Exhibitions
On the sixth day, The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Genesis 2:7
Forbidden Fruit
Out of white Carrara marble the artist sculpts the body of a naked woman, her right hand holding out an apple.
Forbidden fruit. In this fourth exhibition at the Galerie Alice Mogabgab, Andrée Hochar Fattal presents thirteen sculptures conceived in clay and cast in bronze and marble. Fattal reveals a sensuous vision of the female body, drawing the torso, thighs and arms together into a singular dance.
In her seafront studio in the rue Pasteur overlooking the Beirut harbour, the artist works her clay. She kneads, shapes, carves and puts the finishing touches to her clay – this same clay with which Venus, Astarte, Beroe and other legendary women from our shores were created, symbols of beauty, fecundity, wisdom and knowledge; they haunt our cultural memory and perpetuate our heritage.
Living in Paris during the Lebanon War, sculpture becomes the artist’s only connection to her wounded and tormented birth place, and to the Mediterranean Sea. She creates rounded female bodies with curvy, smooth and generous forms, in tribute to her homeland women. They are titled Venus, Maternity, Fecundity, Mediterranean Sea, Oriental Dream…
At the end of the war, Andrée Hochar Fattal returns to Lebanon. For her it is first of all a return to her roots. The torsos, thighs or arms are given round forms that are cast in bronze, just like pebbles polished by the sea, bearing the patina of time. They carry within them a vivid force, injected by the artist, and like fruit bursting with sap they are ripening. These body-fruits blossom, open up and offer themselves in a delightful way, engaging with the light in a sensual dance.
