Ghassan Zard is a Lebanese painter and sculptor born in 1954. He lives and works in Beirut.
“The approach to painting and sculpture awakens in us the innocence of our childhood games.” Zard work is tinged with nostalgia, with a need to return to childhood wonder, to fun as a concept. The beings disappear in flakes, in coloured shreds. There is a separation between thought and feeling; An inexplicable twist of the mind leads to an almost automatic reconstitution that we do not perceive until later!
“This journey is also an act to ward off murderous madness and transcend the anguish of everyday life.” Initially, Zard’s painting was influenced by lyrical abstraction. His large-scale canvases depict a coloured rhythmic universe reminiscent of music partitions. Compared to his pictorial work, his sculptures are more restrained but always tinted with irony.
Ghassan Zard has participated in multiple group shows such as “Vous avez dit abstrait?” Galerie Tanit, Beirut, 2013; “Jardins de Bagatelle II,” Galerie Tanit, Munich, 2014; and “A Bestiary,” Galerie Tanit, Beirut, 2020. His solo shows include “Variations,” Galerie Tanit, Beirut, 2014; “Turtles,” an installation commissioned for Home Works 7, Ashkal Alwan, a collaboration between Galerie Tanit and the Institut Français in 2015 that saw the giant turtles placed all across Lebanon before being “settled” at the MACAM museum in 2016; “Lucy in the Sky,” Galerie Tanit, Beirut, 2017; “On a Shore,” Galerie Tanit, Beirut, 2019; “La Déchirure,” Galerie Tanit, Beirut, 2021; “I Am One Acquainted with the Night,” Studio LaCitta, Verona, 2021, the Venice Biennale, in addition to multiple international shows.
Ghassan Zard is represented by Galerie Tanit Beirut/Munich.