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Mona Saudi, Naila Art Collection
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About the Artist
Mona Saudi (b. 1945, Amman, Jordan – d. 2022, Beirut, Lebanon) was a renowned sculptor and one of the pioneering artists of her generation. Saudi’s sculpture ranged in scale from miniature figures to monumental installations. She studied sculpture at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris and had her first exhibition aged eighteen at the Café de la Presse in Beirut. In 1993, Saudi was presented with Jordan’s National Honorary Award by King Hussein.
The ancient ruins of Jordan and the natural materials of the Middle East have provided artistic inspiration for Saudi since childhood. In 1963, the artist moved to Beirut and became part of a burgeoning community of creatives including Adonis, Paul Guiragossian, Yusuf al-Khal and Michel Basbous. She returned to Jordan in 1968 and worked in a Palestinian refugee camp, encouraging the children she met there to express their experiences through art making. In 1983, back in Amman, she illustrated books for prominent authors, including Ghassan Kanafi.
Equilibrium was a hallmark concern for Saudi, a concern given form in her delicate, balanced compositions of natural stone. She sculpted odes to spirituality, nature and geometry: basic shapes –circles, squares and rectangles – came alive in her hands. The shapes were moulded and manipulated by the artist until they reached a space where art and nature were held in perfect equipoise. Saudi’s work has been known to transform urban landscapes: her monumental Géométrie de l’esprit, created in 1987, was famously installed outside the Institut du Monde Arab in Paris and was the only work the building’s architect Jean Nouvel would have in the area surrounding the building.
Mona Saudi in her studio
Courtesy the estate of the artist and Lawrie Shabibi Gallery
WORKS IN THE COLLECTION
Mona Saudi, "The River", 2009
Carrara marble, 30 × 30 × 5 cm
Courtesy the artist and the Lawrie Shabibi Gallery
The River (2009) is a piece resulting from Saudi’s discovery of direct carving at the Atelier Colamarini and the time she spent in Carrara, Italy. Situated in northern Tuscany, Carrara is home to rich and extensive marble quarries that provided a vast landscape of material for the artist. Made of Carrara marble, the sculpture demonstrates Saudi’s engagement with the natural materials of the earth. She is unconstrained by the solidity of matter, expertly conveying the snaking, shifting current of a river in stone. She facilitates a conversation in marble, placing nature and form in dialogue with each other and bound to one another by her hand as the artist.