First major retrospective monograph dedicated to the Franco-Lebanese sculptor.
Since the late 1960s, Chaouki Choukini has developed an astoundingly
consistent aesthetic worldview. His sculptural works, mainly in wood but
occasionally in marble or stone, range from horizontal Lieux and
Paysages to upright, anthropomorphic, almost totemic figures.
At first glance, the works may appear somewhat primitivist. A closer look,
however, reveals a sophisticated interrogation of organic and mechanical
worlds, where curvaceous mounds are punctuated by a regiment of pegs, or
undulating bases bristle with teeth-like crags.
Discursively, Choukini layers an eerie latency into his works: mazes of
slits, recesses, and multi-level cavities evoke some vanished human
presence on the tense horizon line; the ubiquitous “cord” is a taut yet
silent marker of dormant sound. Choukini is tantalizingly dark. His is a
world of brooding, empty spaces, where narratives struggle to tell
themselves, and everything is in suspense.
This retrospective monograph features an important series of
reproductions, accompanied by poems by Salah Stétié and an essay by Kevin
Jones.
French-Lebanese Sculptor Chaouki
Choukini (born 1946 in Choukine, Lebanon, lives and works in Paris)
received his degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts de
Paris in 1972. He was awarded the Prix de la Jeune Sculpture in 1978,
followed by the Taylor Foundation Prize in 2010. He was also awarded the
Prix de la Fondation Pierre Gianadda, from the Academie des Beaux Arts,
France in 2015. Choukini has participated in various solo and group
exhibitions including “Chaouki Choukini”, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE
(2019); “Le monde arabe vu par ses artistes”, Institut du Monde Arabe,
Paris, France (2018); “Beloved Bodies”, Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah,
UAE (2017); “Poetry in Wood”, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE, (2016);
“Portrait de l'Oiseau qui n'existe pas”, Musée de l'Hospice Saint-Roch,
France (2014); “Tajreed (Arab Abstract Art)”, Contemporary Art Platform,
Kuwait (2013); “Le Corps découvert”, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris,
France (2012); International Aswan Sculpture Symposium, Cairo Biennial,
Egypt (1997); “Paris Sculpture”, Centre de Sculpture Contemporaine, Paris,
France (1973). His works are in several important collections including
Musee d'Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne, France; Institut du Monde Arabe,
France; Mathaf, Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Centre National des Arts
Plastique, France; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE and Sharjah Art
Foundation.
