Twelve Seasons Exhibition

The retrospective showcases Gebran Tarazi’s work from the artisanal to the more experimental: chests, mirrors, literature, drawings and paintings. The most emblematic of his oeuvre, his paintings on canvas and on wood, are grouped under twelve series, each a “season” exploring geometrical, optical and chromatic variations on a basic square unit. The variations are produced through the motif of the Qayem-Nayem – two vertical rectangles and two horizontal ones, articulated with right angles which wrap around a central square and are repeated endlessly. 

Gebran Tarazi was a purveyor of the counter-history of ornament. To him, ornament was neither cosmetic, nor supplementary; it provided the basis for a vernacular language rooted in an oriental modernism, and one which was imagined by the orient itself. The opening night will coincide with the book launch of Twelve Seasons, a monograph on the artist by Zaman Books.