Alfred Basbous: Sculpting the Line brings sculptures by the Lebanese sculptor Alfred Basbous (1924 to 2006) to the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation in Saadiyat Cultural District, Abu Dhabi. It runs from 17 October 2026 to 17 January 2027 and is organised with the Alfred Basbous Foundation, which manages the artist's estate. The works illustrated by the venue are bronzes cast in editions of eight, most with black and blue patinas, from about 70 to 260 centimetres high.

The venue lists The Three Brothers (1980), a bronze painted white, with Caring (1982), Mouvement (1985) and Monumental (1992). Composition (1989) is made of two narrow upright elements of 200 and 170 centimetres. In his work the human figure, the central subject of his practice, is pared back into rounded volumes, curves and open voids. Solid material takes on a sense of lift and motion.

Basbous was born in 1924 in Rachana, a village in northern Lebanon, into a family tied to stone carving. He worked first as a stonemason, and his brother Michel also became a sculptor. In 1960 a French government scholarship took him to Paris, where he studied with René Collamarini at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts. His sculptures appeared in the International Sculpture Exhibition held at the Musée Rodin in 1961, 1966 and 1974. He worked in stone, marble, wood and bronze, letting each material guide the form.

From 1994 to 2004 Basbous ran the International Sculpture Symposium in Rachana, inviting sculptors from abroad to spend time making work in the village. His honours include the Prix de L'Orient in 1963 and a prize at the Alexandria Biennale in 1974. The exhibition coincides with a new monograph on the artist, published by Skira in 2026. The foundation sets it beside its shows of Paul Guiragossian and of Etel Adnan, Helen Khal and Lana Khayat.