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Artists and art education in time of war: Lebanon

Molaeb, Jamil Hammoud, Ph.D.

The Ohio State University, 1989

UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Aibor, MI 48106

ARTISTS AND ART EDUCATION IN TIME OF WAR LEBANON

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University

By

Jamil Hammoud Molaeb, B.A, M.F.A

*****

The Ohio State University 1989

Dissertation Committee: Approved by Dr. Arthur D. Efland Dr. Nancy MacGregor Dr. Ojo Arewa Adviser ( Dr. Patricia Stuhr Department of Art Education Copyright by Jamil Hammoud Molaeb 1989 To My Children

11 ACKNWOLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my thanks to the Hariri Foun­ dation who sponsored my study, and to the members ofmy committee. Dr. Arthur Efland, Dr. Nancy MacGregor, Dr. Ojo Arewa, and Dr. Patricia Stuhr, for their guidance. I would like also to thank my wife, Wafa, who shared life with me and typed this dissertation, and Amy Goodwin who was so helpful to me in the editing of my research. I also extend my appreciation to the Lebanese artists, Etel Adnan and Helen Khal, in the United States, and the other Lebanese artists in Beirut and Paris, who were my suppor­ ters. Many Arab poets and art critics, and journalists also helped me to accomplish this study. I am also grateful for the friendship of. Dr. Carole Weisz, Hesham Baraka, and Naji Al-Hasani. Since 1984 I have met many displaced Lebanese to whom I am also indebted, for we have shared similar experiences in Beirut, in New York, in Columbus, and in many places in the world where the Lebanese Civil War, a small world war, has touched people's lives.

I l l VITA

July 6, 1948 ...... Bom - Baissour, Lebanon 1987 ...... M.F.A. in Printmaking, Pratt Institute, New York 1 9 7 3 ...... Ecole Nationale De Beaux Arts, Algeria. 1972 ...... B.A. in Fine Arts, Lebanese University, Lebanon.

PUBLICATIONS

1975-1976...... "History of the Civil War" drawings. 1977 ...... Research paper about "Art and War" has published in Fikr magazine. 1978-1979...... "Near My Country" drawings 1970-1982...... "The End of Darkness, The Beginning of Light" woodcuts and etching. 1 9 8 2 ...... Work appeared in the Encyclopedia of Lebanese Artists, Painters, and Sculptors. 1986 ...... Work appeared in the Arab Art Agenda, published by Alif Gallery.

FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field; Art Education

IV TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION...... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...... iii VITA ...... iv CHAPTER PAGE I. THE CIVIL WAR IN LEBANON: BACKGROUND...... 1 The purpose of the study...... 1 P r o b l e m ...... 1 The statement of the problem...... 4 Before the war...... 9 The student ...... 12 How was art teaching affected by the war? 14 War generation and education...... 16 What was Lebanese art like before the war?18 Lebanese Fine A r t ...... 20 How the war affected art and the artists themselves...... 23 Six Lebanese artists and the war...... 25 Rafic Charaf ...... 26 Amin El Basha...... 27 Hassan Juni...... 29 Jamil Molaeb ...... 31 Faysal Sultan...... 32 Paul Gueragosian...... 33 How were as my art and art teaching changed by the w a r ? ...... 35 II. REVIEW OF LITERATURE: WAR AS A THEME IN ART. . 41 Man through his art, war, and peace . . . 41 Art as a weapon of life and struggle in h i s t o r y ...... 43 War has many meanings...... 44 Art as a political meaning in the ancient Near E a s t ...... 44 Lebanon's mountains and Assyrian war. . . 45 The representation of war scenes in Egypt.45 Indian art and war in Shiva Tripurantaka. 46 CHAPTER PAGE Art about war and fear in the ninth ce n t u r y ...... 46 In Japan...... 47 Art about civil war in Cambodia in the twelfth centuzry...... 47 The battle of Issus ...... 48 Greece (480-490 A.D.) ...... 49 Saint George in 494 A . D ...... 49 The fights between Catholic and Protestant...... 50 Sorrow and death, and the Christ in the works of Durer...... 51 Christianity, violence, and religions . . 52 Jacques Callot (1592-1635)...... 54 Géricault (1791-1824) ...... 55 Delacroix (1798-1863) ...... 55 D a u m i e r ...... 57 Rouault (1871-1928) ...... 59 Rodin (1871-1917)...... 60 Art and struggle in Germany and the lowlandsbefore the renaissence...... 61 Bosch (1450-1516)...... 61 Durer (1471-1528)...... 62 Hans Holbein (1497-1543)...... 63 Peter Bruegel (1525-1569) ...... 63 Germany after w a r ...... 66 Kathe Kollwitz (1867-1945)...... 67 A woman between two wars anddeat .... 68 Paul Klee and the w a r ...... 69 Art and war in Spain, Goya (1746-1818). . 70 The Third of May, Spain (1814)...... 71 Goya, m o d e m time, and themonster. . . . 73 Picasso, Guernica (1937)...... 73 A social event and a t o w n ...... 74 Spain (1937)...... 75 American artists and war...... 75 The United States political art since 1870...... 77 Blood runs through history...... 78 Russian art and revolution...... 80 The Mexican muralists...... 82 Diego Rivera (1886-1957)...... 82 Orzco (1883-1949)...... 84 Siqueiros (1896-1974) ...... 84 Arab artists and revolution after World War II...... 85 Art and war and the MiddleEast problem . 86 The effect of the war on some Lebanese

VI CHAPTER PAGE artists' works...... 87 Lebanese artists and the war...... 89 Paul Gueragosian...... 89 Etel Adnan...... 90 Helen Khal...... 91 Aref Rayes...... 93 Seta M a n o k i a n ...... 95 Halim Jurdak...... 96 Amine El Basha...... 97 III. 100 "Beauty is Truth, Truth is Beauty" (John Keats, 1795-1821) ...... 101 Truth in the press...... 101 War and truth ...... 103 Art critic, time,memory, and reality . .104 The effect of the storyteller in the Arabian Nights...... 107 Pictures in a cave...... 108 History and w o r d s ...... 109 Artist and human condition...... Ill Anthropology and personal research. . . .113 Anthropology and art...... 118 Life history and literature ...... 119 Self-identity...... 120 Conflicts...... 120 Decision...... 121 Reality and a r t ...... 121 Art expresses pain...... 123 Art against w a r ...... 123 IV. 127 The E a g l e ...... 140 The Background of the City...... 141 The Lantern of the C i t y ...... 141 The Fish...... 141 The Emigration...... 141 The Battle...... 142 Adloun...... 142 After the Bombardment...... 142 The Coffee Shop ...... 143 The Ghetto...... 143 Street Market ...... 143 The Modem Babvlon...... 144 The effect of war on myar t ...... 151

V l l CHAPTER PAGE V. 155 The effect/ of war on art cultural c e n t e r s ...... 156 The artist's reaction ...... 156 The effect of war on art galleries. . . .157 The effect of war on writers andpoets. .158 The effect of war on fine a r t ...... 158 Lebanese art, a part of Arab art...... 163 Islamic art and representation...... 164 Problems may create a new vision...... 167 Art/ education, and philosophy...... 169 Art and freedom ...... 172 The role of art in politics and revolutions...... 172 Painting and writing...... 173 Art and its role in our modem time . . .174 The role of art in education...... 176 The role of art education and art in s o c i e t y ...... 177 Art and art education confront crisis of w a r ...... 183 The night of truth...... 184 REFERENCES ...... 185

V l l l CHAPTER I THE CIVIL WAR IN LEBANON: BACKGROUND

Purpose of the study The purpose of this study is to understand how war affected Lebanese art, artists, and art education through an analysis of some Lebanese artists' works, including my own art experience. I will concentrate on the teaching of art and its role in creating culture and developing a Lebanese national-consciousness as a basis for peace.

