Artist Spotlight: Henry Jabbour RBA PS
/ Royal Society of British Artists
The Royal Society of British Artists Bicentennial Exhibition is now available to view online and opens at Mall Galleries on Thursday 2 March.
Every year, the Royal Society of British Artists invites painters, sculptors and printmakers to submit their work for consideration alongside member artists, such as Henry Jabbour. Henry spoke to us about his incredible work, and we really hope you manage to visit the Bicentennial Exhibition and have the opportunity to see Jabbour’s work, amongst over 400 other exceptional pieces, in person.
Q&A with Henry:
When were you elected as a member of the RBA and how has it impacted your career as an artist?
I had been exhibiting at the RBA annual exhibitions for a few years before I applied to become a member. Being elected in 2020 was a beautiful moment and a nod from the fellow artists that I had been exhibiting alongside. This meant a lot. I am aware of the history of the society and being part of that history thrills me. I also love being part of that community of artists.
You have such a striking use of bright and bold colours. In the works featured in the RBA exhibition, yellows, reds and oranges are particularly potent - how do you decide on your colour palettes and what is the meaning behind them?
I feel a very strong and intuitive connection with colour. I think of colour to painting as the alphabet to writing.
I was born and grew up in Beirut (Lebanon) - a Mediterranean country with a lot of colour around me that varied with the seasons. When I am painting I try to tap into my memories of colour from my childhood and my youth. This invariably connects me to a host of emotional memories that end up translated onto the canvas. I may start with a particular colour idea but that can easily change as I start working on the canvas. I have learnt to be adaptable with each painting and not to be rigid with a pre-conceived palette, nor to feel constrained by my initial intentions. It has been said before, but I agree with the maxim 'paintings have a way of dictating their own voice’.
A lot of your paintings include nods to nature and contain floral elements, are you able to talk about their inclusion?
I absorb things when I go walking with my dog. I absorb things on my way to my studio which involves a walk through the garden, and when I visit parks or other open spaces. Colour catches my eye all the time and it stirs my emotions in ways that I can never translate into words, but somehow I can translate it into a visual language. The floral elements in my work evolved over time and for me, they are symbolic of the beauty of life, of ageing, the passage of time, and of death.
Our emotional relationship with flowers is complex. We love them and share them at times of joy, but also at times of sorrow. We enjoy them in nature, but we also sever them from nature so they can briefly enrich our domestic lives.
A Still Moment, Henry Jabbour, Oil, 95 x 85 cm, £4,500
Your depiction of human figures merge into abstraction, are you able to talk about the sense of universality this creates and how this influences the viewer to put their own stories into your work?
I do want my work to be universal and to transcend the individual. I want the viewer to connect to my work on a personal level so that they bring their own perspectives and emotional life into play. Once I finish a painting, my role in creating that work is over, but I hope that its story continues. I want the viewer to take it on a new journey, and I would like that journey to change over time.
This requires some ambiguity so that the story can be continued in more than one way. Put differently, I aspire for my work to be akin to visual poetry - something that can be interpreted universally and personally but has different resonances for each person that encounters it.
There is a strong sense of closeness and connection portrayed in a lot of the pieces you are showing. Are there any specific stories that have inspired these works?
I think over the last few years, my work with the human figure has gravitated between the representation of a single figure or two figures. They are in essence, an attempt to explore our relationship with ourselves and the world around us or with other human beings. I am trying to capture intimacy with the self, with nature, or with the other. I think one aspect of the pandemic and lockdown was to remind us how much closeness and connection, with other people and with nature, matters to us all. My recent work may, in part, be a response to that shared experience.
Close, Henry Jabbour, Oil, 50 x 45cm, £2,750
Who are your biggest artistic inspirations and whose work are you most excited to see in the RBA’s Bicentennial Exhibition?
My artistic influences are varied and they change over time. To name a few that stand out currently: Chaim Soutine, Sargy Mann, Leon Kossoff, Nicholas de Stael. I also have a deep connection with the works of Paul Guiragossian, Shafic Abboud and Etel Adnan who are all also from Lebanon.
As for the RBA Bicentennial Exhibition, I am always excited to see the works of other members of the RBA and the RBA's rising stars. But this year, I am also looking forward to seeing the works of the non-member artists that have been selected for this exhibition. I understand that the number of entries this year reached a record high, so I am sure the selected works are of a very high standard!
We hope that this was an interesting insight into the work of Henry Jabbour. Be sure to take a look at the RBA Bicentennial Exhibition online, where Jabbour’s work is available to browse and purchase, alongside a multitude of other exceptional pieces of artwork.