By Firas HADDAD, Vice Chairman of Al Bayader’s Group ( Nathalie’s Husband). Nathalie Art is not, as many conceive it to be, a transitional phase that one acquires to create it; it is a way of life. In other words, art does not end at the aesthetic beauty of a painting, or the linguistic appreciation of a work of literature. If properly appreciated, it infests itself in one’s life and continuously evolves into infinite source of inspiration that fuels an artist’s life. Nathalie was one who subsequently lived an artist’s life with such a manifesto in mind. Inspired chiefly by aesthetic art and literature, Nathalie spent a lifetime constantly assimilating art in everything she took charge of; she viewed everything through a personal, unique and yet an intangible artistic lens. In literature, her main interests were loyal to romantic works. As a teenager, she developed an interest in one of the most important poets that contributed to romanticism: Charles Baudelaire. Her interest in the French poet’s works would finally mold the final stage of her artistic character. A thorough and careful study of her recent works would expose the almost inconceivable influence romantic literature had on her; the essence of many artists from Arthur Rimbaud to Paul Claudel are merely self-evident in her works. On the other hand, realism did not pertain to her personally molded work. For instance, she was greatly influenced by Victor Hugo’s romantic poetry; however, she was not inspired of his social, realistic works such as Les Misérables. Though literature was a wide source of inspiration to her, aesthetic art was undoubtedly the greater source; it was her ultimate passion. Moreover, she frequently linked literature to art permitting a parallel investment in both. She studied all schools of art; however, those that inspired her the most were the impressionist and post-impressionist movements of the nineteenth and twentieth century respectively. Emerging from these movements were many great artists that left a significant impact on her, such as: Pierre-August Renoir, Henri Monnier, Paul Cezanne, Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Toulouse Lautrec and Vincent Van Gogh. She was much less inspired by the surrealist movement that contained artists such as Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso, with the exception of his Blue Period which she greatly admired. The rich artistic background that she founded for herself eventually led her to the stage and décor world, a domain that she would invest the next few years by studying at the most elegant schools in Paris. As a young artist, she was initially greatly influenced by Maximalism and Deco Art between the world wars. Her love of stage and cinema led her to attend on an average of half a dozen of cinema and theatre projections and shows during her long stay in Paris. I then noticed that she viewed everything, as I have earlier pointed out, through an artistic lens. Everything from the light to the movements and the use of silence during a scene had an artistic meaning to her. Such an approach to life surprised me at first. Additionally, her migration to the orient exposed her to an art that she had briefly caught sight of in the oriental works of eminent artists such as Delacroix and Matisse. She, from then on, grew very fond of the orient and its art. She finally viewed and loved the orient as an oriental person would; she loved all its components from the desert dune, to the perfume aroma, to the mosques and churches of Damascus and finally the Lebanese Oaks and Cedars. However, she utilized this passion for the orient as a suppressant to her spiritual hunger and not as a means to replace her western foundations that she supported all throughout her life. Upon her arrival in Dubai in 1993, she worked with me at Al Bayader in order to fulfill a single yet noble objective; to support me in the performance of my role and responsibilities with our family’s company. Her mere presence always inspired ideas due to her dynamic character. She constantly inspired minds at work due to all the details she addressed with an artistic, technological and market-oriented outlook. She innovated many creative ideas within the single-use food packaging industry, and in my opinion, her loss was great not only to me, our children and Al Bayader, but to the larger industry as well. In addition to her creative spirit, her passion and dedication to her craft and duties stirred countless productive and constructive deliberations within the company’s decision-makers. As such it almost never failed to conclude in momentous achievements that blossomed Al Bayader’s presence in the market. In early years at Al Bayader she believed that art must be used in the disposable industry as an end and not as a means. We passionately discussed this; however, we never agreed on it. She continuously refused to believe such a claim due to her persistent artistic character. With experience, Nathalie began to merge creativity, in addition to the already present artistic approach, within her occupation in order to provide customers with more convenient solutions. Subsequently, her general artistic taste slowly began to abandon Maximalism, which used to shape her works, and moved on to Minimalism. Moreover, she began to believe in aesthetics and the functionality of the English approach which is more practical than the French school in my point of view, as well as the positive force of simplicity of the American manner especially in interior design. Sharing and living with someone as inimitable and passionate as Nathalie cannot but fulfill one with an unforgettable, rich and extraordinary imprint. She tirelessly exposed her children to art, planning visits to the most important museums in France such as: Mussée d’Orsay, Centre George Pompidou and Musée du Louvre. Passionate by art, she hoped to transmit to her children this passion both theoretically and spiritually. She was a multi-colored rainbow that appeared and left very quickly, but a rainbow that has unquestionably inspired the many that have experienced her dynamic presence. Today, I am following and doing my utmost in stretching my scholarly and artistic capacity. I humbly attempt to continue her unfinished pursuits of the many raw creative ideas she had initiated with her distinguished team in Al Bayader.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Jul 2013 12:18:15 +0000
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