Problem Lebanon was the first country in the Middle East to have organized education. "Schools started in Lebanon over 200 years ago when the missionaries established their first schools early in the nineteenth century" I Education in the Arab States. 1966, p. 113). Education in Lebanon until independence was foreign. In 1943 in response to this situation the Ministry of National Education began to establish public schools. It also established the Lebanese University in 1952. ("Education" Who's Who in Lebanon 1982-83, p. 258). 2 Lebanese education still has religious instzruction. In spite of independence, national education, and private education, Lebanon has failed to make its citizens nation-conscious. The present structure of the ministry of education goes back to the year 1959. According to Claude Khoury (1983), no ministry has ever really succee­ ded in developing a state system because religion has tended to make the Lebanese think of themselves first as members of smaller families made up of religious communi­ ties, and only secondarily as Lebanese (Christianitv Today, 1984, p. 10). In April 1975 after an emiption of violence in Beirut between Lebanese Christian militiamen and Palestinian commandos, the struggle took the form of a civil war among the Lebanese themselves, who as Christians and Muslims, or as conservatives and radicals, have been divided over a number of regional problems and issues for nearly two decades (Salibi, 1976, p. 1). In 1975, I was an art teacher when suddenly Lebanon's problems, complexities, and fragility came into focus-and froze. Since that time Lebanon has gone through a draining cycle of civil wars. For fourteen years the Lebanese Civil War has affected various aspects of life in general and education in particular. The Lebanese conflict seriously disrupted the education of students; 3 "the post civil war graduates began to be significantly lower in number than those of the pre-civil war years. Students also began to show high levels of street" (Lowenstein, 1983, p. 429). The damage and, in some cases, total destruction of schools and universities disrupted educational life in general. "The war has caused decline in cultural and artistic activities, and creativity in the field of art has in particular deteriorated" I Lebanon News. 1984, p. 2). There is no official community in Lebanon which supports the artist. The artist, used to individuality by nature, has to work hard to create himself by himself. Throughout this war, despite many difficulties, some Lebanese artists and art teachers have worked and exhibited their art. They have sought to express their feelings about the war in order to create hope for the community. As an artist and an art teacher before and during the first 12 years of the civil war, I realized as other Lebanese artists have, that art and art education must be an important aspect of our cultural heritage of which we should be quite proud. Our art should reflect our people's spirit and our hopes for a peaceful future. From these beliefs under these circumstances some Lebanese 4 artists worked and faced many problems to enable art education and culture to survive. In this study I examine the influence of the war in three areas: first, on the fine arts curriculum at the Lebanese University; second, the art of a group of Lebanese artists ; and third, on my art works and books.

The statement of the problem 1. How was it possible for art education to take place in spite of the disruption caused by the war? What opportunities can a place like Lebanon give an art student, an artist, and an art teacher to learn and to develop and to express themselves during the war? In 1942 the journal known as Art Education Today asked the same question: What can we do? How do art and the teaching of art relate to the unity and defence of the nation, to the destruction of fascism, to the binding together of all those world wide forces and people through whose efforts victory will come? (P. 1) Lebanon as a country was tired of many ideologies in a nation which never stopped being a place for struggle between the native traditions and the system of coloniza­ tion, between the oriental vision and the occidental strategy, between the old heritage and the contemporary model, between primitiveness and modernity, and at last, between war and peace, the weapon and the spirit. 5 The art students, the artists, and art teachers in Lebanon had to confront the dilemma of the war, and they had to live and continue their jobs in order to survive during the hard circumstances and confusing atmosphere. I write about art teaching at the Lebanese University School of Fine Art from 1969 until 1986, taking into consideration my personal observations as a student before the civil war, and as an art teacher during the war at the same university. My purpose is to describe the art curriculum in the university and to explain how the war affected the development of the curriculum and art teaching. The war never actually stopped art activities or education in Lebanon, but it imposed dangerous lines that divided the city into two sections. These lines also divided the cultural centers, so that the Lebanese University also was divided. Its art galleries and life have been divided into two faces. It was difficult to arrange shows or exhibitions because the road was sometimes barricaded with fighters, and areas were burning from the bombardments. In 1977 I managed the printmaking studio of the Lebanese University, but it was difficult to find a press and materials because the shops existed in a very dangerous area between the two sections of the city. We solved the problem when an artist and a teacher lent us 6 his press until we could buy one in the following year. We found some tools and other materials in the drug stores. We bought other supplies from other places, and we ordered some rare materials for the entire year. In 1978, artists and art teachers introduced new ideas to change the political situation and stop the war. They showed and talked about their ideological concerns. Students responded to their work in school, by organizing art demonstrations, participating in festivals, supporting theater presentations, and making sculptures. Collections of some artists works were published in books between 1977-1979. These books expressed the civil war. The artists did them in Lebanon during the war. George Zenni arranged the Makhoul art festival. According to Magda Sabet, (1979): In response to the ugliness of war, in 1978, Gegore Zenni, Beirut restaurant owner, organized the first Hakhoul art and craft festival in 1979. It grew into a highly successful street fair attended by people from many areas of Lebanon. (Magda Sabet, 1979, The Middle East Abstract, p. 123) In Beirut, a peace festival was held in the winter of 1984. A printmaking show was held by the Lebanese Artists Association. A lot of celebrations with music, dance, and performance were done in the universities, in the streets, or at the cinemas. We made some presenta­ tions in very dangerous situations. We believed that we 7 had the power to affect the tragedy in different ways, to absorb it by the happiness of art. 2. What was fine art teaching like before the war? Since 1920, some Lebanese fine artists have taught art in their studios. Omar Onsi, Mostafa Farrough and Kaisar Jummayel, the first Lebanese artists' group, learned fine art in the studios of Habib Sroor, Khalil Salibi, and the French artist, George Seer, who lived in Lebanon. In 1938, Alexi Butros founded the Academy of Fine Art in Beirut where George Seer and other artists began to teach the second Lebanese artists' group, including Mounir Ido, I vet Achcar, Jean Kalife, Paul Gueragosian, Zaven Hadachian, and Rachid Wehbi. Aref Rayes was the only Lebanese artist who taught himself at that time. In 1965, the Ministry of Education established the Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts at the Lebanese University. In the law £3107, November 10th 1965, the minister states the following about the curriculum of 1979: The Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts at the Lebanese University has been established since 1965 in Beirut Lebanon. It is divided into four separate departments with the specified number of academic years as fellows: 1- Architecture - 6 academic years 2- Design - 5 academic years 3- Painting - 4 academic years 4- Theater Arts - 4 academic years The courses listed on the following pages are required courses, and span a whole academic year of 25 weeks. Every course listed is followed by two numbers. The first denotes the number of contact or lecture hours per week; the second denotes the number of credits. The two numbers that follow the year are similarly the sum of all contact or lecture hours per week and the sum of all yearly credits. To be promoted from any single year a student requires a total average of 10 out of 20 in studio courses, a total average of 9 out of 20 in theoretical courses and an overall yearly average of 10 out of 20 in his major course (All courses in one's major area must be taken from his major's department.) nor a grade below 5 out of 20 in any other course. The courses listed below are from the Department of Painting's 1974 curriculum: Year, Studio Courses

Préparatorv. f28,271 P-040 Drawing I (10,8) P-042 Color painting I (3,4) P-050 Modeling I (2,4)

First f28.37t P-140 Drawing II (4,4) P-142 Painting (S. life) II (4,4) P-144 Painting (Life) I (4,6) P-146 Painting (Landscape)I (3,4) P-148 Composition I (1,6) P-150 Modeling II (2,4)

Second f28,45^ P-240 Drawing III (6,4) P-242 Painting (S. lifeUII(3,6) F-244 Painting (Life)II (3,6) P-246 Painting (Landscape)II(4,4) P-248 Composition II (2,10) P-252 Printmaking I (1,1)

Third f28.48\ P-340 Drawing IV (4,4) P-342 Painting (Still L.)IV (4,6) P-244 Painting (life) III (4,6) P-346 Painting (Landscape) III (3,4) P-348 Composition III (4,16) P-352 Printmaking II (2,2)

Theoretical Courses

Preparatory (28. 27) P-002 Perspective I (2,2) P-033 Esthetics I (2.1) P-041 History of Art I (2,2) P-043 History of Painting I (3,2) P-Technology I (2,5) P-049 Anatomy of Painters I (2,1) First (28. 37^ P-102 Perspective II (2,2) P-133 Esthetics II (2,1) P-141 History of Art II (2,2) P-145 Technology II (2,3) P-149 Anatomy for Painters I (2,1) Second (28. 451 P- 241 History of Art III (2,2) P-243 History of Painting II (2,2) P-245 Technology III (2,4) P-251 History of Mythology (1,2) P-253 Comparative Art I (2,4) Third (28. 481 P-343 History of Painting III (1,2) P-345 Technology IV (4,4) P-353 Comparative Art III (2,4)

