In tribute to Asaad Arabi and Habuba Farah

Remembering 15 Arab Talents We Lost in 2025

By Rawaa Talass
December 31, 2025
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A cultured polymath and renowned figure of Syrian art, Asaad Arabi was a painter, art critic and theoretician. Although Arabi had been living in Paris since 1975, his birthplace of Damascus was a constant muse in his body of work, merging abstraction and expressionism in a free-flowing manner. Be it classical music or urban scenery, Arabi’s colourful imagery paid tribute to the beauty of the region, from depicting Egyptian icon Umm Kulthum to the Levant’s traditional architecture. Arabi’s artworks have been collected around the world, in institutions such as Mathaf (Doha), Barjeel Art Foundation (Sharjah), Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts (Amman) and Institut du Monde Arabe (Paris.)

Born in Brasil to Lebanese immigrant parents, Habuba Farah experimented with geometry, form and abstraction in her ethereal and vibrant work. She led an artistic career that impressively lasted for more than seven decades, showcasing her distinctive art in Monaco, France and Japan. Ever since she was little, Farah painted and drew, even on the walls of her house. That innate streak of creativity stayed with her until the last days of her life while living with illness. Earlier this year, one of Farah’s last exhibitions, entitled “Beams of Light”, took place at Art Booth Gallery in Abu Dhabi – her first exhibition in the Middle East – where the display introduced visitors to her artworks, produced from the 1970s until the present.
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