ 24 ] Choir Boy III Oil on Linen, 30 x 30 cm, 2016 [ 25 ] Seated Woman II Oil on Linen, 55 x 60 cm, 2016 [ 26 ] Shibboleth (two colours) Lithograph edition of 15 Image size: 40 by 50 cm Paper size: 50 by 66 cm [ 27 ] Shibboleth II (two colours) Lithograph edition of 15 Image Size: 43 by 55 cm Paper Size: 51 by 68 cm [ 28 ] Man with Arms Crossed Oil on Linen, 40.5 x 45 cm, 2016 [ 29 ] Seated Man – Orange Wall Oil on Linen, 55 by 60.5 cm, 2016 [ 30 ] College Porter III Oil on Linen, 33 by 33 cm, 2016 [ 31 ] Woman with Flowers Oil on Linen, 90.5 x 105 cm, 2016 [ 32 ] Morning Ritual I Oil on Linen, 40 x 45 cm, 2016 [ 33 ] Woman in Landscape III Oil on Linen, 55 x 60 cm, 2016 [ 34 ] Yellow Flowers Oil on Linen, 76 x 82 cm, 2017 Artist Statement My current body of work focuses on the human figure. I am interested in the emotive qualities of body gesture, colour and mark making. My work is a quest to subvert the specific in search for the universal. Each piece is a search beyond mere appearance, attempting to connect the vulnerability, fragility and impermanence of the individual with a sense of common and shared humanity. My work-making process embraces both the familiar and the unexpected, and combines observation, memory and intuition. My aim is that each piece develops a visual presence that is independent of me, or my original artistic intentions, so that the viewer can continue the search that I have initiated. I work primarily in oils but also make unique works on paper using monotype and other print media. [ 35 ] Henry Jabbour Exhibitions and Awards Art Education Pastel Society Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London • Master of Fine Arts (Painting and Printmaking), New York Academy of Art Royal Society of British Artists, Mall Galleries, 2013-2015 London • Diploma in Drawing and Painting, Leith School of Art 2010-2013 2016 Flowers Gallery, Cork Street, London, “Small is Beautiful” exhibition Science Education Fly 2016, Visual Arts Scotland, The Royal • PhD Animal Physiology, The University of Scottish Academy Building, Edinburgh Sydney 1989 The Royal West England Academy, 164th • Bachelor of Science (Distinction), The Annual Exhibition, Bristol [ 36 ] American University of Beirut 1982 Lime Tree Gallery, Summer Exhibition, Bristol Solo Exhibitions Converge 2016, Visual Arts Scotland, The Royal Scottish Academy Building, Edinburgh 2017 Markings, Galerie Alice Mogabgab, Beirut, Cannon Gallery of Art, Western Oregon Lebanon University, Oregon (USA), Pushing the Edge This Life to Me, Union Gallery, Edinburgh Mall Galleries, Pastel Society Annual Empreintes, La Reine Blanche Scene des Arts et Exhibition, London des Sciences, Paris Mall Galleries, Royal Society of British Artists, London Group Exhibitions 2017 2015 Work on Paper Art Fair, Lime Tree Gallery, Lime Tree Gallery, Christmas Exhibition, Long Royal Geographical Society, London Melford, Suffolk The Royal West England Academy, 163rd Annual Media Coverage Exhibition, Bristol Review of the solo show at Galerie Alice Visual Arts Scotland Annual Exhibition, The Mogabgab in L’Orient Le Jour (the leading Royal Scottish Academy Building, Edinburgh French speaking newspaper in Lebanon) https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/103348 New Work - New York, 1st Biennial Survey by all 8/quand-le-portrait-nest-plus-visage.html eleven New York City based MFA programmes, Williamsburg, New York Review of the solo show at Galerie Alice Mogabgab in Annahar Newspaper (the leading TriBeCa Ball, New York Academy of Art, New York Arabic speaking newspaper in Lebanon) 2014 http://newspaper.annahar.com/article/53016 -سيلأ-يريلاغ-يف-روبج-يرنه-ضرعمCollective Ground, Patriothall Gallery, Edinburgh 8- زغللا-ءاشغ-فلخ-ارعاش-هجولا-بغبغم Deck the Walls, Wilkinson Gallery, New York Academy of Art,

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