Aref Rayess

Aref El Rayess (or Aref Rayess) (25 October 1928 – 27 January 2005) was a Lebanese painter and sculptor.

Born in Beirut, Aref Rayess started his career as a self-taught artist exhibiting for the first time in 1948.

He lived in Africa for many years during which he traveled between Senegal and Paris.

In Paris, he joined the studios of Fernand Léger, André Lhote, Marcel Marceau and Ossip Zadkine while studying at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière.

These include: the Lebanese Ministry of National Education Award for the 1955 spring exhibition, the Unesco Prize for the Spring Salon of 1957, the Ministry of Public Works First and Second Prize for Sculpture (1963), the Sursock Museum Grand Prix de Sculpture (1965–66) for different works exhibited and their First Prize for Sculpture (1966–67) as well as the Ministry of Tourism First and Second Prizes (1966).

President of the Lebanese Artists Association – Painters and Sculptors, El Rayess taught for many years at the Lebanese University and the American Lebanese University.

With the outbreak of the civil war in Lebanon, he relocated to Saudi Arabia and was appointed as the city of Jeddah's art consultant for many years.

He had been commissioned by the Saudi Arabian government to produce several sculptures.

One of the most outstanding is that of the stylized name of Allah.

Designed by him and built in Italy from aluminum, it stands twenty seven meters high in Palestine Square in Jeddah.

Among the artist's most recent works is a series of oil paintings capturing the nature and feeling of the Arabian desert.

In 1957, he returned to Lebanon, but left again for Florence in 1959 with a scholarship from the Italian government.

Internationally, his Individual exhibitions include: the Poliani Gallery, Rome (1959); Numero Gallery, Florence (1959); D'Arcy Gallery, New York; Excelsior Gallery, Mexico (1964); the Rodin Museum, Paris (1966); a retrospective of his works, 1957–1968, at the National Museum of Damascus (1969); Ornina Gallery, Damascus (1974), Gallery Rasim, Algeria (1976) and in Venezuela.

He was commissioned by the Lebanese government to design and execute a tapestry presented to the Unesco centre in Paris.

The Lebanese government also requested him to create two sculptures to represent Lebanon at the World Fair in New York.

Aref El Rayess won several awards in Lebanon.

From 1960 to 1963, he lived in Rome where he went on studying and exhibiting.

Rayess participated in many group shows including the biennales of São Paulo (1960) and Bagdad (1974); the Unesco exhibition in Montreal (1978); the Mall Galleries, London (1986) and the Salons of the Sursock Museum, Beirut (1961, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968).

He has held more than fifteen solo shows in Lebanon.

In the 1960s his painting evolved around Man and the Third World and in the early 1970s, he unexpectedly presented an exhibition related to whorehouses off Martyrs' Square, Beirut.

With the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War, El Rayess was one of the artists who interpreted the tragic events in art.

In 1963, he returned to Lebanon.

Staying in Algiers, he produced in 1976 a series of etchings entitled The Road to Peace.

2001 – A Dedication to his daughter "Hodourak Fi Ghiyab Al Thol" (Your presence in the absence of the shadow) Publishing house and ISBN not available.

2003 – "Al Ayyām Al Ramādīyah: Alwān, Aḥruf, Suwar" (The Gray Days: Colors, Letters, Pictures) Riad El Rayess Books – ISBN 9953211426 ISBN 9789953211428

2004 – "Al Layl Al Tṭawīl Wa’al Kalimah" (The Long Night and The Word) OCLC Number: 64576609

The artist died in January 2005.

Aref El Rayess was a prolific artist, mainly known as a painter, he also practiced etching, sculpture and tapestry.

One of his tapestries, The Signs of Cadmus, is part of the collection of the Unesco Palace in Paris.

His work is widely based on the human being and its relationship to nature and history, stating that "Man is a unity that embodies both the means and the goals...".

In October 2007, Labyrinths of the Millenium was proposed at $30,000 – $35,000 and hammered at $37,000.

One year later, H. T. M. (Human, Time and Machine) was offered for $60,000 – $80,000 and was sold at $62,500.

Most of the book can be found with his daughter Hala Aref El Rayess, and a few at "RectoVerso" a library dedicated to art in Lebanon.

2012 – http://www.beirutexhibitioncenter.com/exhibitions/art-lebanon ISBN 978-9953-0-2420-2

This work gave its name to an exhibition Saleh Barakat curated in 2009 at the Beirut Art Center, encompassing Lebanese visual arts between 1975 and 1991.

Apart from the etching series, oil paintings depicting the horror of war were featured in the exhibition.

In these troubled times, El Rayess showed political involvement in creating a poster commemorating the assassination of the Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt.

Aref El Rayess also developed a practice of abstract sculpture.

He was commissioned monumental works for the city of Jeddah, including a piece named "Swords of God (Soyuf Allah)".

Paintings by El Rayess are relatively few in the auction market.