Before the war The Institute of Fine Art at the Lebanese University allowed artists from the Lebanese Association of Painters and Sculptors and from the Academy of Bsauz Arts to participate in this new institute as art teachers. Some famous Lebanese artists also left Paris, Rome and Madrid to come back to Beirut to be teachers at this institute. In 1968 I visited the university. I felt at that time 10 that I would like to participate in this institute after finishing my high school classes. In the scholastic year of 1968-1969 I applied to the fine art department, and after a general examination I was accepted as a student in the preparatory class in the university. Since that time I began to study fine art. I respected the Program at the institute, and never liked to miss courses or to delay course assignments during the four years of study. I felt that every art teacher had interesting opinions and experiences to offer. Every artist adds an important vision to my knowledge. Our teachers were distinguished by their unique personalities and their different sources of knowledge and art styles. The teacher who graduated from the School of Fine Art in Paris, Chafic Abboud, for example, was very enthusiastic. He was influenced by the modern abstract vision. The teacher who graduated from Madrid, Rafic Charaf, taught us the expressionist Spanish vision. Some artists who graduated from Rome, Florence, Moscow, and Cairo, like Rachid Wehbi and Wahib Bteddini, were fascinated by the realistic style. As students we admired realism, because it gave us the opportunity to understand how to imitate models and to transform them as perfectly as possible in their dimensions, colors, and tonalities. 11 The institute is one of many academic sections in the Lebanese University. It was headed by a dean, whose authority came from the president of the university. The dean arranged policies, appointed teachers and helped appoint the director of the institute to administer the program, supervise the grading committee, set the curri­ culum, and hire other employees. The director and the dean set the curriculum, even though they were not art educators themselves. The institute was composed of several sections including fine arts, decoration, architecture, performan­ ce, and sculpture. Each section was headed by a presi­ dent, who was a teacher chosen by the dean, the director, and other teachers. The president arranged the courses in each section, supervised the execution of the program, and signed the grading forms. Within each section there were three kinds of teachers : A) The Official teacher has at least fifteen years of experience as a teacher in the institute, or as a teacher with a masters degree in the fine arts or a Ph.D in a related field. B) The regular teacher is an artist who either has taught for more than four years or who is a famous artist who has been awarded prizes, and who has done several solo exhibitions. 12 C) The contracted teacher works in the university by yearly contract. He has to apply for his job every year and teaches by the hour or for some limited number of hours in each term. The teacher arranges the class schedules and gives the students and the director information about project deadlines. The teacher chooses the models and recommends books and references. He decides what films or what slides should be used in classes. He also can invite some artists to show their works or give presentations. He can choose special activities which are appropriate to the course he teaches. For example, as a teacher of nature-painting he would go with his students to draw landscapes in natural settings. Two teachers can share the same course and teach the same classes together. The university can make special arrangments so that the teacher who is not a Lebanese citizen can teach. This helps the students to understand other visions from other cultures.

The Student The conditions for the student to be accepted in the university are summarized below. First, he has to finish his high school studies with success; Second, he has to pay tuition, if his father or mother are not employees of the country or military members. 13 Third, he has to pass the written general exam about the culture in both the Arabic and French languages, and a practical exam in drawing or performing. Every student has to attend sixty percent of the classes to be allowed to pass in an academic year. The student is not allowed the choice of his teachers or advisors. The institute awards excellent students money as prizes at the end of every year of study. The competition to enroll in the fine art section is very great. About seventy or eighty students applied every year, and the committee chose only the first twenty or thirty students because the number was limited. Students in the second year after preparation could travel to museums in Europe, France, Italy, and England. During study, the students were allowed to arrange parties, to celebrate graduation day, or the beginning of the scholastic year. They also could draw from nude models in the studio. They also had opportunities to stay until midnight working in the studio. Outside of the institute, life was easy. Students could ride buses any time to buy supplies from many places and had the opportunity to supplement their study with some interesting free courses such as Arabic calligraphy, photography, and sculpture. 14 How was art teaching affected by the war? In 1977 during the first period of the civil war, a lot of artists and art teachers left Lebanon. The war destroyed the university's original environment since it was located in a dangerous area. A new building was rented in a safe area beside the sea shore of Al Rowshi where everybody was assured greater safety. The second section was located on tha East Side of Beirut, and it became an independent section. In the following pages, I will describe some events that affected art teaching in the university: A. After the war a new system of art teaching was initiated. Because so many teachers left the university to escape the danger of the war, a number of teachers were appointed to the rank of official teachers in the institute without having to meet the traditional qualifications for that rank. A number of graduate students were nominated as new art teachers. B. Because of the difficulty of moving from one area to another, the Lebanese University established two institute sections in two areas, one in Tripoli in North Lebanon, and another in the mountains of Lebanon. C. In the first section in Beirut it became difficult to hire women to work as nude models for the art studio, because traditional religious feelings had increased during the war, and because certain Lebanese groups 15 became more conservative concerning appropriate art subjects. D. The high cost of living curbed the number of students who could study art. They often had to choose fields of study which allowed them to get jobs more readily and to make money instead of making art. E. The war also affected the curriculum, because the dangerous situation obliged the students, teachers, and the institute itself to quit for several months in some years. F. Art activity in school became rare because there was no guarantee about future appointments for further activities in the area. 6. There were no more scholarships for distinguished graduates to continue their studies abroad. H. Students that the university had sent abroad preferred to stay away, waiting for the crisis to end. I. Several good artists, who had been frustrated from the beginning, left the university and the country to live safely outside. If we compare the curriculum of the fine art department in the Lebanese University before and after the civil war broke out, we find that it was greatly affected by the destruction of the war. Teaching became a very hard job, without sufficient salary for teachers to live on. Furthermore, students were less enthusiastic 16 about enrolling in art programs because of the high cost of living and the growing influence of religion that made teaching and learning art much more dangerous. We can say that the war affected the art curriculum in the university in such a way that it virtually lost its original role in the art and education of the country.

War generationr and education Three individuals were interviewed to determine how the war affected their lives. Include Rafeh Mlays, Mai Masri, and Jean Chamoun. Extracts from thier interveiws appear in the account that follows. Rafeh Mlays, 1988, a Lebanese student at Ohio State University answered some questions about his studies during the war. He said: It was in 1976 when our village was overrun by the fighters and their allies. My family, along with the rest of the village was forced to abondon our house and run for our lives, and forced to go to the mountain area of Sir, where no schools were available. I missed three months of schooling. Meanwhile, my father made enough money to move to the city of Tripoli, where I enrolled in a school. Unfortunately, heavy artillery bombardment from the hills by one religious party made it impossible to go to school. When the Arab forces came to Lebanon we went back to our villages. As you can see, I lost a year of education and my studies were affected. But because the Lebanese educational system is such that the material of a grade depends on the previous one, I had to study very hard in order to catch up. Right now I believe that the level of education is down because schools have to close from time 17 to time, and teachers are afraid to tell a student what to do, because the student might take a gun and shoot the teacher. About art education in class he said: We had a class of art and painting. We were supposed to paint apples; we ended up painting tanks rockets and machine guns. "The young people have been the principal victims of 13 years of war which has claimed over 150,000 lives." Said Mai Masri, (1988), who spent several weeks with Jean Chamoun in Beirut making a film called War Generation. Everyone has devised a way of living with the war, but everyone is tired. Nidal would like to go to school, but he must work to support his family. Abboud cannot see what the future holds for someone who has manned barricades since the age of 13. Bassil 23, entered the war in 1975, fired with idealism and the conviction that it would help create a better life. Now he wearily admits its futility. (Maureen Ali, 1988, p. 2). Jean Chamoun was my colleague as an art teacher at the Lebanese University. I had the chance to meet him last November when he came to present his film at the Ohio Union. The Ohio State Lantern, (1988), reports: The experiences illustrate the reason for the Lebanese civil war through the stories of young people. These young people were bom into war. They don't know anything else. The purpose of this film is to help people realize the problem. (P. 5) After the presentation I conducted an interview with Chamoun in which he answered some questions about Lebanese artists and art teaching during the civil war. He said: 18 The artists have roles in society, but in Lebanon there are no institutes which support the artists. The artist has to work hard to make himself. I feel that every artist became more and more pessimistic in his art after 1982, because everything became religious. But there are some artists who like to create their art, and there are the artists who imitated the western vision. In m y opinion, the artist has to participate in his tradition. He has to have a purpose in his art. Some artists expressed the war, but nobody had the opportunity to be as strong as the war itself. We should make art for people, such as street art, mural paintings to express the feeling and the dream of the community. But unfortunately we have a ministry of information and we do not have a ministry of culture. The western system needs us, as people, to l e a m its language, its art. It needs us to imitate it, to be as a market for its productions. It needs us to be only consumers. Lebanon was a base of the cultural, political, and economical revolution, but the war destroyed that dream. Now our role as artists is to re-create and rebuild this dream to keep it alive for the next generation. The artist also is treated badly if he needs to oppose the sectarian parties, leaders, powers, and militiamen. However, the hope still remains alive in the consciences of the people. We count on the people who still keep the seeds of prosperity and freedom. The people are against the partition of the country and against a sectarian religious government. The people are against the war; they would like it to stop and to end the hard economic and political crisis, but they need help to resolve the gap between the religions, the people, and the government.

