Rita Asfour (February 9, 1933 – June 29, 2021) was an American modern artist known for her colorful paintings of the human figure. Asfour projected life and movement by the strength of her compositions. Feminine mystique and sensuality were her trademark.
Her high school education was in a French school in Egypt. In 1959, she received a BA from the Italian Art Institute Leonardo da Vinci. After graduation her first job was in Beirut, Lebanon. She started as an illustrator and ended being the art director of a weekly magazine. After five years, she was in search of a bigger artistic challenge.
Asfour immigrated to the United States in 1965 and found a job in Los Angeles at Universal Studio Tours, sketching pastel portraits of visiting tourists. Another major event that same year was her marriage to an aerospace engineer, Jeffrey Asfour. California remained her home for the next forty-seven years, where she was able to pursue her preferred subjects. Her landscapes from this period feature freer brushwork and bolder use of color. During the thirty years she lived in Malibu, she produced a substantial body of work.
In 2012, at the age of seventy-nine, Asfour retired in Las Vegas. But she went back to painting after seeing a spectacular Las Vegas showgirls review. The University of Nevada exhibited her new paintings in 2016. Public Television in 2017 aired a half-hour documentary about her long artistic career.
Asfour continued to paint until 2021. She died on June 29, 2021, after an accident that caused a broken leg.
Early life
Rita Asfour was born on February 9, 1933, in Cairo, Egypt. Her maiden name is Markrit Thomassian.
Her Armenian father, Kaspar Thomassian, was born in Turkey in 1901. Her Syrian mother, Gamila Khoury, was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1905. Her parents escaped the holocaust and ravages of World War I and ended refugees down sought in Egypt where Asfour was born.
Asfour was the second of three children. Her elementary school was run by French nuns and her high school education was at the Lycée Français.
In the middle of World War II, in 1941, Hitler bombed Cairo trying to gain access to the Suez Canal. Asfour was then eight years old. She remembers the air raids and crying under her bed. In school, her friends sketched bombs falling, but she painted flowers and happy faces. That was when she started drawing to express herself.
Education After finishing high school, Asfour spent six years studying art at Leonardo da Vinci's Scuola Internazionale Italiana, from where she graduated in 1959 with a BA.
In the United States in 1968, she took private lessons from Samuel Markitante (1887-1975), who was a French artist, living in Santa Monica, California. His specialty was Landscapes with thick layers of paint on board to give a three-dimensional effect.
In 1969, Asfour attended several classes at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, California.
Career Asfour began her career as an impressionist. She was educated at Leonardo da Vinci Art Academy and travelled from Africa to America, via Asia and Europe, to pursue her goals. These travels influenced her artistic style.
Cairo (1933–1960) While studying in college, Asfour worked in a part-time position as a colorist for a magazine. She would obtain black-and-white pencil illustrations and use watercolors to supply them with color.
Beirut (1960–1965) Asfour’s first full-time job was in Beirut, Lebanon. She was hired as an illustrator in a popular entertainment magazine, and ended up being the art director. She also contributed to a children's magazine and illustrated covers of paperback thrillers. However, her opportunities were limited, so she decided to emigrate with her existing portfolio.
Los Angeles (1965–1982) Asfour immigrated to the United States in 1965. She went to California, where she easily found a job at Universal City Studio Tours, sketching pastel portraits of tourists for $15 each.
Whenever she could, she would buy paint and canvas to start a new portfolio. Three years later, in 1968, she presented a dozen paintings to W&J Sloane in Beverly Hills, which they accepted on consignment. Collectors included Donna Reed and Ella Fitzgerald.
In 1971, Asfour opened her own art gallery, Galerie Camille, on Canon Drive in Beverly Hills. Besides selling her paintings, she was commissioned portraits of Tricia Nixon, Otis Chandler, and others.
Two years later, she gave birth to her daughter, Amber, and stayed home to take care of her only child. She continued painting. Dealers went to her house and purchased what she offered for sale.
In 1980, Asfour made a dozen sculptures in plaster, and a few were cast in paper. She made only one in bronze, but did not continue, because the process was too complicated, and involved too many people.
Art Expo 1981 in San Francisco was the first of many Art Expos in which she exhibited and sold her paintings.
Malibu (1982–2012) Asfour exhibited in shows. Sold to dealers. Interacted with the public. Advertised in print magazines. Released serigraphs and lithographs.
In 1991, Asfour had a show at Lumina Art Gallery in Trenton, New Jersey. That gallery was owned by John Salvo, who later became manager of the Martin Lawrence Galleries in Soho, New York. John bought and owns two of Asfour’s paintings
But – Asfour’s passion was somewhere else - so she stopped all that activity, and went back to painting.
Subsequently, her canvases became larger, her style freer, her colors brighter, and her subjects more varied.
To do all that, Asfour had to spend a lot of time in her studio.
Even her ballerinas had a different look after she saw the Pepperdine University ballet students shuffling around backstage before real performances. They were stressed, and that is how she portrayed them in her new ballerina paintings.
Asfour painted twelve images of Malibu landmarks, put them in a 2006 calendar that she printed and sold, then donated all the proceeds to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office.
Las Vegas (2012–2021) Asfour retired in Las Vegas in 2012, to relax in its world of entertainment, and to go back to where she was married in 1965.
Bally’s Hotel had a showgirl extravaganza called Jubilee. Asfour went there, and then to the art store to buy new paint and canvas.
She painted showgirls from that moment on, until 2021, when she left a half-finished painting on her easel.
Las Vegas Showgirls is a short documentary that shows how Rita started her showgirl’s collection.
