Bassmi Ibrahim (1941-2019)

Born in Egypt in 1941, Bassmi Ibrahim’s talent was recognized at 14 by an art teacher, who for the next seven years instructed him privately both in traditional techniques and in “how to feel and think as an artist”. Bassmi went on to study at Ain Shams University, receiving his BA degree in art in 1963. Bassmi attended 4 years of noncredit studies at the College of Fine Art where Bassmi was deeply attracted to modern painting, that eventually became his lifelong preoccupation.

In the mid-1960s, Bassmi moved to New York, immersing himself in the world of abstract art. One day in Greenwich Village, Bassmi encountered in person one of his artistic influences, Mark Rothko. Later, while seeing his work, the older artist encouraged Bassmi in his path as a painter, and Rothko remains a spiritual mentor. Other important influences include the Abstract Expressionists de Kooning and Pollock, and the Color Field painters Paul Jenkins and Helen Frankenthaler. During this period, Bassmi’s abstract paintings were shown in New York.

In the mid-1970s, Bassmi moved to Clearwater, Florida where he took over his father’s printing business and ran an art gallery. During a hiatus from printing, Bassmi immersed himself in the study of metaphysics and homeopathy. The spiritual depth that he explored became a touchstone for his work, with abstraction an embodiment of the boundlessness of existence itself. The “Isness” Series in 2005 was inspired by the intrinsic reality of all experience, expressed through luminescent petals and flows of oil and acrylic paint.

Bassmi’s work is in corporate and private collections and has been widely exhibited in the United States and abroad. His solo exhibitions include those at the Leepa Rattner Museum of Art, Pensacola Museum of Art, Mobile Museum of Art and Lauren Rogers Museum of Art.