Simone Fattal b. 1942
Exhibitions
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Simone Fattal
»... provide me the clay so I can do the making«
Museum Fünf Kontinente, München, DE 3 Jun - 4 Dec 2022»Als Simone Fattal ihren ersten Tonklumpen in die Hand nahm, zögerte sie nicht. Ihre Finger, d. h. die tiefsten Kräfte ihres Geistes, formten aus dieser schlammigen Masse einen stehenden Menschen....Read more -
Simone Fattal
A breeze over the Mediterranean
ICA Milano, IT 8 Sep 2021 - 9 Jan 2022Fondazione ICA Milano in collaboration with Pompeii Commitment. Archaeological Matters presents the exhibition A breeze over the Mediterranean , first solo show in Italy dedicated to Simone Fattal (Damascus,...Read more -
group show
Vivian Suter, Michel Auder, Alex Becerra, Ida Ekblad, Simone Fattal, Sylvie Fleury, Pamela Rosenkranz, Daniel Spoerri, Urban Zellweger 16 Nov - 19 Dec 2020 Weststrasse 70, Zurich, CH -
Simone Fattal
Storefront Show 28 May - 9 Jun 2020 Weststrasse 75, Zurich, CH -
Simone Fattal
Fix Your Gaze On Saturn’s Rings
Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, NOR 31 Jan - 22 Mar 2020The first major exhibition at Bergen Kunsthall in 2020 is a comprehensive presentation of works by the Lebanese-American artist Simone Fattal. The exhibition features a large number of works from...Read more -
Simone Fattal
Works and Days
MoMA PS1, New York, US 31 Mar - 2 Sep 2019MoMA PS1 presents the first solo museum exhibition in the United States of the work of Simone Fattal (Lebanese and American, b. 1942). This retrospective brings together over 200 works...Read more -
Simone Fattal
Paintings and Sculptures 30 Nov 2018 - 26 Jan 2019 Weststrasse 75, Zurich, CH -
group show
Après Ski 16 Jan - 20 Feb 2016 Karma International, Los Angeles, USA -
Simone Fattal
Sculptures and Paintings 16 Oct - 28 Nov 2015 Karma International, Zurich, CH -
Group Show
I bought a hyacinth flower with lots of leaves, just to make me feel like spring 8 Nov - 13 Dec 2014 Karma International, Zurich, CH
Works
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Ghaylan and Mayya, 2022
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Standing Man, 2020
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Standing figure, 2019
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Wall, 2017
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Kouros, 2016
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Suite en jaune N°1, 2016
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House in the Desert 1, 2015 - 2016
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Fragment I, 2015
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The Garden, 2015
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Quince and Apricots, 2014
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Seated Couple, 2012
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Lady in Waiting, 2010-2019
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Nour Ala Nour, 2008
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Venus II, 2006
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In the Carriage, 2005
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Calypso, 2003
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Tree, 2003
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The Master, 1998-2019
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Trees, 1969
Overview
Simone Fattal (b. 1942, Damascus, Syria) lives and works in Paris. Through her work in sculpture, painting, watercolor, and collage, Fattal translates the cross-cultural experience of her life into a universal narrative of humankind.
Born in Damascus and raised in Beirut, Fattal studied philosophy first at the École des Lettres in Beirut, later at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1969 she returned to Beirut where she took up painting, inspired by her artistic friends. During the Lebanese Civil war she found refuge in Sausalito, California, where she started Post-Apollo Press, a publishing house dedicated to innovative and experimental literature. It was there where she discovered ceramics and started exploring her sculptural work which would later become seminal in her oeuvre. On a formal level her sculptures, made of ceramic, bronze, clay or porcelain, often are pared down to their most essential, appearing minimalist while bearing the traces of the artist’s hand.
Her artistic alphabet is made up of organic shapes, humans and trees alongside architectural forms and household objects and are being repeated in manifold variations. These works have an ageless quality to them and are hard to place in time. Their inspiration is drawn from mythology and literature, from religious tales to the artist’s nostalgia for her homeland Syria. Not unlike an archeologist, Fattal explores the memory of a place she will never see again and yet it’s culture can be carried forward.
Born in Damascus and raised in Beirut, Fattal studied philosophy first at the École des Lettres in Beirut, later at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1969 she returned to Beirut where she took up painting, inspired by her artistic friends. During the Lebanese Civil war she found refuge in Sausalito, California, where she started Post-Apollo Press, a publishing house dedicated to innovative and experimental literature. It was there where she discovered ceramics and started exploring her sculptural work which would later become seminal in her oeuvre. On a formal level her sculptures, made of ceramic, bronze, clay or porcelain, often are pared down to their most essential, appearing minimalist while bearing the traces of the artist’s hand.
Her artistic alphabet is made up of organic shapes, humans and trees alongside architectural forms and household objects and are being repeated in manifold variations. These works have an ageless quality to them and are hard to place in time. Their inspiration is drawn from mythology and literature, from religious tales to the artist’s nostalgia for her homeland Syria. Not unlike an archeologist, Fattal explores the memory of a place she will never see again and yet it’s culture can be carried forward.
Biography
Fattal currently lives in Paris. She’s had solo shows at the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakech, MoMA PS1 and Kunsthall Bergen, amongst others. She has shown at Punta della Dogana, Venice, Palais de Tokyo, Paris and at the Sharjah Biennale.
News
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Simone Fattal: THUS WAVES COME IN PAIRS
SIMONE FATTAL, PETRIT HALILAJ & ÁLVARO URBANO, curated by Barbara Casavecchia
TBA21–Academy, Ocean Space, Venice, IT
25 Apr - 5 Nov 2023 March 21, 2023The exhibition 'Thus waves come in pairs', the title of which is taken from the poem 'Sea and Fog' by Etel Adnan, sees the encounter...Read more -
Simone Fattal: In the heart of another country
Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Hamburg, DE
group show
28 Oct 2022 - 12 March 2023 October 28, 2022Erzählungen aus der Diaspora Werke der Sharjah Art Foundation CollectionRead more -
Etel Adnan & Simone Fattal: Working Together
Fondazione Antonio Dalle Nogare, Bozen, IT
06 May – 5 Nov 2022 May 6, 2022Curated by Vincenzo de Bellis. An intimate and domestic exhibition conveying the warmth of the artists’ works across painting, sculpture and literature, with more than...Read more -
Simone Fattal: The Milk of Dreams
59th Venice Biennale, Scarpa Garden in the International Pavilion, Venice, IT
curated by Cecilia Alemani
23 Apr – 27 Nov 2022 April 23, 2022 -
Simone Fattal: Beirut and the Golden Sixties: A Manifesto of Fragility
Gropius Bau, Berlin, DE
25 Mar – 12 Jun 2022 March 25, 2022Beirut and the Golden Sixties: A Manifesto of Fragility revisits a turbulent chapter in global modernism in Beirut from the 1958 Lebanon crisis to 1975,...Read more -
Simone Fattal: Finding a Way
Whitechapel Gallery, London, GB
21 Sep 2021 – 5 May 2022 September 21, 2021For her first solo presentation in the UK, internationally acclaimed artist, Simone Fattal leads us on a journey of transformation. Imagining the large, brick-lined gallery...Read more