![]() ![]() ![]() At a time when geometric abstraction was coming into its own in Europe, Choucair annoyed the French by pointing out that Arabs had beaten them to it. Back in a recently independent Lebanon, Choucair had joined the nationalist Arab Cultural Club, a group aimed at debunking the assumption that western art was inherently superior. This partisan claim echoed her new political beliefs. “Rather, he searched for beauty in the essence of the subject, extracting it from all the adulterations that had accumulated since the time of the Greeks.”Ĭomposition in Blue Module, 1947-51, by Saloua Raouda Choucair on show at Tate Modern, London, in 2013. “The Arab never took much interest in visible reality,” Choucair noted. In her 1951 manifesto, How the Arab Understood Visual Art, she set out to rewrite western orientalism from an oriental point of view. ![]() In 1943 she had been to Cairo it was there that she first became aware of Arabic art. The following year, Saloua entered the studio of Fernand Léger, an experience that would both shape and haunt her. In 1948, her younger daughter left for Paris and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Lebanon had been under French mandate from 1920 to 1943 like most bourgeois Beirutis, Zalfa was a keen francophile. After that, Saloua studied natural sciences at the American Junior College for Women, then philosophy at the American University of Beirut, earning her keep at the latter by working as a librarian. She sent her daughter to the progressive al-Ahliyya National School for Girls, then to painting lessons with two of Lebanon’s most distinguished artists, Moustaffa Faroukh and Omar Onsi. Happily for Saloua, her mother was strong-minded, comfortably off and educated. Shortly after his daughter’s birth, Salim was conscripted into the Ottoman army he died of typhus a year later, leaving Zalfa to raise their three children. Lebanon was then part of the crumbling Ottoman Empire, at war with Britain and France. She was born in Beirut to Salim Raouda, a landowner and pharmacist, and his wife, and cousin, Zalfa Najjar. Photograph: Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation Chimurenga Nikhil Chopra (1974) Saloua Raouda Choucair (1916 - 2017) Chang-sup CHUNG (1927) Abraham Cruzvillegas (1968) Papy Ebotani Rene Gabri Ahmad Ghossein Heung-Soon IM (1969) Iman Issa (1979) Michael Joo (1966) Maryam Kashani Mohammed Kazem (1969) Hassan Khan (1975) Kristine Khouri Beom Kim (1963) Byron Kim (1961) Lala Rukh (1948 - 2017) Kit Lee Jac Leirner (1961) Faustin Linyekula Jawshing Arthur Liou Cinthia Marcelle (1974) Rodney McMillian (1969) Julie Mehretu (1970) Mixrice Asunción Molinos Gordo Eduardo Navarro (1979) Damián Ortega (1967) Rasha Salti Hassan Sharif (1951 - 2016) Taro Shinoda (1964) Gary Simmons (1964) Nasrin Tabatabai (1960) Rayyane Tabet Rirkrit Tiravanija (1961) Adrián Villar Rojas (1980) Danh Vō (1975) Tan XU (1957) HaeGue Yang (1971) Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (1977) Abdul Hay Mosallam Zarara Fahr-el-nissa Zeid (1901 - 1991) Abbas & Abou-Rahme (2009) ĭoug Aitken (1968) Francis Alÿs (1959) Miguel Amat (1971) Regina Aprijaskis (1921 - 2013) Antonio Asis (1932 - 2019) Emilia Azcárate (1964) Alberto Borea (1979) Stanley Brouwn (1935 - 2017) James Brown (1951) Carlos Bunga (1976) Daniel Buren (1938) Sérgio de Camargo (1930 - 1990) Mario Carreño (1913 - 1999) Natalia Castañeda (1982) Carla Chaim (1983) Lygia Clark (1920 - 1988) Dadamaino (1930 - 2004) Sandú Darié (1908 - 1991) Willys de Castro (1926 - 1988) Iran do Espírito Santo (1963) Leonardo Drew (1961) Danilo Dueñas (1956) Felipe Dulzaides (1965) Ólafur Eliasson (1967) Eugenio Espinoza (1950) Feng Qin (1961) José Gabriel Fernández (1957) Magdalena Fernández (1964) Fernanda Fragateiro (1962) Mario García Torres (1975) Theaster Gates (1973) GEGO (1912 - 1994) Gunther Gerzso (1915 - 2000) Jaime Gili (1972) Mathias Goeritz (1915 - 1990) Fernanda Gomes (1960) Alberto Greco (1931 - 1965) Sarah Grilo (1919 - 2007) Andreas Gursky (1955) Barbara Hepworth (1903 - 1975) Arturo Herrera (1959) Alfred Julius Jensen (1903 - 1981) Rashid Johnson (1977) Donald Judd (1928 - 1994) William Kentridge (1955) Jannis Kounellis (1936 - 2017) Liz Larner (1960) Suwon Lee (1977) Jac Leirner (1961) Sol LeWitt (1928 - 2007) Renata Lucas (1971) Guido Llinas (1923 - 2005) Anna Maria Maiolino (1942) Sameer F.Saloua Raouda Choucair in the mid-1970s. ![]() Etel Adnan (1925 - 2021) Babak Afrassiabi (1969) Abdullah Al Saadi (1967) Rheim Alkadhi (1973) Ayreen Anastas Leonor Antunes (1972) Uriel Barthélémi Eric Baudelaire (1973) Mark Bradford (1961) Unnikrishnan C. ![]()
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