Impressive People: Paintings by Pierre Koukjian

Pierre Koukjian is an award winning Lebanese painter born in Beirut in 1962. He left Lebanon in the mid 1970’s when the civil war broke out. He worked in jewelry making in numerous workshops around Europe and was really good at it until he discovered his passion for painting. He painted as a hobby at first and many clients requested to keep some of his paintings, most of his early ones are owned by celebrities. In 2002, Pierre Koukjian launched delaCour atelier, gaining immense amount of artistic freedom.

I saw him on a TV interview a few months ago and saw how he works. He plans ahead his paintings by “designing them” which is very impressive. This gives his work an invigorated feel with limitless creative bounds. His latest series, “Impressive People,” is a Pop-inspired collection of oil paintings that are tributes to people who have left their impression on most of us and who still affect us today. At times he was bold in his choice of character such as in his painting of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah who without a doubt & no matter how you perceive him you can’t but admit his charisma , in addition to great singers and artists of the Arab world such us Lebanon’s pride Fairouz, Lebanon’s artist of the decade Haifa, Egypt’s queen of traditional singing Um Kalthoum, and world influential people such as the Dali Lama and Indira Ghandi.