Serge Shart

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Serge Shart was a Lebanese painter of Armenian descent whose career spanned more than five decades and was distinguished by an enduring international presence. Educated by the Jesuit Fathers in Beirut, he demonstrated an early aptitude for drawing that led him, in 1943, to an apprenticeship as a draughtsman at the Service Géographique du Levant. After leaving Lebanon in 1947, he continued his artistic formation in Europe, eventually settling in Paris. There, his brief attendance at the École des Beaux-Arts quickly gave way to a preference for the city’s independent studios, where the freedom of experimentation suited his temperament. Encounters with the French-Armenian artist Jean Carzou and exposure to the avant-garde movements of the period shaped his inclination towards abstraction and surrealism, a duality that would characterise his mature work. His debut exhibition, held in Beirut in 1950, marked the beginning of a prolific career that extended across Europe and the Middle East. Recipient of the Uppsala Prize in 1952 and a participant in the Salon des Indépendants in 1955, Shart established himself among the most prominent Lebanese artists of the post-war generation. His pictorial language oscillates between figuration and abstraction, his subjects ranging from portraits and still lifes to rural and seaside compositions. Rich in colour and dynamic in structure, his paintings convey both lyric intensity and a subtle sense of movement. Over the years, Shart’s works entered major museum and private collections in the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. They continue to appear in international exhibitions, reinforcing his standing within the broader modernist narrative of Middle Eastern art. He was born in Beirut in 1927 and died in France in 2011.