Alfred Basbous

Alfred Basbous (1924 to 2006) was a Lebanese artist who worked in stone, marble, wood and bronze. He was born in Rachana, a village in northern Lebanon. His central subject was the human figure, and his early work centred on the female form. Over time he pared the body into rounded volumes, curves and openings, and his later sculptures grew more fluid. He also made public monumental works in Beirut and other Lebanese cities.

Basbous trained and worked first as a stonemason. In 1960 a French government scholarship took him to the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, to study with René Collamarini. The Three Brothers (1980) is a bronze painted white, 72 cm high. Caring (1982) is a bronze with black and blue patina, 120 cm high. Composition (1989) pairs two upright bronze elements, 200 cm and 170 cm tall. Monumental (1992) is a bronze 260 cm high. From 1994 to 2004 he organised the International Sculpture Symposium, which brought artists from many countries to Rachana.

He showed in the Musée Rodin's International Sculpture Exhibition, Paris, in 1961, 1966 and 1974. He received the Prix de L'Orient, Beirut (1963), and the Salon d'Automne prize at the Sursock Museum, Beirut (1964 and 1965). He won a prize at the Alexandria Biennale (1974) and a posthumous gold medal of the Lebanese Order of Merit (2006). Later solo shows include Sophia Contemporary Gallery, London (2017), and Tabari Artspace, Dubai (2020). In 2022 his work appeared in Beirut and the Golden Sixties at the Gropius Bau, Berlin, and at macLyon for the 16th Biennale de Lyon. Alfred Basbous: Sculpting the Line opened at the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation, Abu Dhabi, in 2026. His work is in the collections of the Ashmolean Museum, the Musée Rodin, the Hakone Open-Air Museum and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.