Bibi Zoghbi
Born in the coastal city of Sahel Alma, Lebanon, in 1890, Labibeh Zoghbi, known as Bibi, immigrated to Argentina at the age of 16. Her professional artistic career began in the 1930s with a number of exhibitions in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, in Chile and Uruguay, in Paris and elsewhere. She led an adventurous life traveling from country to country reaching Europe and Africa. At the end of World War II, she divided her time between Paris and Dakar and from there she went to Lebanon in 1947. Her long-awaited dream of returning to Lebanon came true. She participated in a collective exhibition at the National Museum of Lebanon. She also held a one-woman show during the same year. Bibi received the Lebanese Cedar-Medallion of Excellence.
She became known as “The Flower Painter”; being loyal to a joyful mode of painting and mostly dedicated to painting flowers. In her floral representations, she transcended the purely decorative aesthetics and showed the eternal quest for spring and renewal through the enchanting flowers of her native land. It also reflected her passionate and adventurous soul. She was a free spirit who transgressed the social rules and built a career and recognition out of her art. She died in Argentina in 1975.