BEAMS OF LIGHT: A SOLO EXHIBITION BY HABUBA FARAH

Tessy Koshy:Journalist  
May 9, 2025
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‍In 1936, five-year-old Habuba Farah did something impulsive that would set the tone of her life. Her Lebanese immigrant parents, living in Getulina, Sao Paulo in Brazil, had just painted their house white when little Farah took a piece of charcoal and covered an entire wall with sketch-es, drawing a coconut tree, butterflies, a mountain, a river, and some houses. "Of course, I was scolded, she recollects, "The sad part was seeing my sketches erased. But Ijust said to myself, I’ll do it all over again”
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Today, at 94, Farah's restless compulsion or art has earned her the reputation of a geometric abstraction artist. Despite her age and related health challenges, she sketches for at least six hours every day and is currently exhibiting a curated collection of artworks at the Artbooth gallery in Abu Dhabi.Beams of Light, Farah's first solo exhibition in the Middle East, showcases the Lebanese-Brazilian artist's exploration of colour, geometry, and movement, tracing her more-than-seven-decade artistic journey. The exhibition runs till May 25. A practitioner of abstract art, particularly lyrical geometric abstraction, the artist has conducted her own chromatic experiments over the years, resulting in the discovery of new shades, cut-outs, and collages. Her first art showcase in the Arab community holds a special place for Farah, who, due to her advanced age, has been unable to travel to UAE. "This exhibition is a reconnection to my roots, a tribute to the culture of my parents, which shaped me and my siblings" she explains.

In the early 20th century, Farah's parents, Elias Farah and Marian Gattaz Ichai, had immigrated from southern Lebarion to Brazil. Farah, born in 1931, was the youngest of their five children. As their mother passed away when Farah was just 10, she and her 13-year-old sister were sent to a boarding school in the neighbouring city of Lins, from where they graduated as teachers. "I began drawing even before learning to read and write. At a very young age, I would spontaneously create abstract and geometric sketches without any prior knowledge of artistic movements," shares Farah. The boarding school also encouraged and nurtured her artistic education. "I chose to become a geography teacher partly because drawing is integral to this field”

Farah was greatly influenced by the vibrant art scene in Sao Paulo. Through the 1950s she expanded her artistic arc by studying painting under Brazilian artists Samson Flexor and Mario Zanini. Her early encounters with them led to her exploring geometric abstractions in her art, where she veered towards a playful display of lines and forms termed as lyrical geometric abstraction. "It was in geometry that I found everything I sought, a fusion of form and colour in a lyrical expression" explains Farah.By 1958, she had started researching on the colour contrast theories of French chemist Michel Eugene Chevreul. Her own resultant study led to the neutrals of colour theory, exploring the subtle gradations of tones and semitones. At the Beams of Light exhibition, visitors will be able to view her sketches with neutral grey or coloured grey, a tone she achieved by mixing equal parts of a primary colour with its diametrically opposite secondary colour. "The neutrals of colour theory has been the research focus of my life," says Farah, who no longer works with traditional paints and has instead opted to create intricate sketches with pencil colours. "I had always painted with oil col-ours, but they proved to be detrimental to my health. So, for several years now, I have dedicated myself to drawing with coloured pencils and rediscovering my fascination with geometry through collages and cut-outs," she reveals.

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