Nabil Nahas

Art Brokerage: Nabil Nahas Lebanese Artist: b. 1949. Nabil Nahas was born in Beirut in 1949 and for the first 10 years of his life, he lived in Cairo. He completed a BFA from Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge in 1971 and an MFA from Yale University in 1973. Nahas is Lebanon's most renowned living painter, having established himself before the current heightened interest in contemporary art of the Middle East, first in New York art circles as a master of color, texture and atmosphere. Although thoroughly schooled in Western abstract painting, Nahas takes his inspiration from a diverse range of influences, most significantly nature, and occasionally Islamic art, in particular its abstract geometric and chromatic qualities. Of his many series, those for which he is best known are his thickly encrusted starfish and fractal paintings, built up by layer upon layer of acrylic paint mixed with pumice and finished in vivid colors, and his landscapes, which are expressive portraits of cedars, olive trees and palms, which reconnect him to the places of his childhood, Lebanon and Egypt. Listings wanted.