Woman in the Paintings of Adib Makhzoum

“Formation and fashion in a foundational vision” was the title of the exhibition of the plastic critic Adib Makhzoum, held in the Social Forum in Al-Tiliani, Damascus.

The exhibition included 36 new paintings, shown for the first time, all of which illustrate the interrelationship between plastic art and modern fashion lines.

The phrase “foundational vision” in the title came because he put forward a new, special idea, which no one addressed in this way before.

Adib Makhzoum is an artist, a plastic critic, music historian, and a founding member of the Society of Critics and Researchers. He has thousands of studies and articles published in Arab newspapers and magazines, in addition to dozens of exhibitions inside and outside Syria.

When he was asked about his use of earthy colors, he said, “The earthy colors that form the backgrounds of the paintings, bearing the effects of the current tragic stage, as my previous works were distinguished by their frank and bright colors”. He added that colors, as Picasso said, are like face’ features, carrying the connotations of real life, so that the colors of joy and brightness turned and became faint.

When asked about using women in his painting: “First, I embodied women in all the paintings because I am dealing with fashion, and women are more interested in it than men. Second, in order for the painting not to be traditional or realistic, I made the model (the woman) interact with the spontaneous and rapid color movements, and so I presented it in an abstract color background.”

He added, “I embodied women in my paintings and writings as chants of love, romance, and poetry, as a symbol of abundant femininity, spontaneity, tenderness, softness, and absolute pampering. I portrayed her in her magical and mysterious states, as you can see in the realms of mythical vision and virtual dreams. The symbolic woman amazes and pushes me to draw, write, meditate, and become attached to beauty, life, and absolute poetry”.

Just as woman was the favorite subject for Goya, Lautrec, Modigliani, Picasso, Renoir and others, it is also for Makhzoum.

Thus, art refers to the liberation of man in the hours of his creativity to give a taste of freedom to others.

Najla Khoury