In August 2016, the University of Nevada in Las Vegas had a six-month exhibition of Asfour’s showgirl paintings.
One year later, in 2017, Public Television aired a half-hour documentary about Asfour’s life-long journey in the art world.
Academia and public television
In 2016, Dr. Robert Tracy, from the department of Fine Arts at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, heard about Asfour living in Las Vegas and painting Las Vegas showgirls. He went to her house, carefully examined the paintings, and was impressed with the way she portrayed the dancers floating in air. He came back, interviewed Asfour again, and noted that she had a large collection of ballet dancers. It was then that he decided to curate Asfour’s collections and have an exhibit for her showgirl and ballerina dancers on the university campus.The exhibition lasted six months, and the opening ceremony was accompanied by ballet students from the university dance department, as well as a parade by professional showgirls displaying the usual costumes and feathers. The Exhibition Guide was named by Dr. Tracy, titled, “Rita Asfour – Her Way!”
In 2017, PBS in Las Vegas aired a half-hour documentary about Asfour’s life, titled, “Rita Asfour: Art Her Way.”
Later in 2021, Asfour was featured in a one-hour Vegas PBS documentary about showgirls, titled, “The Showgirl: A Las Vegas Icon.”
The recognition by both public television, and by academia at the university, was a noteworthy statement that Asfour found very pleasing.
Travels Asfour traveled to Europe many times. She went to France, Italy, Greece, and worked in Cologne, Germany. Her other travels included Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska.
In 1969, she went to Tahiti, where she spent time in the museum of Paul Gauguin. She studied his originals very closely, especially his free lines and colors.
Personal life
She married Jeffrey Asfour in November 1965, at the Tropicana Hotel, Las Vegas. In 1973 she gave birth to her child Amber.
Working alone without collaborations or joining any art group, Asfour left behind a large body of work. Among her last words, Asfour said, “I did it. And I did it my way. I said all I had to say. If you don't understand it, too bad.”
She painted for 80 years, from age eight to eighty-eight. Asfour continued to paint until two months before she died on June 29, 2021, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Philanthropy
In 1965, Asfour donated thirty paintings to the City of Hope in Los Angeles.
In 2003, Asfour donated paintings and prints to the Leukemia Society in Pittsburgh. Three years later, she donated all the proceeds from her 2006 Malibu Landmarks Calendar to the Sheriff’s Department in Malibu.
In 2020, Asfour donated Cash and prints to PBS in Las Vegas.
Legacy Dr. Robert Tracy, Ph.D., Curator, College of Fine Arts, UNLV, said, "Rita Asfour’s legacy will be that of an enabled artist who never gave up on doing it – Her Way!"
Professor Sean Clark, Associate Dean, College of Fine Arts, UNLV, said, “Rita Asfour’s work embodies the spirit of Vegas glamour, in the same way Toulouse Lautrec captured the allure of the Moulin Rouge in 19th century Paris.”
Dr. Nancy J. Uscher, Ph.D., Dean, College of Fine Arts, UNLV stated, “When you have a visionary brilliant artist like Rita Asfour, she will find the right medium to express her ideas.”
Publications
2022
Rita Asfour, Impressionist – Out of Print Rita Asfour – Everlasting Impressions by Dr. Robert Tracy, UNLV curator. Rita Asfour – Ballerinas and Showgirls, by Dr. Robert Tracy, UNLV curator. 2017 Rita Asfour – PBS Documentary, Video
2016
Rita Asfour, Her Way - An Exhibition Guidebook by Dr. Robert Tracy, UNLV curator.
1993
The Art of Giving - The Leukemia Society of America Sunstorm Fine Art Magazine - Pure Visual Sensation - by Kathleen Heiser
1992
Art Expo Preview - Facing Market Challenges, by Deborah K. Swanson Southwest Art Gallery Magazine - Real Art - by Rita Asfour The Art of Giving - The Leukemia Society of America
1991
Sunstorm Fine Art Magazine - The New Impressionists - by Andrew C. Voth
1971
Lincoln Day Celebration - Cover art Los Angeles Magazine - Art Happenings The Beverly Hills Courier - Marjorie Walker
1968
W&J Sloane Exhibition Brochure
Exhibitions (solo) Source: Rita Asfour Exhibitions: 2010 - 2019
2016 – Healy Hayes Gallery, UNLV
Rita Asfour Exhibitions: 1990 - 1999
1990 – Artexpo - New York, New York 1990 – Artexpo – Los Angeles, California 1990 – Art To Art Galleries - Studio City, California 1991 – Artexpo - New York, New York 1991 – Connoisseur Gallery - La Jolla, California 1991 – Artexpo – Los Angeles, California 1991 – Atlas Galleries - Chicago, Illinois 1991 – Village Gallery - Breckenridge, Colorado 1991 – Lumina Art Gallery - Trenton, New Jersey 1992 – Rhapsody Fine Art - West Hollywood, California 1992 – Globe Art Distributors, Ontario, Canada 1992 – Modern Art Gallery – Japan 1993 – Allan Art - Singapore 1994 – Vail Fine Art - Edwards, Colorado 1997 – Wentworth Galleries - Nationwide, USA
Rita Asfour Exhibitions: 1980 - 1989
1980 – Wally Findlay Galleries - Beverly Hills, California 1981 – Art Expo - San Francisco, California 1989 – Rhapsody Fine Art - West Hollywood, California
Rita Asfour Exhibitions: 1970 - 1979
1970 – House of Hartford Gallery - Beverly Hills, California 1971 – Galerie Camille - Beverly Hills, California