Summary
When looking into Lebanese art history and the key players from the fabled Golden Age that impacted today's art scene, Helen Khal's name is unlikely to come up.
The show uses Khal's life as the genesis for exploring the work of artists she was connected to in life and art. Rather than look at individual artists through retrospectives, Dedman said that the intimate relationships between artists was what drove the narrative.
The artistically fluid relationship between artists is also highlighted.
As a writer, Helen was important in forming a discourse around understanding the contemporary Middle Eastern art scene at that time.
The second section, "Poetry and Painting," explores the connection between the era's literary landscape and the development of visual art. Yusuf Khal's founding of the poetry journal "Shi'ir" in 1957 paved the way for modern Arab poets and how artists interacted with the written word.
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