Born in New York in 1924, Joan Aghib was an American artist, painter and printmaker, active in New York, Paris, Brussels and Vienna from the early 1960s until her death in 2008. After studying literature at the University of Michigan, she worked for five years at Life Magazine, as editorial assistant and reporter. In New York, she worked with post-war artists, photographers and writers such as Gordon Parks,
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Biography of Joan Aghib
Born in New York in 1924, Joan Aghib was an American artist, painter and printmaker, active in New York, Paris, Brussels and Vienna from the early 1960s until her death in 2008. After studying literature at the University of Michigan, she worked for five years at Life Magazine, as editorial assistant and reporter.
In New York, she worked with post-war artists, photographers and writers such as Gordon Parks, Willem de Kooning and Jack Kerouac. She then worked as a stylist, notably for David Crystal. In 1955, she married Milan-born engineer Edward Gulio Aghib.
A student of the German painter Hans Hofman, whose art marked a breakthrough in pictorial abstraction and heralded American abstract expressionism; later trained at the Pratt Graphic Art Center, Joan Aghib soon worked on her own account, in particular using Japanese-influenced woodcut techniques.
Arriving in Paris in 1967, she joined Stanley William Hayter's Atelier 17, which was frequented by many of the twentieth century's leading artists, including Calder, Max Ernst, Mark Rothko, Louise Nevelson and Joan Miro! In the 60s, Hayter developed a viscosity printing process (Simultaneous Color), the distinctive feature of which is that it enables several colors to be printed in a single pass through the press. Joan Aghib explores the subject of landscape, sometimes rural in almost abstract compositions, sometimes urban in vertical views of Brussels or New York under construction. Textures, important in her conception of images, come from the use of soft varnish to capture the imprints of various materials (mesh, lace, cane, cardboard).Moving to Brussels in 1970, Joan Aghib introduced Hayter's technique to Belgium, working successively with Marthe Velle and René Carcan, before opening her own studio in the Cité Mommen in Saint-Josse (the oldest active artists' housing estate in Brussels). She rubbed shoulders with artists such as Lismonde and Alechinsky, who printed in her studio. She mastered several engraving techniques: etching, aquatint, drypoint and soft varnish.Her exceptionally textured zinc plates enable her to create works of a density rarely equaled in engraving. Her graphic work is made up of abstract elements assembled in a highly personal, poetic and sometimes figurative way.In addition to her personal work, Joan Aghib was a very active teacher in Brussels. She trained many artists in this particular technique. Joan Aghib left behind an impressive collection of works on paper, including etchings, linotypes, monotypes and mixed techniques. Her graphic works are included in the collections of international institutions in New York, Paris and Brussels, including the New York Public Library, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique and Centre de la Gravure et de l'Image imprimée.
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