Biography

Joseph G. Sassine (b. 1936) graduated in architecture from the Académie libanaise des Beaux-Arts in 1967, and in urbanism from the American University of Beirut in 1969. He opened his private architecture practice in 1970, undertaking several projects in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia until 1976 when he became Secretary General of the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR). In 1983, Sassine became CEO of Banque de l’Habitat and continued to pursue his artistic research in private.

Artistic research and creations that were once isolated and solitary endeavors are today unveiled and brought into the public eye.

What may have for Joseph Sassine been born out of frustration or personal rebellion against a career far removed from the arts and his architectural training, has also become a force, a tenacity to relentlessly give expression to the desire to create.

Sassine’s first paintings, produced in the 1970s, are inspired by Byzantine icons. Drawing on elements of Middle Eastern history, particularly the Sumerian, Egyptian, Phoenician, and Byzantine civilizations, Sassine developed an original pictorial language in an abstract and modern style, structured by the golden ratio. He created a medium of his own with a base of glass and porcelain powder, through which he expresses the essence of his quest for light.