What was Lebanese art like before the war? Lebanese Fine Art is an original part of Lebanese culture. From the very start of Lebanon we could speak of seven cultural confluences. Together these cultures comp­ rise the Lebanese contemporary culture. They are; Arabic 19 IsleuniCf Christian, Egyptian, Persian, American, Russian, and European liberal cultures. Before the war Beirut was a tourist center and an international trade center. It has a major seaport and an international airport, and since the time of the Phoenic­ ians, the Lebanese people liked to travel. The immigra­ tion tradition has played a principal role in enriching the culture with different life- styles. In Lebanon there are many political parties. There are some who consider themselves part of the great Syrian culture. There are others who consider themselves Phoeni­ cian, and others who consider themselves as Arabs. And there are some liberals who think of themselves as inter­ national socialists, or communists. Geographically, Beirut exists at the crossroads of divergent cultures. Historically we find in this country a lot of minorities who found their freedom in this center of the Middle East. The Lebanese mountain is the house of freedom, open to the sea. Its people have defended their life and their ideas there. Historically, culture means that there are many ways to express ideas and life. Culture expresses man's history, fears and hopes in words, in art, and other media. In Beirut and Lebanon in general, we can say that many cultures have coexisted and interacted with one another. 20 Geography, history, and economics combine to determi­ ne the material culture in Lebanon which is a center bet­ ween the orient and the oxident. According to Charles Malik (1970) Beirut is one of ten important cities of the Middle-east: The ten cities included in this circle are these: Athens, Istambul, Antioch, Damascus, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Cairo, Mecca and Beirut itself. Can you think of any other ten cities anywhere in the world that have had as decisive an impact upon history as these ten cities? And Beirut is absolutely at the center of them all, more than any other city. I Beirut Crossroads of Culture. p. 205) In Lebanon, individual life, the structure of society, and the sequence of generation form the psychosocial strength in order to create art, culture, and economy.

Lebanese Fine Art Before the 20th century, fine art in Lebanon was linked to religious feeling, and it was difficult to distinguish a Lebanese school of art before 1960. For centuries Lebanese art had been dominated by traditional religions. In the last hundred years Lebanese art began to break out of "non representative art" when some of its artists went to Italy and Paris to study fine art. Accor­ ding to Yonne Cochrane (1969): It was towards the west that we turned for guidance and inspiration. Italy provided the element of our first discoveries, and later on, the "Ecole de Paris." (p. 226) 21 It is only recently that Lebanese artists have begun to express the dominant problems of our age. In Paris, Lebanese artists adopted the impressionist style ofthe mid-19th-century. Some of them by 1937 were influenced by the modern abstract style. The artist Kahlil Gibran went to Paris to study art, and then returned to New York where he held several solo exhibitions. Gibran expresses a spiritual-psychological vision in his paintings and drawings. He never forgot the oriental feeling and the individual expression of his race. According to Barbara Young (1973): Gibran is a young Syrian, who, in his drawings, manifests the poetical and imaginative tempera­ ment of his race, and a remarkable vein of indi­ vidual invention, (p. 75) In 1937 the study of fine art was encouraged by the establishment of the Lebanese Academy of Fine Art. And in 1965, with the help of the Lebanese artists, the government agreed to found the academy of fine art in the Lebanese Unversity from which most of the actual Lebanese artists have graduated. Beirut, as a location between oxidental and oriental civilizations, was a cultural station for the Arabs. Lebanese artists and art teachers lived the artistic life of Beirut as they had lived the artistic life in oLhsr cities such as Paris, Rome, Madrid, New Delhi, New York, and Moscow. Between 1950 and 1974 Lebanon was a cultural hub for poets, actors, musicians, painters, sculptors, 22 and politicians. These artists, poets, politicians, and businessmen came to live under Lebanese democracy and benefited from the freedom of Beirut because Beiinit was a safe place for them to think, work and express themselves. It was possible for them to arrange meetings, conferences, and exhibitions. In Beirut there were cultural centers for artists to make art and sell their works. Such as the Unesco Center, Dar El Fan, the Kennedy Center, the Goethe Center, the Italian Cultural Center, the Arabic Center, and the Mini­ stry of Educational and Art Centers. Other cultural and artistic places include the Sursok Museum, the Baalbek International Theater, the Lebanese University Clubs, and about thirty art galleries and twenty theaters. In these democratic places, social and religious ideologies coexisted with the national and international ideologies. In addition, Beirut had numerous publications newspapers, and magazines, able to publish and to express whatever the writer wished, regardless of the polemical nature of the idea. After 1967 Lebanese fine arts benefited from other art sources such as poetry, theater, and politics. And afLur the 1957 war, the fine arts, like other kinds of art, began to reflect and to express a social and political consciousness. In 1978, some group shows were 23 held in Beirut which expressed the war and the situation in the Middle East.

How the war affected art and the artists themselves After 1975 some artists left Lebanon because they believed that it was absurd for them to make art in a country where people die every day in a tragic inter­ national war, in which only Lebanese citizens were paying the price. Other artists expressed the war by arranging certain solo and group exhibitions such as in the Ministry of Arts and Education Salon in Beirut; Lebanon 1978. arranged by Dar El Fan, was held in the Salon of Painters and Sculptors Association, (Lebanese Printmakers

19 8 5 *1 . Alisar Gallery (1980-1985), and Shahine Gallery (1978-1986). Lebanese magazines and newspapers, in addition to their political commentary continued to write about the exhibitions, art seminars, art critics, movies, theaters, music, poetry, and other art activities even during the hard times. These cultural pages helped people to know daily or weekly about art movements in Beirut, in other Arab countries, and other places in the world. Since the beginning of the war, Lebanese artists have expressed this crisis in their works, but it is difficult to characterize a new Lebanese fine art movement at the beginning of the war because it was dangerous to hold exhibitions or to create means that would enable artists 24 to show their works. The bombing and the sudden clashes between groups made it risky and, indeed, life-threaten­ ing to hold and exhibit art. The situation, however, did not stop some foreign artists from coming to Beirut to show their art. Foreign artists played an important role in making our culture more understanding. During his sojourn in Beirut, Claude Lazar, for exeunple, the colleague of the French artist Matieu, in an interview with George Zenny (1978) answered some questions about Lebanese contemporary art exhibi­ tions that expressed social problems. About a group exhi­ bition held in Beirut Lazar said. Most of the painters participating in that salon had common points of view on certain subjects, political and social problems and similarity in the form used. This war meant that the painter takes his idea from a certain reality and shows his position towards it though his own way of representation. (Monday Morning. p. 45) The American art critic, David Tannous, also visited Lebanon in 1983 to study the modem Lebanese fine art movement. Tannous told me his impressions of Lebanese artists when I met him in August 1984 in Washington, D.C. Tannous said, "Most art galleries and art critics, ins­ tead of helping to develop the art in Lebanon, encourage undesirable trends among the artist and art public in the country." (Monday Morning. 1983, p. 89). At the end of his study, Tannous gave a presentation at the American University. In his paper he praised 10 Lebanese artists; 25 however, his views on our fine art movement were not widely publicized, because the majority of the artists he singled out were from a specific religion. In an interview with the Mondav Morning magazine, Tannous (1983) comments: Anybody who puts on a show is immediately accepted as an artist, whether he is good or bad. There is no discriminating art public. Very bad stuff is being bought, and the religion of the artist often decides whether he is accepted or not. (p. 89) Tannous said to Micheline Hazou: "If I offered some observations and suggestions it is because I feel there is hope. There is potential that can be developed... I know the country is just coming out of a war" (Mondav Morning. 1983, p. 86).

