The Garden

Oil painting with palette knife,61 cm X 76 cm (24 in x 30 in), 2024

Responding to Garden from the 1947 exhibition, Fouad Tomb has chosen to paint the steadfast cacti as an act of remembrance and an homage to his father Maroun Tomb. Through the lost works, Fouad was able to reconnect with his father’s Palestinian identity, which had faded over time— fragmented by distance, silence, and exile. The research materials uncovered through this project—especially the archival documents and artworks—profoundly moved Fouad and opened new emotional and historical pathways back to a culture he had been disconnected from for most of his life. Not only does he engage with his father’s work, but he also reclaims a personal and cultural narrative that was once interrupted. His father was his first art instructor, teaching him through observation and collaboration, down to the brushstroke. By choosing to paint cacti rather than a traditional flower garden, Tomb challenges conventional perceptions of beauty and nature, inviting viewers to appreciate diversity and remember the resilience and adaptability of flourishing in harsh environments.

Fouad Tomb is a Lebanese artist and educator currently residing in Montreal, Canada. He comes from a family with a strong artistic background, notably his father, Maroun Tomb, a Lebanese painter of Palestinian descent, who made significant contributions to pictorial modernism in Lebanon. Tomb’s artistic journey was inspired by his father’s passion for art. He lived in various places, including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia during the Lebanese Civil War. Eventually he and his family emigrated to Canada, seeking opportunity and freedom. It was in Montreal that he was able to rekindle his passion for painting by pursuing a formal arts education and training in the techniques of the Great Masters.