Abu Dhabi: 94-year-old artist on her solo exhibition in UAE

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 sketches, 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 I just said to myself,  ‘I’ll do it all over again’.”

Today, at 94, Farah’s restless compulsion for 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.

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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 Lebanon 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.”

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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 colours, 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.

Farah follows a meticulous process for her stunning geometric compositions that blend lines in a seamless rhythm and harmony to transform shapes and forms into dynamic sketches with a luminous appearance. Her art often resembles beams of light.

Her artistic process, Farah shares,  largely depends on her state of mind. “I always start with a mental conception that I transfer to paper and then outline the composition. A current pencil drawing takes me two days to complete,” she says. Working out of her bedroom, which doubles as a studio, the artist reveals her art inspirations come from nature, colour and geometry.

Looking back at her artistic graph, Farah reveals, that being a female artist in Brazil in the 60s and 70s was not easy. She had to balance her teaching career early on with artistic pursuits. In 1962, she opened an art studio in Sao Paulo, officially beginning a life-long association with her creative passion. Her husband, the late Biagio Ricetti, was a constant support in her art endeavours. One of her most treasured career highlights remains her first international exhibition in 1963 – the IV Bosio International Salon in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Over the years, the artist has been part of several exhibitions, including in Brazil, France, Italy, Japan, and the US. Her artworks have been showcased at prestigious institutes such as the Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP) and Christie’s London, and are also part of prestigious collections, including the upcoming Guggenheim Museum, Abu Dhabi, and the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah. Farah’s last exhibition, held at Gomide & Co, Sao Paulo in February 2024, had garnered critical claim for her enduring relevance and innovativeness.

At 94, overcoming physical challenges is difficult, she admits. Recovering from a recent bout of pneumonia, she does respiratory and motor physiotherapy every day. “As soon as I feel up to it, I sit at my desk to sketch for at least six hours a day.” She credits her supportive family and her personal physician for their efforts to help her stay active and healthy. “They often say, as long as I’m sitting at my desk and sketching, everything is going well.”