Six Lebanese artists, and the war Almustakbal. (1988), the weekly magazine that is published in Paris, chose six Lebanese artists who answered the following questions: A) What is the connection between fine art work and the war in Lebanon? Does the war affect the fine art work in its contruction and form?

B) Dcog the painting affect the war by accident? C) What kind of interpretation does it have? D) And what kind of shows and salons are there? These questions were answered by six Lebanese artists who represented different art directions and different 26 generations. Every artist responded from his personal experience. These artists were: Paul Gueragosian, Amin El Basha, Rafic Charaf, Hassan Juni, Faysal Sultan, and Jamil Molaeb. I have paraphrased their responses below.

Rafic Charaf has been an artist and an art teacher since 1963, and the director of the Lebanese School of Fine Art from 1982 until 1987. What follows is a summary, of his answers to the above questions. We could say that Lebanese Fine Art did not represent the war except for some posters that contribute in an excessive way to express this war in its political, nationalist, and humanist significance. Whatever their qualities, these posters expressed the interesting impressionistic part of the relationship between the artists and the war during the conflict, but it is clear that oil painting was different in its purpose and expression from the popular gouache picture or the poster. I believe that it is natural for oil painting to be considered as academic art work, because it was usually individual. This academic painting expressed the feeling of isolation, and the divided feeling of the refugee through certain objects and symbols, taken from the memory of the everyday artist's life, his imagination and his frustration. 27 The artist in his emotion, never dropped his role of expressing the deep part of humanity. Yet, the photogra­ phic picture, the movie, the broadcasting, and the post­ ers expressed the Lebanese war better. I believe we could capture the war better in a movie, in a photo, or in theater. The war is a rich art subject. The war in its nature and in its historical events, would be better attempted as an artistic movie. I am not going to justify here the inability of the fine artist in his or her mission as a creator and historian. The artist could express these periods, but we have to take into consideration the importance of the feeling of the community during the very fast-paced war. By this definition, I think that some artists expressed this war. Everyone used his personal art style. Some other artists are waiting for peace or for a break so that they can express freely what they miss.

Amin El Baeha is an artist, and an art teachersince 1965. Here is a summary of his views. It is impossible for the artist to live outside his society and his time. "Art is life;" the years of the war belong to the nonexistence of life. I mean War is Death. In Lebanon there are artists who represent this period with an allusion toward the future. These artists can precede their time. There is also the artist who reflects on this period directly. 28 It is better to speak about visual art during war using examples of some artists and some places. During World War I, the Parisian group, who were represented by Renoir, Degas, and others, stayed in Paris. During World War II, Picasso, George Braque, and Matisse also were in Paris when the Germans invaded the city. Picasso never left the capital, he was working in his studio (Atelier). But Matisse and Braque went to the French countryside to continue their artistic works. At that period of time, Picasso continued the Cubist style in which he showed the new vision about life and the existence during the war. Picasso best expressed the dramatic feeling by painting "Guernica" and by expressing the war in Korea. This tradition of expressing the war reminds us of the famous Spanish artist Goya. If we come back to Lebanon, we find out that the intent to express the native revolutions and the interna­ tional revolutions began around 1960. This subject was a field of inspiration for many Lebanese artists who acted and reacted with a superficial impression. These national and international revolutions would flare and disappear periodically following a change of political regime. During the past 13 years, many exhibitions have been made about Beirut, South Lebanon, and other sections. 29 We look again at Picasso, Goya, the Mexican artists, and others to find out about the subject matter of their paintings. Their subject matter is bound up with their artistic expression. In looking back at the works of these artists, we can understand that what is left is the pure artistic pattern and expression of that period and that subject matter. This artistic purity and transparent aspect helps the works to be timeless. What I believe is about an art that expresses life.

Hassan Juni is an artist, art teacher, and director of the Institute of Art. He has been a teacher in a Lebanese high school for 15 years. Currently, he is a teacher at the Lebanese University. Here are his ideas on the study: I feel bad because of the fever, death, and genocide that has hit men and affected their freedom in their country where the nation is saturated with the blood from the hard days of battle for 13 years.

I feel the horror in m y life. I feel I am losing a happiness that used to be the oxygen for my mind as an artist. I believe that a picture is emerging from the flame of a couple things : the happiness and the harmless. "Life is unity of history.. or a handful of time." I worry about this fight and power in my mind and body; that I have to give back to my society, in order to develop it. Lebanese poetry that has emerged during the civil war, and the wars of others, can be powerful in its 30 poetic movement, in its abstract expression or lyric movement step toward popular art. In fine art, we have been creating a new artistic style in which we try to show the red color of the flower, instead of blood. This makes us forget the original color of the war. But art is represented by many media and fields, and the role of the painter and the sculptor is to express and to reflect on those events artistically. Whoever looks back at our fine arts tradi­ tion could understand that we attempt to incorporate international avant-garde experiences, but some artists have not had the opportunity to assimilate deeply the spirit and the forms of foreign cultures. Our art became shallow because of this direct foreign reflection. This creates a problem for our art and tradition. As a result I demand from Lebanese artists, first, to study and understand deeply their civilization — to understand this society. I want him to turn from international art experiments, to draw upon his background for his knowledge in order to create a distinguishing artistic personality and art style. We do not have to celebrate what others have already done. Second, I believe that it is dangerous for Lebanese artists to take the war as their only subject matter. The problem is that the subject matter of war is more powerful than their direct art works. Thus their art 31 works become glib and repetitious. In spite of the war I believe that the Lebanese artist is able to create good art work.

Jamil Molaeb has been an artist and an art teacher for 18 years in the high schools and the Lebanese University. He replied to the questionaire in this manner: There were many art activities and exhibitions of various qualities despite limited quantity. The effects of the war are clear in each one. I believe that the circumstances of war have created unusual shows and the visions depicted in them. The artistic movement has run parallel to the political situation. That is how I found out that it would be better to behave in a conventional way, to use a media popular to the common people to make something as an artist. At that time I published a Lebanese picture books of art, and I made some popular prints, taking my inspiration from everyday Lebanese life. These new ways were necessities. Through my art I had the chance to share the problems of the people. Before the war my shows expressed the Lebanese scenes. The war obliged me to find new techniques and perspectives, and to produce new pictures and new scenes. I never felt it a problem to work during the war except during the worst times. However, my pictures were my only enjoyment and my only way to escape. 32 I published three books which express my feelings, impressions, and beliefs.

Faysal Sultan is an artist and an art critic in ^ Safir. a major Lebanese daily newspaper. He also has been an art teacher at the Lebanese University since 1977. His responses to the questions follow: The effect of the war on Lebanese art is maybe absent, or could be absent, because the important works are still being held inside the studios in Beirut or in some European capitals. If we looked at the history of the art studio during the war, we could recognize that the picture of war never existed perfectly in any show. The absence of an independent war picture was because of the consecutive violent action, day after day, and event after event. Some artists who live abroad have the opportunity to show and to express the situation in a symbolic abstract way, for example, in the works of Asador Bazdakian and Nadia Saikale, both Lebanese artists who live in Paris. From the beginning of the war, these artists were free to express the war abroad. Some of the art of war experiences began to appear in 1977, in the books of Jamil Molaeb, the book of Aref Rayes, and the Black Notebook by Rafic Charaf. Before Charaf had published his book, his pictures appeared in many magazines and newspapers in Lebanon and in the Arab 33 countries. Another book entitled The Surrounding of Beirut and Saida was produced by Amin El Basha, but its pictures never appeared in any show, newspaper or magazi­ ne. However, the first major effects of the war on art production appeared in a Beirut show in 1978 arranged by Dar El Fan, a Lebanese Cultural Association Center in the Ministry of Education Salon in Al Hamra Street in Beirut... As a general rule, there was not an unusual develop­ ment in either the style or the techniques of art made during this period, with a few exceptions, maybe because of the hard events of war, which were and still are in themselves, a visual language. It was hard to express everything, because of the difficult and tremendous cont­ rast to the world in peacetime. The art created in this context of war was a kind of release from the hard days and the deep ciry that was searching for an echo of peace. It was as in any other modern city. It was as any traditional and multifaceted vision. This disorder came from the multi-cultural nature of he social system it­ self. In the art community, the lack of an art curriculum and the lack of a museum for contemporary art added confusion to the art scene.

