ArtDayME: Asaad Arabi, Syrian artist, theorist, and critic, has passed away.

Influenced by his memories of Syria, he developed a unique painting style depicting cityscapes, rhythms, and the sensual expressions of the human body. His canvases oscillated between representation and abstraction, often bridging the two, with colour fields and forms that carried a lyrical quality. Music played a recurring role in his practice, as he believed deeply in the association between sound and form.

Born in Damascus in 1941, Arabi graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Damascus University before moving to Paris in 1975. There, he earned a diploma in painting from the Higher Institute of Fine Arts and later obtained a PhD in Aesthetics from the Sorbonne University.

Over his long career, Arabi masterfully combined composition and colour, creating unity across both his abstract and figurative works. His paintings often revealed figures, architectural forms, and patterns within structured colour blocks, while his figurative works portrayed bodies in hues blending seamlessly with their surroundings.

His works are part of major public and private collections, including the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, the Barcelona Contemporary Museum of Art, the National Museum in New Delhi, the National Museum of Korea in Seoul, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery in the US, and the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah.