By Ruba Hattar
Jordanian sculptor and art activist Mona Saudi passed away at the age of 76; her art gallery confirmed.
"An irrepressible personality, a great artist, sculpting in stone for over 60 years, Mona was a force of nature. She passed away peacefully last night in her beloved Beirut," they said.
Mona Saudi was born in Amman, Jordan. She grew up in a neighbourhood that was metres away from the Nymphaeum (ancient Roman public baths) and this was her playground. The proximity to a historic site gave her a profound respect for Jordan's ancient art heritage, as well as providing her with a source of inspiration for her sculptures.
As a teenager, growing up in Amman, she knew that she wanted to move to Beirut, the then centre of the Arab arts scene, and become a full time artist. At the age of 17 years, she ran away from home, taking a taxi to Beirut.In an interview with the Gulf News, she explained that she left home without her father's permission because in her family, women were banned from attending university.
In Beirut, she met influential artists, poets and intellectuals, including Adonis, Paul Guiragossian and Michel Basbous, and became part of their social circle. She held her first exhibition in a Beirut cafe, and from this raised sufficient funds to purchase a ticket to Paris.
She enrolled at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and graduated in 1973. In Paris, she fell in love with stone as a medium for her sculpture and had been using it ever since.
Saudi's work has been exhibited around the world. Today, pieces of her artworks are in the collections of cultural institutions around the world including the Sharjah Art Foundation, the British Museum in London, National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC and the Ministry of Culture in Cairo, The National wrote.