Paul Gueragosian is a famous Lebanese artist. He has showed in Lebanon, Arab countries, Europe, The U.S.A, and 34 Japan. His works are held by many museums and collectors. These are the answers to the questions from his perspective: The wars and the social situation never create painters, poets, or writers, but put them in bad situations, and hard atmospheres. This atmosphere may allow the artist to remove himself and act to repair the problem and to adjust the movement of life. I repeat neither event nor war nor battle can create an artist. On the contrary, artists could create art under any atmosphere. More than that, they can give the ugliness of the object and the event a good shape. They can create a perpetual beauty. I make the point because some Lebanese artists produced easy art work because they reacted against the first step and the first years of the crisis. The Lebanese war is full of contradictions and difficul­ ties, and it is impossible to express it in some textu­ res . In order to express war we should first catch the soul and get the spirit of the subject matter and the cause, to be able to create new art. The event maybe is necessary as a precursor; the event could be an art model or primary material to base the construction of art. Some artists who worked during the war time did not have the powerful art techniques to surpass reality in its urgent events and precise textures because they did not study and practice enough of the technology of art. 35 That's why their works look weak, secondary, and superfi­ cial, having less expressive value than the power of reality itself (AlTniiatakbal June 25, 1988, pp. 46-48). These artists from many religions represent different Lebanese art visions and generations.

HOW was my art and art teaching changed by the war? In the midst of chaos, in 1977, I began to teach art at the Lebanese University. I founded the printmaking studio in the university and taught there for nine years. I tried to work with students on subjects in the outside world; we drew sketches from nature. I had to teach them how to look at and concentrate on the subject, how to create and transform it sometimes without being concerned about their memories. I had them work directly from the subject. We had to practice, to observe and to create drawings from nature. We went to the galleries to see the works of other artists. In this situation, as an artist, I felt we had to create art that showed the disasters of war, to create hope, and to build a movement to stop the tragedy. But what could we do as artists and teachers? Art remained art with no direct influence over the catastrophe and its dragon. The crisis developed very rapidly. As artists we tried to make group exhibitions, to participate in some sort of cultural life. We tried to voice our rejection of the war. I tried to draw certain 36 events from the madness around me. I knew that I could not stop the war with my work, but it was my only chance to manifest my existence. I had to share with the people their problems, their hard days and nights. I drew children in the streets, the constant explosions in Beirut, and the bad news on every newscast. I had to make my work for society. I had to create compositions not only to show the horrible stuggle, but also to open a door to the future, to open a window over the land, a window of love and peace. I had to work hard to fix the drama in ink and to bestow sadness and pain into the body of wood and stone. I had to delineate the perspective of homeless people, to give space for the refugees from town to town, from year to year. I had to believe in the power or art to make the drama less formidable, to annihilate the darkness of the night until the beginning of light. I had to stay and accept the challenge. I had to undertand the scandal that grew from battle to battle and react to it. In Beirut, during the civil war from 1975 to 1982, I had three exhibitions in color with different materials; watercolor, gouache, and pastel. I also produced three books that consisted of three collections of pririLs in black and white: The Notebook of the Civil War, Near Mv Country. and The End of the Darkness : The Beginning of the Light. For me the latter was a special book, because 37 I used to work by hand without using a press to print my woodcuts. It took me time to understand how to print directly from wood. Nobody knew how to teach me to work without a press or special techniques at that time. I succeeded in making about fifty prints in black and white and published them in a book, later represented as a collection, exhibited at the Epreuve d'Artist Gallery in 1982. In 1980 I began to use wood because I felt that the material was fresh and direct and I could feel free. I could be comfortable with the wood as a panel to make drawings with any kind of pencil or to engrave the surface with a very fine chisel. I felt that wood provided a certain solution to my desire to link the ancient tradition and shapes in Egyptian hieroglyphics and Sumerian script with the reality of m o d e m times. My ouevre on wood was a kind of calendar of my daily life and my feelings in the studio at wartime. In August 1984 I had the opportunity to travel to New York. I was invited to show in the Alif Gallery of the Arab American Cultural Foundation in Washington D.C.. Some of my woodcuts have appeared in this show. According to the brochure. “HolaebS has clearly spent long hours observing the changes of patterns and colors in the earth of his native town of Baissour. The woodcuts attest to this. Their imagery, as in the landscapes, are abstracted from nature. However, 38 the subjects of his woodcuts, entitled for example. The Sion of the Land and the Wind, or The Bell of the Evening. is based more on reflection than on obserable reality. The dominance of black in these woodcuts gives them a sombemess and a melancholy that contrasts strongly with his works in gouache, where color explodes in patterned complexity. In his work, Molaeb unites inward reflection with the outward eye to bring forth an interesting and fresh body of work. (The catalogue of the show of Jamil Molaeb at Alif Gallery, 1984) In 1984, I enrolled in the printmaking program at Pratt Institute in New York. I had to confront life in a new city. Everything was going very fast, and I had to go back to Beirut for a while to arrange my student visa. But I stayed there for one year. On Januazry 10th 1985 the art critic, Geroge Zenni invited me to make a retrospec­ tive show of ny art through the last twenty years. But unfortunately, January 15th, Zenni was injured after an explosion that hit his gallery and killed two men. In April 1985 Zenni left for Greece. During that time I prepared my pictures for another show in Chahine Gallery, but I did not have the chance to enjoy the opening of my show because sudden fighting started on the date of the opening. Salam Elhaj, 1985, who later visited the show wrote the following in Alshiraa magazine: The last clash did not allow Jamil Molaeb to celebrate the opening of his new exhibition at Chahine Gallery. Molaeb in his show is still in connection with his last art experience about the war, but this time the war appeared more abstract. It appeared in the contrast of his 39 colors and the humanistic expressive vision of his compositions, that has dominated his pictures for a long time. (P. 57) About my exhibition in Chahine Gallery, the art critic Alawiya Sobh, (1985), writes in Al-Hasnaa about the affect of war in ny art: Molaeb's works represent a laboratory for art research during the dramatic Lebanese scenes. They also represent an independent world in Lebanon which is still searching for the meaning of art language in Lebanon and in the universe. His art represents the creation of a peaceful place, space, and future in time of war. He worked to create another circumstance, another material, another color, and another visual reality opposite to the reality of the war. (P. 58-59) During the civil war, the Lebanese fine art movement has only minimally reflected a social conscience. After 14 years of war maybe something interesting and extra­ ordinary will develop because the situation itself is extraordinary. According to the Lebanese writer Elias Khouri (1987): The Lebanese situation is the typical situation for creating a new form of writing because everything is dying, even the writer is dying. I feel that some profound changes will happen to Lebanese art and writing, which will make new discoveries, which will develop new forces of expression, (p. 155) But we need a break, we need peace, we need stable ground for our sculptures, and we need walls to hang up our pictures. Our education, our degrees, and our works of art are all of no avail unless we can keep the walls of our homes and city standing. 40 In ny art, I take a stand towards the war. In 1980 I sculpted a large barelief for a public area in w f town, Baissour. In this work, I expressed the disaster of the Lebanese civil war. The following chapther includes a review of literature on the theme of war in art. The third chapter describes this study's autobiographical approach and defends the validity of "life history" to understand art, culture, and history. The fourth chapter discusses the ways in which the war has influenced the life and art of the author. Chapter five attempts to synthesize the issu­ es raised in the other chapters and draws conclusions. CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE: WAR AS A THEME IN ART

