1st Edition

Modern Art in Cold War Beirut Drawing Alliances

By Sarah Rogers Copyright 2021
162 Pages 15 Color & 17 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

162 Pages 15 Color & 17 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

162 Pages 15 Color & 17 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Modern Art in Cold War Beirut: Drawing Alliances examines the entangled histories of modern art and international politics during the decades of the 1950s and 1960s. Positing the Cold War as a globalized conflict, fraught with different political ideologies and intercultural exchanges, this study asks how these historical circumstances shaped local debates in Beirut over artistic pedagogy, the... Read more

Introduction. Modern Art in Lebanon: The Problematics of Forging an Authentic, National Art 1. Beirut as Cultural Capital: Cosmopolitanism in the Shadow of the Cold War 2. An Artistic Coup: Maryette Charlton and the Founding of the American University of Beirut’s Department of Fine Arts 3. The Artist as Cultural Diplomat: John Ferren in Beirut, 1963-64 4. Abstraction’s Universalist Assumptions: Local Debates on the Practice of Art 5. Figuration, International Alliances, and Palestinian Art in Beirut: The Painting of Tamam al-Akhal and Ismail Shammout Conclusion. Lessons from the Cold War and the Possibilities of Global Modernism

Biography

Sarah Rogers, PhD is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art and Architecture at Middlebury College.