Tom Young

Tom Young is an artist from Britain with strong emotional and cultural connections to Lebanon: he has lived there for the past 15 years, his studio is in Beirut, where he has been welcomed and is part of the local community, drawing inspiration and creativity from the intense urban setting, which is both chaotic, and at times, surprisingly peaceful.

This current exhibition ‘BE/Longing II’ is the second part of an exhibition which took place in Tom Young’s gallery in Gemmayzeh, Beirut from December 2023 to January 2024. The paintings explore belonging and memory through a sense of identification with place: how certain buildings, landscapes and quality of light give us our sense of self. And as the artist says, ‘if we can truly be, then we are not longing for anything because we are already complete.’

The paintings in this exhibition are a visual testimony to the artist’s attempt to make sense of his own shifting cultural identity and belonging, underlined by his deep attachment to both England, his country of birth and Lebanon, his adopted artistic abode. The two countries are a constant subject in his works; he embraces an attachment to both. Thus, there are hybrid cityscapes of London and Beirut with sharp, yet dreamlike qualities and traditional architecture amidst lush greenery. The contrast between the modern, urban environment and the more conventional setting is striking in the paintings; yet the artist has managed to blend the barriers and thereby created very unusual landscapes which are simultaneously surreal and familiar. Many of the cityscapes are seen from above, directing one’s eye towards them from the perspective of ‘the witness’, detached yet involved.

‘A Tale of Two Galleries’ depicts Young’s studio/gallery in Beirut on the left (where the work is made), fusing into the Marie José Gallery in London on the right (where the work is shown). The River Thames flows in front of the galleries, from East back to West, and above, modern Beirut rising, from a river to the Mediterranean. The presence of water, in the words of the artist, evokes a feeling of constant movement and renewal. The theme of flowing water in both countries is also explored in ‘Flowing East’, where the view is seen from the Shard towards East London, where the artist has ancestral connections, juxtaposed by the scene of the Corniche seafront and Ras Beirut, observed from the infamous tower of the bullet-scarred Holiday Inn - derelict since the Civil War.

Many of the buildings in the paintings are monuments to historic, even tragic events. Lebanon’s long-standing pivotal role on the world’s geopolitical stage continues to be felt acutely today - the current conflict in neighbouring Palestine and the consequent humanitarian catastrophe casts a dark shadow which may not be lifted for many generations to come. The legacy of war and colonialism has had a long past in the region and remains so today; it is often an undercurrent in Young’s work.

‘Double Standard’ was made in response to the current conflict in Gaza and South Lebanon. The City of London and the iconic Tower Bridge are in the forefront merging into destroyed buildings and refugee tents in Rafah. As its name suggests, the dramatic juxtaposition of the subject matter raises questions about arms and their manufacture, huge profits made from human suffering; and furthermore, are we all entitled to human rights, and are we all equal under the International Law?

But there is also light: music festivals on the streets of Notting Hill in London (‘Carnival’) and Beirut’s Gemmayzeh (‘Festival’) are celebrated in blazing sunshine, and the artist’s passion for heritage architecture and the natural environment is vividly depicted– many combining the beauty of nature with modern structures towering above. The effect of blurring one image into another is achieved by wiping the oil paint when it is still wet, suggesting a sense of impermanence and movement. Yet somehow the transition between opposites is seamless – one blends harmoniously to the other, offering glimpses of architectural detail, blue skies, snow-capped mountains and fragrant flowers.

In ‘Rose House Garden’, the iconic, now disintegrating, pink mansion house in Manara, Ras Beirut seems to be soaring upwards, whilst ‘Survival (Al Zaher)’ is painted in its multi-layered urban context: surviving years of rapid urban development, a building which hosted important events as the former British Ambassador’s Residence from 1941-85, then left to ruin during the Civil War and subsequently rescued and established as an orphanage. The artist taught the children in its garden where a collective exhibition of their works was held in April 2017. Young hints at the roots of his sensitivity to historic architecture: bringing us back to his native England, he paints the old stone house of his father in Northamptonshire, where he has a garden studio, often a refuge in times of conflict.

In ‘Dreamlands’ there are blending flowers, butterflies and landscapes of Mount Lebanon on the left with England on the right (the artist’s family home garden is depicted on the far right, where there is also a Cedar of Lebanon). The artist feels a strong emotional resonance with Lebanon because of the tragic loss of his mother when he was 10 years old, and more recently, the loss of his sister.

Nature, especially flowers, holds deeply emotional and empowering memories for Young: as a boy, he remembers how his mother loved wild flowers and flower arranging, and he was taught to paint nature from life by his artist grandmother. Further back into family history, Young’s great-great aunt was a well-known 19th century pioneering botanical painter Marianne North, who travelled around the world in search of rare plants. In Kew Gardens, London, there is a gallery dedicated to her life and work.

The overarching aim of the artist is “to express a sense of energy and inner light, vitality and meaning in all that surrounds us”. The transient quality of his works allows us, the viewers, to experience these sentiments, for a few moments at least.