Nabil Nahas

Born in Beirut in 1949, Nabil Nahas is one of the most renowned living Lebanese artists. The first years of his life were spent in Cairo for his father’s work, after which he settled in Lebanon and enrolled in a boarding school close to Beirut. Nahas attended university in the United States, graduating with a BFA from the Louisiana State University, later followed by an MFA from Yale University. 

Nahas’s oeuvre has gone through several radical stylistic changes; however, it always remained within the broad umbrella category of abstraction. Nahas’ inspiration emanates from different sources. He is inspired by the Western abstract artists who surrounded him in the USA, such as Frank Stella and Larry Poons. Yet he also draws inspiration from nature and Islamic visual culture. Nahas is best known for creating the three-dimensional sea life forms which he began in the early 1990s. The work Untitled (lot 3) is part of that series. It first started when Nahas was walking on the shore of Long Island after a severe hurricane and came across thousands of washed-up starfish. He collected some of the starfish, bringing them home and later casting them: creating his first starfish piece, titled EUREKA. That moment was a stylistic breakthrough for Nahas, whose marine-inspired mixed media projects have earned him critical acclaim.