A retrospective at JAH Art Gallery, Beirut | October 15 – November 15, 2026
An Article by F. D. (1331 words, 7 min. read)
A Journey Through Fifty Years of Art
Some artists develop a recognizable visual language over time, while others continuously explore different ways of expressing their relationship with the world. Syrian artist Nizar Sabour belongs to the latter, with a career that has moved through portraiture, landscapes, religious iconography, abstraction, and a remarkable exploration of natural materials.
Presented at JAH Art Gallery in Clemenceau, Beirut, in partnership with Dimashq Art Gallery and curated by Osama Malouh, this retrospective brings together works created between 1976 and 2022. It offers a fascinating journey through nearly five decades of artistic experimentation, revealing the evolution of a painter whose attachment to Syrian history, culture, and spirituality has shaped his artistic identity.
Born in Latakia in 1958, Sabour studied fine arts at Damascus University before pursuing a doctorate in art philosophy at the Stroganov Academy in Moscow. His academic background, combined with his knowledge of ancient civilizations and religious traditions, has contributed to the development of a particularly rich and personal artistic vocabulary.
The Early Years: Faces and Everyday Life
The earliest paintings in the exhibition reveal a different side of Sabour’s artistic personality. His works from the late 1970s are rooted in figurative expression, with portraits and compositions that reflect a strong interest in human character and ordinary surroundings.
A portrait from 1978 depicts a frontal figure dressed in deep blue, crowned by a tall striped headdress. The simplified features, rigid posture, and architectural organization of the background already suggest an attraction to ancient representations and symbolic forms. Other paintings from 1979 offer more intimate scenes. A still life brings together pottery, a sculpted bust, bottles, and familiar objects arranged in a domestic interior. These early compositions are particularly interesting because they allow us to observe Sabour’s relationship with traditional painting before his gradual exploration of more complex surfaces. His figures have character, his colors are carefully considered, and his compositions reveal an artist already fascinated by the expressive possibilities of simplified forms.
Painting With the Earth
One of the most remarkable aspects of Sabour’s practice is his relationship with materials. Soil, sand, ashes, olive pomace, and pigments obtained from burnt olive pits become essential components of his artistic process. Gold leaf occasionally enriches these surfaces, introducing a luminous quality associated with religious imagery.
The use of these materials gives his paintings an extraordinary physical dimension. Their rough surfaces, irregular textures, and accumulated layers suggest the appearance of ancient walls, archaeological fragments, and weathered frescoes.
There is something deeply moving about the idea of an artist using elements of the land itself to represent its history. The physical substance of his paintings becomes inseparable from the subjects he chooses to explore.
His frequent use of wood also contributes to this material richness. Some compositions resemble small devotional panels, while others evoke architectural fragments or archaeological objects. The edges, frames, and divisions often participate in the composition, extending the painting beyond its central image.
Between Sacred Images and Human Emotions
Religious iconography occupies an important place in Sabour’s artistic development. Inspired by Eastern Christian traditions, his figures often possess the frontal simplicity, elongated proportions, and solemn expressions associated with ancient icons.
One particularly striking composition presents a blue figure of Christ on the cross against a golden background. The contrast between the intense blue, the warm gold, and the small green heart creates an image of remarkable visual sensitivity.
Other works feature saints, veiled figures, and faces surrounded by halos or architectural structures. Their expressions are sometimes barely defined, allowing the texture and color to communicate much of the emotional intensity.
Another portrait depicts a young man with a moustache, his hand resting against his chest, surrounded by decorative marks and spontaneous drawings.
Sabour’s treatment of sacred imagery reveals his interest in the human dimension of spirituality. Suffering, tenderness, contemplation, and devotion become part of a visual vocabulary that connects centuries of religious art with contemporary painting.
Syria Through Its Landscapes
The Syrian landscape occupies another important place in this retrospective. Sabour approaches it through geography, architecture, color, and the memory of places that have experienced profound historical transformations.
One of the most impressive works, created between 2019 and 2022, depicts a settlement of small white buildings gathered beneath an immense mountain range. The deep blue sky, monumental grey mountains, and compact architecture produce a composition of extraordinary visual strength.
The contrast of scale is particularly beautiful. The buildings appear almost miniature against the vast natural formation, while the surrounding decorative borders introduce an additional dimension inspired by traditional ornamental art.
Elsewhere, a landscape from 2022 presents a dark blue expanse beneath a burning red sky. A small luminous sun dominates the horizon, while layers of turquoise, black, and blue create a powerful atmosphere.
The painting is almost entirely abstract, yet its organization remains deeply connected to the experience of observing a landscape. Its beauty lies in the relationship between its broad horizontal divisions and the subtle variations of color that animate the surface.
The historical sites of Palmyra and Maaloula also inform Sabour’s artistic universe. Their architecture, spiritual significance, and the destruction suffered during the Syrian conflict have contributed to his reflections on cultural heritage and collective memory.
The Beauty of Abstraction
The retrospective also reveals Sabour’s ability to move toward abstraction while maintaining a relationship with ancient visual traditions.
Several compositions are organized around circles, geometric borders, repeated marks, and delicate fragments of writing. A series from 2016 presents dark circular forms surrounded by patterned surfaces, with subtle variations of grey, black, cream, and orange.
These paintings are particularly captivating in their balance between geometric precision and the irregularity of their textures. The circles suggest celestial bodies, ancient seals, or symbolic diagrams, while the surrounding patterns recall mosaics and decorative details.
Another painting from 1998 explores a much darker palette, with touches of violet, yellow, and red scattered across a nearly black surface. The composition possesses an intriguing depth, as small luminous forms seem to emerge from within the accumulated layers of pigment.
In these works, Sabour demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of color and composition. His abstract language develops through an intimate knowledge of materials and a sensitivity to the visual qualities of aged surfaces.
Ancient Stories, Contemporary Concerns
The Epic of Gilgamesh and the civilizations of ancient Mesopotamia have also influenced Sabour’s imagery. Human figures, animals, architectural structures, and symbolic forms frequently appear together, suggesting narratives drawn from different historical periods.
In several mixed-media compositions, recognizable figures emerge among areas of abstraction, inscriptions, and fragments of ornamentation. Their arrangement recalls the structure of ancient manuscripts, where images and writing participate in a shared narrative.
The artist’s fascination with the past acquires particular significance when considered alongside the recent history of Syria. His artistic vocabulary allows different periods to coexist within a single composition, connecting ancient mythology, religious traditions, and contemporary experiences of displacement and destruction.
Fifty Years of Artistic Exploration
What makes this retrospective especially compelling is the opportunity to observe the transformation of Sabour’s artistic language across different decades. The figurative paintings of the 1970s, the textured compositions of the 2000s, and the increasingly symbolic and abstract works of recent years reveal an artist continuously experimenting with form, color, and material.
His palette moves from earthy browns and ochres to intense blues, vibrant reds, luminous golds, and delicate greys. His surfaces become increasingly elaborate, sometimes approaching the appearance of archaeological discoveries, while his compositions alternate between intimacy and monumentality.
Walking through these different periods, one can appreciate how the painter has developed a deeply individual relationship with the history of his country. Every period adds another dimension to his exploration of artistic expression.
This exhibition also invites a closer appreciation of the extraordinary possibilities of painting when pigment, earth, wood, and human imagination come together.
In Sabour’s hands, even the smallest fragment of earth becomes part of a much larger story.