Han through hla art, war, and peace Artists don't have to express war; they can find happier subjects if they wish. However, when we look at the history of art, we find that war is an important subject for many artists in many civilizations, and we can tell that the frightening subject of war has been dominant in many forms such as sculpture, painting, and literature. Since the stone age, war has continued to preoccupy artists. Indeed, it seems that only the weapons have changed. War is a significant subject to express human emotions through history. According to Otto Von Simon (1964): War is among the very first activities in which many parts of a social group have been represen­ ted in art. War already appears as the subject of the prehistoric rock painting in the Sahara. The fear and fury depicted by the artists of the stone age are not very different from the emo­ tions that Picasso has evoked. (P. 13) By the style or the media, we can tell an immense differ­ ence in attitudes about war between the prehistoric works of the Sahara or Egyptian art and the art of Mesopotamia. 41 42 Men and women through the ages have reacted to conceptions of peace and war. Some artists have expressed the struggles of a civilization in different epochs and places. War has always happened between man and man, people and people, country and country. From prehistoric time to the present, war has taken a part in art and in life. In almost all cultures artists have registered the events of war in some of their art works. The art of social conscience was an important theme for great artists (such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Pollaiuolo, Velas­ quez, Rubens, Bosch, Bruguel, Durer, Collot, Holbien, Géricault, Rodin, and others). Art as an expression of freedom was an original aspect for David, Delacroix, Goya, Daumier, Rayes, Salim, Sajini, Moktar, and Sham- mout. Both eastern and western artists have been attracted to war. War and civil war continue to be specific subject matter with Mexican artists, such as Rivera, Orozco, and Sequeiros. They express in their murals the Mexican struggle and history. Guernica was a distinguished painting for Picasso. Roualt and Kollwitz expressed the anguish of World War I and II in their paintings and prints. The American, Russian, French, Spanish, and Lebanese civil wars were strongly registered in the work of many artists. 43 Why does the artist in a particular moment express a social problem? What pushes him to express his sympathy in a society? It must be because of a historical accident that has resulted from religious, economic, political, and cultural forces. It is worthwhile to look at some of these conditions.

Art as a weapon of life and struggle in history Politicians used art from antiquity to the present to convey their ideas. From the earliest periods visual art served and reflected directly or indirectly the feelings and the ideas of people in a society. The beliefs that are reflected in works of art can provide cultural information that might otherwise not be available. We cannot understand the magic and the ritual of primitive society, for example, without the cave paintings and rocks engravings of paleolithic societies of Europe. In Mesopotamia and Egypt during the third millennium B.C., art reflected some religious and political beliefs. Visual art was a kind of language in Sumerian and Egyptian art and in the ancient Near East's earliest texts. It reflects the power of the king in battles. David Castriota (1986) explains: Late Assyrian wall reliefs celebrate and explain the martial powers of the king in precisely the same terms. In a relief from Nimrod, Ashumasirpal II easily overpowers his helpless opponents, while the divine Ashur, in the same 44 pose and armament, hovers above him in the winged disk to guarantee the outcome of the battle. (P. 3) The religious belief was always in the service of state for the Hellenistic Greek rulers who adopted various strategies from Near Eastern political art.

War has many meanings As a word war is rich in connotations. It could be a war between people, a war for the sake of God, a war for certain ideologies, a struggle between good and evil, or a war for freedom. And works of art represent these contrasts. They are the medium that fixes these triumphs or defeats to register human impressions and feelings concerning the conquest, the loss, the destruction, or the absurdity of the struggle. War is war, said Otto Von Simon (1964) : Today, mankind finds itself in a tragically paradoxical situation. The menace of war hovers over the life of each one of us more constantly and more ominously than at any time in the past, and at the same time, and for this very reason, war has lost the moral and political justification that past generations ascribed to it. (P. 4)

Art as a political meaning in the ancient Near East Ideology was often expressed by visual writing symbo­ ls and forms in the ancient Near East art. A pictorial representation of a political theme appeared in one narr­ ative relief in Sumer where the king Ashumasiirpal II reigned from 883-859 B.C. According to Edith Porada 45 (1986): These reliefs appear to be fine examples of the message of Assyrian power for the peoples within the reach of Assyrian military might. But to assume that many of these peoples were directly influenced by the palace reliefs is a simplifica­ tion of the actual situation. (P. 15)

Lebanon's mountains and Assyrian war Ashumasirpal appeared in an Assyrian horelief surrounding people with his military power to create a fear of the Assyrians. The king used to destroy his enemies, to tear down the walls of the cities, and to capture the survivors. He extended his territory to Lebanon, to the mountain (Edith Parada, 1986, p. 16). Ancient Near East art primarily represented religious and magical beliefs for the purpose of eternalizing the victory. It was a thanksgiving for the divine power that helped to make the victory possible.

Representation of war scenes in Egypt (1290-1223 B.C.) In Egypt we find scenes of war and fighters in the temple of Abu-Simbel in Nuba. We can see not only furious combat between man and beast but also beast fighting beast. War and peace are represented side by side in the Nubia Nile in the battle of Kadesh. The top of the relief shows some symbols of the peace of Ramases. We also see man slaughtering certain animals as talismen against 46 violence or protection against evil. The Egyptian repre­ sented killing symbolically to express the triumph of good over evil.

Indian art and war in Shiva Tripurantaka In a cave temple in India from the eighth century AD we see Shina, the God of the sun, in a struggle against the anti-gods forces. According to a very early tradi­ tion, the lord of the forest and the master of animals were in fight. This myth looks similar to Greek myths because it expresses the inexhaustible war between good and evil. Indian art does not imitate nature. The image is surrealistic and spiritual. The woman has many arms to express the superhuman energy of God. The cave temple of Shiva is a typical Indian representation in which evil and death are confronted by the human energy of life (Jagbans K. Balbir, 1964, p. 28).

Art about war and fear in the ninth century At the dawn of the Middle Ages war and death are represented in many drawings. Byzantine art, for example, is a continuation of the late art of the antiquity which never stopped showing fear, war, and death. These scenes illustrate books and religious manuscripts. i have pre­ vailed against his. is an example of a man's attitude in war facing the danger alone. About this old drawing, Otto Von Simon (1964) comments: 47 The artist has drawm upon, the experience of war in creating this image of man's fear... The drawings in this folio are devoted to war and peace. It may well be the earliest work of art devoted to the "inner" aspect of war. (P.31)

In Japan Japanese techniques of representing landscape, relig­ ious subjects, traditions, the theme of war, and strugg­ les between families were unknown by artists before the 13th century. Some paintings illustrated and described the civil war that broke out in 1159 during the first year of the Heiji Era. Terukazu Akiyama (1964) describes the Nocturnal Attack on the Palace of Sanjo: All the horrors of war are pitilessly exposed through the realistic eyes of an artist whose outlook is stricly objective. The harmony of colors and of the forms arraged in an exceptional quality... All this enables us to assign to this work a place among the greatest battle painting in the history of art. (P. 10)

Art about civil war in Cambodia in twelfth century The battle of the Mahabharata, (Cambodia, 1113-1150), represents in stone relief the story of civil war in he region of modem Delhi around 1400 B. C., when many religious conflicts brought about a civil war. Even the Chinese and the Bactrians took part in this battle. "The relief depicting this war combines history, legend and myth" (Amil De Silva, 1964, p. 33). It reminds us of the Assyrian and Egyptian reliefs. It also has a composition similar to Leonardo Da Vinci's Anahari. 48 In Da Vinci's Battle of Anahiari (1503-1506), the artist has a distinguished style, expressing the war in the paintings using lines, forms, and movement. The war experience represents for him and art scene, and the battle looks to him like a mythological tradition. According to Otto Simon (1964): In the battle of Anghiari, what is most remarkable about these notes for a battle picture is their affinity with Leonardo's artistic style. Brows raised and knit... Skin furrowed with pain... (P. 44) The Horrors of War is Rubens interpretation of Da Vinci's Battle of LAnahiari. Rubens did not represent an historical scene about a real battle, but he described the destructive forces that war inflicts on man. The artist impersonates the heroes, the victims, the mother, and the child in his painting in order to create an artistic harmony in a colorful painting.

