Artscoops is showcasing paintings by Lebanese, Zürich-based artist Ribal Molaeb at VOLTA Basel 2024. Artscoops is the leading online platform for art from the Middle East and North Africa.
Ribal Molaeb is a Lebanese artist and accomplished musician, known for producing paintings in bold oils, which he uses to create exquisite colour gradations or merging lines, curves and forms with sharp, yet soft strokes. Born in Baissour, Aley, Lebanon, in 1992, Ribal moved to Salzburg, Austria at the age of 17, to study at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. He later moved to Vienna to study at the University for Music and Performing Arts, where he received his Master’s degree in Arts with distinction.
His musical education in Vienna is a key influence on his art, clearly evident in the rhythmic energy, tonal variations and harmonic and melodic elements he incorporates into his cleanly designed compositions, which are devoid of superfluous elements.
Ribal was born into a family of artists; he is the son of the esteemed Lebanese painter and sculptor Jamil Molaeb. Ribal recounts his childhood as embedded in art and painting.
“Painting is my mother language. My earliest childhood memories are with me playing in my father’s studio around his paintings. Every single morning without any exception, my father painted. It was a daily ritual, and I spent my childhood witnessing that. Every single activity with my parents involved painting, including family trips (whether to the sea or to the mountains); they were opportunities for my father to sketch, draw or paint.” Ribal Molaeb
In his father’s studio, he worked as his assistant, learning about preparing canvases and mixing colors, while discussing painting compositions and color distribution.
At the age of 17, Ribal would move to Austria to study music. During his 8 years in Vienna, he found himself going back to painting “like a young man going back to his roots.” At the age of 23 he would start painting; at the age of 25, he had his first exhibition. And the rest was history.
I learned the courage to be a pure colorist. To allow the color to be the painting. To create a feeling and transcend an emotion through color.
Ribal Molaeb
Ribal considers himself to be a ‘colorist’; an artist who orchestrates colors to create visual compositions, just like a musician would create a musical composition. In his case, he would use the knowledge of harmony and counterpoint in classical music and apply it to visual compositions. He cites Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky as Western influences; they too were accomplished musicians. As for color-field painting, the influence from Mark Rothko was “the courage to be a pure colorist. To allow the color to be the painting. To create a feeling and transcend an emotion through color.”
As for Lebanese influences, he was familiar with Aref El Rayess, who often visited his family in Baissour. He recalls having a beautiful Paul Guiragossian painting at home. Furthermore, the works of Saliba Douaihy and Shafic Abboud were also quite influential.
Ribal has been living and working in Zürich, Switzerland for 6 years now. He has had solo shows in Zürich, Geneva and Zug. Basel is a very important, key place for him to showcase his work now. Raya Mamarbachi, co-founder and CEO, Artscoops, says that Ribal Molaeb’s combined Lebanese heritage and Swiss links make VOLTA Basel 2024 an ideal platform to showcase his work.
Ribal’s musical expertise, which he transports into much of his art, has its roots in Europe. However, at the same time, he has often talked about how his warm colour palette comes […] the Lebanese Mediterranean and mountains. These eclectic influences combine to give Ribal’s work an intriguing dimension and broad-based appeal, aligning perfectly with VOLTA Basel’s status as a renowned global hub for exciting contemporary art
Raya Mamarbachi, Co-founder and CEO of Artscoops
“Ribal’s musical expertise, which he transports into much of his art, has its roots in Europe. However, at the same time, he has often talked about how his warm colour palette comes from the unique light and colour in the Lebanese Mediterranean and mountains,” she says. “These eclectic influences combine to give Ribal’s work an intriguing dimension and broad-based appeal, aligning perfectly with VOLTA Basel’s status as a renowned global hub for exciting contemporary art.” Raya Mamarbachi
14 paintings for Ribal will be displayed, completed in oil on canvas between 2021 and 2024. In this recent collection, the artist is aiming to express serenity and calmness, through “pure dream-like empty, warm landscapes.” These include landscapes such as the desert, the sea or mountain series.
The painting titled ‘Desert’ (2024) is an evocative exploration of the gradations of red hues, transitioning from light tones at the top to the most intense ones, culminating in the darkest shades at the bottom. Despite its referential title, its abstraction defies any specific reference to place or time, rendering it timeless and placeless. The true subject of the painting is Ribal’s ability to fuse different gradations of red, like a seamless musical composition. The brushstrokes are so well-integrated that they form a soft fusion of red hues in which the viewer can plunge and get lost into.
The painting titled ‘Mount Lebanon I’ (2024) is part of a series dedicated to the Lebanese mountains. Ribal uses a painting knife to create rugged mountainous shapes. Green hues dominate the canvas and evoke Lebanon’s lush greenery. The painting transitions from light shades of green to dark teal, with a touch of pink and yellow at the bottom right—his signature touch. The materiality of the paint is equally a central element, with the thick application forming shapes in relief that define the mountains. This emphasis on the texture and physical presence of the paint reflects the principles of Abstract Expressionism, a movement which has had much influence on Ribal.
The painting titled ‘Harmonic Composition III’ (2024) features a symphony of colours in harmony with each other. Dominated by various hues of blue, turquoise, and teal, the work centers around a rectangular vertical shape painted in turquoise. Ribal introduces touches of red, yellow, and brown to break the predominantly blue atmosphere, akin to high notes interrupting a rhythm in a musical composition. The paint marks are left intentionally intact, reminding the viewer of the act of painting that created this work. Ultimately, the painting is a study of colour and the harmony between different hues, reflecting its title perfectly.
(Source for paintings descriptions: Artscoops)
The artist and his family have projects that they have founded to continue the legacy of the Molaeb family. The Molaeb Museum was founded in Baissour between 2011 and 2015 by Jamil Molaeb, housing a collection of sculptures, paintings and mosaics by Jamil Molaeb, as well as a permanent collection of art by Lebanese masters from the 19th and 20th centuries. Ribal Molaeb founded in 2015 the Molaeb Festival for Chamber Music and Fine Arts, which takes place at the Molaeb Museum every summer.
“This project [the Festival] reflects the marriage I have in my life between art and classical music,” Ribal shares. “Every season, I invite my musician-colleagues in Europe to come and spend a week in my village in Lebanon; we prepare a concert at the museum and spend our time between all the art.”
Artscoops, the leading online platform for art from the MENA, presents Ribal Molaeb at this year’s edition of VOLTA Basel, which launches 10 June 2024 and ongoing until 16 June. The paintings will be displayed at Booth A05 at the high-profile event, which is once again taking place in the city’s Klybeck 610 neighbourhood. Make sure to see the show for yourself!
Follow Ribal Molaeb on Instagram here and check his website here.
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