BASSMI IBRAHIM

Education:

1961, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt
1961-1966, Art Techniques and Modern Aesthetics (non credit courses), School of Fine Art, Cairo, Egypt

Born in Cairo in 1941, Bassmi Ibrahim’s aesthetic education began at home with his father, who was devoted to photography. At school, Bassmi’s talent was recognized at 14 by an art teacher, who for the next seven years instructed him privately both in traditional techniques and in “how to feel and think as an artist". Bassmi went on to study at Ain Shams University, receiving his BA degree in art in 1963. Bassmi attended 4 years of noncredit studies at the College of Fine Art, and while the curriculum focused on making art in older styles, ranging from classical to Impressionist, Bassmi was deeply attracted to modern painting, that eventually became his lifelong preoccupation. In 1965, awakening early one morning with his mind clear and open, Bassmi realized a need to paint from his inner self. What followed was an outpouring of 150 small ink wash images, that connected the observable and the subconscious. This approach, which the artist calls, “painting from my gut and not my mind”, would prove basic to Bassmi’s art.

In the mid-1960s, the artist moved to New York, immersing himself in the world of abstract art. One day in Greenwich Village, Bassmi encountered in person one of his artistic influences, Mark Rothko. Later, while seeing his work the older artist encouraged Bassmi in his path as a painter, and Rothko remains a spiritual mentor. Other important influences include the Abstract Expressionists de Kooning and Pollock, and the Color Field painters Paul Jenkins and Helen Frankenthaler. During this period, Bassmi’s abstract paintings were shown in New York.

In the mid-1970s Bassmi moved to Clearwater, Fl where he took over his father’s printing business and ran an art gallery. During a hiatus from painting, the artist immersed himself in the study of metaphysics and homeopathy. The spiritual depth that he explored became a touchstone for his work, with abstraction an embodiment of the boundlessness of existence itself. In 1999, the artist produced several new paintings, these canvases, while abstract, reflected the artist’s closeness to nature, as well as his feeling for the dialogue of spontaneity and control with liquid, translucent paint. From 2004-2005, Bassmi produced paintings with veils of rich color on white grounds. The Isness Series in 2005 followed a similar format and was inspired by the intrinsic reality of all experience, expressed through luminescent petals and flows of oil and acrylic paint.

Bassmi’s work is in corporate and private collections and has been widely exhibited in the United States and abroad. His recent solo exhibitions include those at St. Petersburg College, the University of South Florida, Eckerd College, Salt Creek Art Colony, Pensacola Museum of Art, Panama City Art Center and Parkersburg Art Center, West Virginia.

                                                                                                                                           - John Mendelsohn

Artist Statement

I chose abstract painting to give me access to a space beyond words. Rather than representing the outer shape of the world, these paintings express the fluid dynamism of all life. My work is a dance between myself and the medium allowing both intuitive fluidity and disciplined control.

In the studio the white canvas is contemplated in meditative silence, enabling me to enter into a special plateau of my inner being. The image shows itself unfolding over the surface of the canvas. Each work is totally spontaneous and usually made in a single session of several hours and then revisited numerous times to add layers of depth and tonal value. I use diluted oils and synthetic varnishes to create movement in translucent layers of color. The painting is totally alive during its creation, combining the freedom of the movement of the paint with an innate sense of aesthetic balance. The beauty and subtlety of what takes shape can only come from deeper layers of the inner self.

My work is concerned with the physical, the emotional, the mental and the spiritual self. All exposed with nothing held back. The viewers are invited to enter into a different area of their awareness, where the intellectual mind is silenced and the simplicity of the inner self is opened to lead them into the paintings.

Seeing the moments of joy as the viewer contemplates the work completes my sense of fulfillment as an artist.

                                                                                                                                           - Bassmi Ibrahim

Selected Solo Exhibitions:

2012 “Today’s Visual Language: Southern Abstraction”, Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, Alabama
2011 “The Isness of Being”, Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art, Tarpon Springs, Florida
2011 “The Isness of Being”, Osceola Center of Art, Kissimmee, Florida
2010 “The Isness of Being”, Mary Hardin Art Center, Gadsden, Alabama
2009 “The Isness of Being”, Ormond Beach Memorial Museum
2009 “The Isness of Being”, Burroughs - Simeon B. Chapin Museum
2008 “The Isness of Being”, Parkersburg Art Center, Parkersburg, West Virginia
2008 One Man Show at the Panama City Art Center
2007 “A Simple Expression of a Complex Thought”, Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, Florida
2006 “Releasing the Inner Child”, Salt Creek Artworks Gallery, St. Petersburg, Florida
2005 “Connections,” St. Petersburg College Seminole Campus, Seminole, Florida
2002 “d’Affair les Beaux-Arts,” University of South Florida College of Architecture, Tampa, Florida
1978 “Fluid and Solid,” Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida
1970 The Art Original, Tarpon Springs, Florida
1968 “Light Bodies,” Lynn Cottler Gallery, New York City, New York
1965 Caffee de Prenco, Paris, France
1961 Jasmine Bellarian Fine Art Gallery, Cairo, Egypt
1959 Akhenaton Fine Arts Hall, Cairo, Egypt

Selected Corporate Collections:

Barnett Bank, Tampa, Florida
Cross Cut Films, Tampa, Florida
Harper Builders, Lakeland, Florida
Laureate Medical Center, Atlanta, Georgia
Law Firm of Daniel Castillo, Tampa, Florida
Milad Contracting, Long Island, New York
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cairo, Egypt
Tampa Bay Magazine, St. Petersburg, Florida
U.S. Steel Corporation, New York City, New York
Wolfson Investments, Orlean, Virginia

Bibliography:

Mary Childs, A Conversation with Bassmi, Working Title, January 2017

Blake Flournoy, One Last Glance at the Isness of Being, Creative Loafing Atlanta, July 2016

Adam Carlson, Review of Exhibition, Creative Loafing Atlanta, September 2014

Lennie Bennett, Review of Exhibition, Tampa Bay Times, September 2011

Megan Voeller, Revew of Exhibition, Creative Loafing Tampa, August 2011

John Mendelsohn, Commentary, 2010

Casey Church, Review of Exhibition, Myrtle Beach Alternatives, September 2009

John Mendelsohn, Bassmi: Vision's Body, 2007

William Zimmer, catalog essay, June 2005

Ruthie Tucker, Amsterdam Whitney International Fine Art, Inc., essay, March 2005

Dominque Nahas, catalog essay, 2002-2003 edition

Leilani Polk, Abstract is the World, Weekly Planet, January 2003

Richard Dubin, brochure essay, Spring 2002

Jeanette Crane, review of exhibition, St. Petersburg Independent, January 12, 1978