Hussein Madi born in 1938 in Chebaa, is a prominent Lebanese painter, sculptor and printmaker. He is best known for his colorful works inspired by abstract design and Islamic art. He studied painting at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts in Beirut before moving to Rome in 1963 to continue his studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti. He then decided to settle in Rome where he lived for 22 years, learning various techniques from frescoes and mosaics to bronze sculpture. Madi has had more than sixty solo exhibitions around the world including, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; British Museum, London; Ueno Museum, Tokyo; Sharjah Museum, UAE and many more. Madi showcased his work at the Venice Biennale in 2003 and was awarded order of the star by the Italian government during the same year.

“Madi never seeks a simple photographic of nature in his paintings and his numerous sculptures. While remaining identifiable his objects are always stylized. Starting with exaggerating a woman’s angles and curves, Madi stretches her body to the limit of the abstract. His birds become ideograms. Always attracted to vivid hues, Madi compresses space and marks contours in black or white. Simplified forms approach pure geometry, a hint of abstraction derived more from geometric organization of Islamic art than from Western abstraction. In fact, Madi combines a mastery of Western techniques with ancient Middle Eastern heritage and symbolism, and Arabic calligraphy.”

Gregory Buchakjian, L’Art au Liban: 1880 – 1975: Wonderfuleditions, Beirut, 2007, p 332.