Unmasking the Soul, Revealing the Self: Fadia Haddad

Fadia Haddad (b. 1959, Lebanon, ,Beirut), lives and works in Paris. After graduating from the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts in Beirut in 1984, Haddad continued her studies at L'École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts in Paris until 1988. From her very beginnings, her work was included at the Salon de la Jeune Peinture (Young painters showcase), followed by various exhibitions in Paris in Montrouge, Fondation Paul Ricard and the Institut du Monde Arabe. Her work is part of numerous private and public collections: 'Barjeel Art Foundation' – UAE; 'Patrimoine de l'Humanité' - Geneva; 'Artistic Memories of the 20th Century' - New York; 'Sursock Museum' - Beirut; Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA) - Paris; the CNAP – Paris; 'PINTO' – Paris. In 2011, Harry Bellet consecrated a monograph to her work in a publication from Area Descartes and Company - 'Traversée'.

Her series of ‘Masks', produced over a twenty year period is a process of dances around the canvas revealing the music rhythms in the painting. Whether Haddad paints 'Birds', 'Landscapes' or 'Masks', her work exudes a truth profoundly observed and reconceived about life. Her paintings reflect an equal measure of the emptiness and the excesses of our time. It is through the symbolic reach of her work, the vigour of her gesture, the raw or mixed colours, that her stories unveil on the canvas.