Untitled

'Each color has its own climate, creates its own particular world; inviolate, each colour speaks with quiet seduction.'

-Helen Khal in C.Nammour, Helen Khal, Beirut 2004

The present work shows just how Khal was able to merge different concepts of abstraction and colour whilst still exploring the human figure. Inspired by the colours of the Mediterranean, Khal still manages to combine elements of the Orient and Americanised concepts, whose reputation was firmly established by the time Khal came to America. Khal is able to translate her fascination for the light of the Mediterranean coast while simultaneously playing on her attraction to form and colour exemplified by a bold use of horizontal lines.

Helen Khal explored the diversity of different colours and the relationship between them during her years of training at The Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA) under the guidance of art teachers Cesar Gemayel (1898-1958) and Fernando Manetti (1899-1964). There, her style leaned more towards French Impressionism; focusing solely on colour. In Khal's work, abstraction and figuration complement each other, possibly influenced by her encounter with both Colour Field Painting and Contemporary Realism during her time in America. The artist had a solo show in 1969 in her birthplace of Allentown, Pennsylvania, just around the time she painted the present work. Despite her love for abstraction, she constantly felt the need to return to the human figure and the the obvious forms borrowed from nature.