Introduction

The museum is honored to pay tribute to Abdel Hamid Baalbaki, continuing a tradition of homages that began in 1965. This tribute is both an ode to the South and a remembrance of his home in Odeisseh, once imagined as one of the village’s first cultural centers before its destruction in the 2024 war.

Early Life and Education

Born in 1940 to a farming family in Odeisseh, Jabal Amel, Baalbaki discovered his love for drawing at a young age. He later studied fine arts at the Lebanese University under Rachid Wehbi. His parents also taught him to value the land, especially the ochre earth of the South, which became a central motif in his work. After more than thirty years in Beirut, he returned to his village to build a home and establish a library of over two thousand rare books.

Art, Literature, and Legacy

Baalbaki was not only a painter but also a poet and writer. He published three poetry collections and devoted much of his life to literature. One of his final projects—a library dedicated to the history of art and literature—sadly did not survive after his passing.
This exhibition highlights his legacy through two themes: the idea of home and an ode to the South. It also features his well-known War mural (1977), first exhibited in 1979 at the Glass Hall of the Ministry of Tourism during the group show Warm Injury, which addressed the aftermath of the invasion of South Lebanon.

Loss and Recent Destruction

Baalbaki’s house was not the only one destroyed. Entire villages were wiped out, including the home of the late painter Hussein Madi in Chabaa. A full assessment of the damage to heritage buildings and artists’ estates has yet to be carried out.

Biography

Career and Teaching

Abdel Hamid Baalbaki (1940–2013) worked to make art accessible to the widest public. In 1995, he founded Al-Riwaq Al-Tashkilyi in Haret Hreik to bring art to working-class neighborhoods. He taught at the Lebanese University for thirty years and served as President of the Lebanese Association of Painters and Sculptors (LAAPS) from 1992 to 1994.
He graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts in 1971 and received a grant from the Ministry of Education to study mural art at ENSAD in Paris in 1972.

Family of Artists

Art strongly shaped his family. Among his eight children, Soumaya became a singer, Oussama a painter, Lubnan a conductor, Salman a musician, and Mounzer an actor. Hoda also pursued painting. His brother Fawzi and his nephews Said and Ayman are also artists.

Artistic Approach

Baalbaki produced around 200 works, although some were recently lost along with parts of his archives. He often depicted the lives of the underprivileged in Chiyah and Beirut.
He sought to define an Arab modernity through Islamic art, the work of Al-Wasiti, and Arabic poetry. His early pieces, including Ashura and Al-Hajj, reflect this research. He also engaged in regional debates on authenticity in Arab art, echoing discussions at the 1971 ALECSO conference, the first Arab Congress for Plastic Arts, and initiatives by the General Union of Arab Plastic Artists. These efforts aimed to root modern art in Arab identity and make it accessible to the public.
In his later years, he experimented with several styles, including mural art inspired by Diego Rivera. Nevertheless, he eventually returned to figurative painting with a series dedicated to nature.

Exhibitions and Public Presence

Baalbaki avoided commercial representation and rarely sold his works. Although he exhibited at Gallery One in 1983, he preferred public spaces. He held solo shows at the Glass Hall of the Ministry of Tourism in 1993 and at the UNESCO Palace in 2008. Throughout his career, he took part in more than sixty group exhibitions in Lebanon and abroad. After his death, Saleh Barakat Gallery presented a retrospective of his work in 2018.

Curated by: Karina El Helou
Scenography: Atelier Meem Noon
Archives: Rowina Bou Harb
Graphic design: Scope Atelier

Special thanks: Oussama Baalbaki, Lubnan Baalbaki, and the Baalbaki family.