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拍品专文
Noted for his rich compositions depicting fables, fantasies and landscapes of his surroundings and folkloric illustrations, the Lebanese artist Willy Aractingi’s gradations of colour and his minimalist depictions of creatures and surrealist landscapes bring to life the many colours articulated by the artist in variations of blues, yellows and greens. His colours are carefully chosen, producing works that are reduced to a complete harmony of form, line and shadow. Internationally acclaimed Lebanese painter Willy Aractingi has, from an early age, led a life filled with traveling building a global yet personal perspective in his artwork. The artist began painting early in his life, at only 12 years old and did so, intermittently, until his death in 2003.
The work depicts a panther lurking within the foliage of the night, first appearring to be both playful and innocent. But like with much of Aractingi's work, this is deconstructed with a closer reading. Warm colors shift into cooler tones as we observe the canvas from top to bottom. The gradations of hues immediately set the scene for a relaxing ambiance, elevated by the balance in composition. Immediately our eyes shift between the bright light of the moon against the deep cobalt blue of the panther that walks within the forest, his piercing red tongue out and his eyes squinting on the prowl to hunt. This contrast in spirit creates a fable-like story telling in which nature and animals are juxtaposed. Nature is represented by the sun and the flora that grows towards the center of the painting, where the panther sneaks attempts to sneak in through. The edges of the abstracted shapes lead into each other peacefully as we are illuminated by the vibrancy of the brightest yellows
The artist is well known for his depiction of Jean de la Fontaine’s Fables, a six-year endeavor culminating in 244 works in 1995. In 2017 the artist’s family donated to the Sursock Museum more than 200 works depicting Jean de la Fontaine’s Fables. In the same yea, the Sursock museum held a retrospective, Les Mondes de Willy Aractingi, of the artist’s work, showcasing over 120 works that he completed between 1973 and 2003.