Born in Egypt, Lebanese artist Mouna Bassili Sehnaoui attended the American University of Beirut and the University of Arizona, where she studied Fine Arts. Sehnaoui works in a variety of formats ranging from painting, writing, design and sculpture. She has had solo exhibitions in Paris, Dubai, and Beirut. Sehnaoui currently lives and works in Beirut with husband Marwan, President of the Lebanese Order of Malta and sons Salim Sehnaoui and Khalil Sehnaoui.
In the seventies, Bassili Sehnaoui was in charge of the Graphic Art Department of the Lebanese National Council of Tourism. She also produced designs for stamps, packaging, posters, and book illustrations and created films for the Lebanese public television station. She later learned painting and typography, two disciplines she taught in Lebanese universities.
Her style is influenced by a Middle Eastern cultural heritage as reflected in the flat treatment of colours in both Byzantine icons and Persian miniatures. The treatment of space is very personal and brings a new dimension to a figurative approach by the use of hieroglyphic –like symbols and “windows” that open to reveal an added aspect of the subject treated.
Since the early nineties, she has produced albums of lithographs based on Phoenician legends and studied porcelain painting, while still working as a designer and illustrator. Bassili Sehnaoui has been exhibiting art since the mid-sixties. Her seemingly naïve paintings most often reference her own surroundings, her country and its cultural heritage. The works suggest a very personal interpretation of space where shapes and line interpenetrate in colourful harmonies.
Work
Her work has won several Prizes and figures in the Museum of Prints, Alexandria; the Sursock Museum, Beirut; the Art Collection of the American University of Beirut; the Bank Audi Art Collection as well as many private collections around the world.
She is also known for her paintings depicting the Lebanese civil war.
Solo exhibitions
1971 J.F. KENNEDY CENTER, BEIRUT. LEBANON.
1980 EPREUVE D’ARTISTE GALLERY, BEIRUT. LEBANON.
1987 EPREUVE D’ARTISTE GALLERY, KASLIQ. LEBANON.
1990 NICOLE BELIER GALLERY, PARIS. FRANCE.
1991 LE RETRO, EPREUVE D’ARTISTE GALLERY, BEIRUT. LEBANON.
1994 A L Turath Al ARABI GALLERY, KHOBAR. SAUDI ARABIA.
1993 50 x 70 Gallery, Beirut, LEBANON.
1996 EPREUVE D’ARTISTE GALLERY, BEIRUT. LEBANON.
1998 PAINTINGS: THE WAR YEARS, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT. LEBANON.
1999 EPREUVE D’ARTISTE GALLERY, BEIRUT. LEBANON.
2001 JANINE RUBEIZ GALLERY, BEIRUT LEBANON
2002 GREEN ART GALLERY, DUBAI, U.A.E.
2004 Janine Rubeiz Gallery, Beirut, LEBANON.
2007 October 2007, Galerie M, PARIS, FRANCE
2007 December 2007, Galerie Janine Rubeiz, Beirut, Lebanon
2011 November 2011, Salwa Zeidan Gallery, Abu Dhabi
2012 December 2012, Aida Cherfan Fine Art, Beirut, Lebanon
