Mohammad Rawas

Mohammad Rawas or Mohammad El Rawas (born 1951 in Beirut, Lebanon) is a Lebanese painter and printmaker. He studied arts at the Lebanese University, then moved to London and studied Printmaking at the Slade School of Fine Art. He currently lives and works in Beirut, where he taught at the Lebanese University and the American University of Beirut.

Life and work Rawas began his artistic career with the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War. He left the country to Damascus, then to Morocco before returning to Lebanon and leaving again to pursue his studies in London. During the late 1970s and early 1980s he produced a body of prints related to the war and to violence in general. These works were presented at several exhibitions, including The Road to Peace, curated by Saleh Barakat at the Beirut Art Center.

From the 1980s and 1990s, Rawas developed a painting practice based on constructions with balsa wood, aluminum and string meticulously built up over portions of canvas. His complex artworks widely use reference to popular culture (manga, comics) and old master paintings such as Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez. In 2013, El Rawas abandons painting to work on creating a series of three-dimensional constructions using multiple materials and techniques. In his latest artistic phase, he goes back to two-dimensional paintings.

For the 2007 Alexandria Biennale, Rawas produced his first installation: Sit Down, Please. The artwork is a multimedia device inspired by a quote from 8th century poet Abu Nuwas related to love and desire within Arab societies.

Magical Realism is what best describes El Rawas' complex constructions. Each one of his compositions is a layered assemblage of objects and techniques, ideas and references. He borrows, modifies, alters, copies, pastes, reinterprets and decontextualizes objects and concepts he finds in the history of art from Italian renaissance to contemporary art, through haute couture and fashion, comics, architecture and photography.

Auctions

In October 2008, a painting from 1974, Souk El-Franj, Bab Idriss (Beirut Vegetable Market), was presented with a $40,000 - $60,000 estimate and hammered for $56,250. The mixed media work One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest was proposed in April 2011 for $25,000 - $30,000 and sold for $42,500. Later that year, A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu realized $25,000 with a $25,000 - $35,000 estimate.

Awards Prize of the 24th Alexandria Biennale of the Mediterranean Countries. Alexandria, Egypt. Honorable Mention at the Ninth Norwegian International Print Triennale, Fredrikstad, Norway, 1989 Prize of Honor, Cabo Frio International Print Biennale, Brazil, 1985 Third Prize at The First Contemporary Arab Art Exhibition, Centre d'Art Vivant de la Ville de Tunis, Tunisia, 1984 Honorable Mention, Third World Biennale of Graphic Art, Iraqi Cultural Center, London, 1980

Publications Maker of Realities (with Antoine Boulad, 2011) The Art of Rawas, (Saqi Books, 2004) M. El Rawas (Antoine Boulad, Platform Gallery, 1991)

Exhibitions Solo exhibitions Saleh Barakat Gallery, Beirut, 2019 Agial Art Gallery, Beirut, 2016 Art Sawa Gallery, Dubai, 2010 Aida Cherfan Fine Art, Beirut, 2007 Janine Rubeiz Gallery, Beirut, 2004 Janine Rubeiz Gallery, Beirut, 2000 Janine Rubeiz Gallery, Beirut, 1997 Janine Rubeiz Gallery, Beirut, 1995 Platform Gallery, Beirut, 1991 Kufa Gallery, London, 1990 Rencontre Art Gallery, Beirut, 1979

Group exhibitions Art from Lebanon, Beirut Exhibition Center, 2012 Q Calling the Shots, vol 3. The Digital Age, Q Contemporary, Beirut, 2011 Rebirth, Lebanon 21st Century Contemporary Art, Beirut Exhibition Art Center, Beirut, 2011 Convergence, New Art from Lebanon, The American University Museum, Katzen Arts Center, Washington DC, 2010 The Road to Peace, Painting in times of war. 1975-1991 Beirut Art Center, Beirut, 2009 Virtuellement réel: Reflection, in contemporary painting and photography. Alice Mogabgab Gallery, Beirut, 2009 The Responsive Hand, Drawings 1, Maqam Gallery, Beirut, 2009 24th Alexandria Biennale of the Mediterranean Countries. Alexandria, 2007 Word into Art, Artists of the Modern Middle East. The British Museum, London, 2006 First Beijing International Art Biennale, 2003 Tokyo Mini Print Biennale, 2002 Ninth International Graphic Artists, Trondheim Art Center, Trondheim, 1998 Eighth Asian Art Biennale, Dacca, 1997 Kraków International Print Triennale, 1997 Contemporary Lebanese Artists, Sharjah Art Museum, 1996 Eighteenth Alexandria Biennale, 1993 First International Print Biennale, Maastricht, 1993 Liban, Le Regard des Peintres, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, 1989 Lebanon, The Artist's View, Concourse Gallery, Barbican Center, 1989 Ninth Norwegian International Print Triennale, Fredrikstad, Norway, 1989 Presence de la Gravure, Centre d'Art Vivant de la Ville de Tunis, 1988 Contemporary Lebanese Artists, Kufa Gallery, London, 1988 Contemporary Arab Art, The Mall Galleries, London, 1986 Cabo Frio International Print Biennale, Brazil, 1985 Slade Folio Show, Greenwich Theatre Art Gallery, London, 1981