The battle of issus Although historical paintings as historical stories are hardly successful, the battle of Issus in 33 B.C. by Albrecht Altdorfer in 1529 represents "the Persian army vanguished by Alexander of Macedonia, the Greek prince who conquered an Empire which finally stretched as far as India" (Otto Von Simon, p.2). This painting is an extraordinary representation of an historical battle. "Our eye perceives with equal clarity the far and the 49 near, the great sweep of te landscape, as well as each individual armor and face," (Otto Von Simon, 1964). Simon adds : Sun and moon are seen as images of the two human adversaries, and in the irridescent glory of hte sky, the huge cloudy symbols of high romance, seem to sway with the lines of battle... This painting in its greatest expression inspired Rembrandt. (P. 43) Artists can romanticize war, making it attractive and exciting as well as artistically challenging.

Greece 480-490 B.C. The Iliad of Homer that is composed in the eighth century B.C. is a story about struggle between two cities. The Odyssey also is a description about war. Poets and artists together were inspired by these stories. The ancient Greeks looked upon the struggle as a normal activity between God and giant. "The war in Greek art is fatal in which the mother, for example, has to see her son die without being able give him a hand... At the same time, the victory is just a cause" (see Elizabeth Rosenhaum, 1964, p. 26). As in other civilizations the Roman Empire translated mythical, political, and histori­ cal events into symbolic pictures.

Saint George in 494 A.D. In the third century A.D. Saint George, who lived in Palestine, became a symbol of good everywhere for many 50 religions. He represents the great martyr. He became the patron Saint in England, Venice, Barcelona, and Moscow. He represents the worker in Greek art. The victory of Saint George over the dragon inspired many artists and poets who made him known throughout the world. "The story of his heroic combat was immensely popular in Christian churches in the East and West alike" (Jean A. Keim, 1964). It is a symbol of the victorious in Russia; he is a legend of love and passion for primitive people. "He incarnates the triumph of the power of light over the powers of evil in the struggle which has continued uncea­ singly since the world began" (Jean A. Keim, 1964, p. 20).

The fights between Catholics and Protestants The earliest prints about political subjects appeared in 1555. They represented the struggles and conflicts between the church and the individual or political insti­ tution or regime. One anonymous 16th century drawing depicts the Pope fighting the Roman Emperor. Hans Holbien, at that time, made a woodcut that represented Martin Luther as a Hercules slaying his enemies. In his struggle against Catholic practices in 1517, Luther used art ad every resource including pictures to convey his message (Ralphe Shikes, 1976, pp. 13-14). In the entire seventeenth century, only seven years were free of crisis between European countries (Shikes, 51 1976, p. 42). Many artists viewed sympathetically the numerous peasants' violent struggles for bread and justice, but they avoided taking a position on wars, because they could suffer for their principles. Jack Callot drew the misers, the beggars, gypsies, mercenaries, dwarfs, violence, poverty, medieval carniva­ ls, and landscapes. In his prints, he expressed fantasti­ cally religious passion as well as satirical scenes of comedy. Art, in every period has been a way to express protest. Mantegna, Pollaiuolo, and Remondi in Italy used their art as visual comments on war during the renai­ ssance .

Sorrow and death, and the Christ in the works of Durer Durer expresses the passion of Christ in a single print. In this print. Durer showed the angels holding the instruments of torture and death used on Christ in his last few days. The use and effects of violence appear often in many of his works especially in pictures representing St. Sabastian suffering death by arrows. War and religion have importance in northern Italian paintings. Pollaiuolo, for example, produced the great engraving. The Battle of the Nudes. This print is remarkable for its presentation of the muscles, nerves, bones, and bodies of the fighters. Different artistic styles, strategies, and techniques developped between Sumerian and Egyptian time and the 52 period of the collapse of Roman power. The developments in art all the way up to modem art have been, in part, produced by or imposed by the cultures in which the art is produced. According to David Castriota (1986): But the tangible continuities of artistic strategy and rhetoric cannot overshadow the extensive transformations that the artists and patrons of medieval and early modern Europe imposed upon the paradigms of ancient political imagery. (P. 47) Western art later assimilated ancient political and myth­ ological themes. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, a new art movement emerged and proved to be an officially sponsored political art. This was the art movement that came with the political and economic estab­ lishment.

Christianity, violence, and religions Christianity itself, as Nietzshe has said, for two thousand years has worshiped a crucified man, linking torture with holiness. Suffer and you will be rewarded in heaven. (Charlotte Willard, 1969, Art in America, p. 37) Christianity has a paradoxical fascination with violence. "®Its§ murderers are necessary to ®its§ sainthood." Countless massacres have been committed in the name of Christ and God. Violence also has another face; it is sometimes the only way men and women can feel their existence, to feel alive and important. Violence is the consequence of repressive societies. 53 In The Indignant Eve Ralph Shikes (1976) writes about many artists who have expressed the problems and social struggles of their time. These artists are involved spiritually and artistically with humanity's social life and justice. They use their art as weapon to confront oppressive governments, churches, war, and human folly in its infinite variations. Numeous artists are witnesses of their time and their social situation. Shike's book focuses on 150 artists who have produced works from western Europe, the United States, and Mexico over the past five centuries. The works shikes has chosen are intersting because of their magnificant and signifi­ cant representation of history. This collection naturally reflects pessimistic aspec­ ts of the social and political events of the past. When we look at history we realize that the human aptitude for sacrificing, abusing, and killing fellow-humans is great. The history of art also reflects the artist's protests against the abusive and unjust in societies. Artists acted courageously when they expressed ideas and messages in their prints and drawings before the existence of newspapers, magazines, and television. Accoring to Shikes (1975) : Prints played an important polemical role. In fact, in the early years of printmaking, as Erwing Panofsky has pointed out, they were the artists's only means of self-expression since painting was usually dene "on commission" for 54 church or patron. From the sixteenth through the middle of the nineteenth century... print combi­ ned with text-were a major medium for political expression. (Introduction) Black and white prints were also more appropriate for social messages than color prints. Printmaking as a medium lends itself to attacking social and political issues. In addition, by its very nature, the print impos­ es its intensive energy to more forcefully express the idea. Drawing also has an immediate personal impact which tells about the circumstances and their effects.

Jacques Callot (1592-1635) Jacques Callot has long been recognized as an artist in the tradition of Durer and Rembrandt. He registerd in his prints the thirty years' war when the French army invaded Nancy three times. In the Miseries of War. Callot overwhelms us with war's "unmitigated violence — of pillage, murder, rape, of arson, hangings, and firing squad" (Shikes, p. 44). Callot's collection Miseries and Disaster of War shows the violence of war in its horrible manifestations. In The Bite of The Print. Frank and Darothy Getlein (1963) write: The soldiers are seen in camp, then they are practicing the ambuscade and free-lance hanging of robbed and burned. The pillage and rapine spread out from the church to an entire village. In the fifty plates the outraged peasants strike back at the soldiers, cutting them down with scythes and shooting them from hiding. The little set ends as does war with the mutilated and ruled begging their bread and presenting 55 petitions to those who have survived unscathed and who have even prespered from the wars. (P. 130)

Géricault (1791-1824) Theodore Géricault (1791-1824) played a radical role in the development of French protest art in France. Delacroix himself was influenced by his drawings (Shikes, 1969, p. 141). Géricault was involved in an artistic and political movement in 1818 in Paris where the French revolution vecame not only a political cause but a human right. Géricault drew the main lines of the spirit of the French revolution in his masterpiece by the name The Raft of the Medusa in 1818.

Delacroix The Napoleon campaign into Egypt in 1798 was accompanied by artists who followed the emperor in his wars. The French troops followed a strategy of rapid surprise attacks. They seized Alexandria and Cairo where they confronted the revolt of El-Azhar on October 21, 1789. According to the book entitled French Nineteenth Century Oil Sketches. David to Degas (1978); The French troops shelled El-Azhar the major, mosque and university of Cairo, which was the center of the revolt. There were about 300 French casualties and an estimated 2000-3000 rebel losses. For political reasons, Napoleon chose to appear merciful; his repreisals were limited and secret. fReboltes du Caire, p. 82) 56 The painter Girodet who followed Napoleon in this war celebrated the events in a painting in which the artist showed romanticism and oriental feelings that also fasci­ nated the young painter Delacroix. Delacroix later came back to visit Algeria and Morocco. He drew the Arab women and men and he registered every day of his trip in some aquarelles and drawings. These works might be the first impressionist art works before the impressionist movement expanded in Europe at the end of the nineteenth century. Long before the impressionists Delacroix began to express and draw nature. He started in North Africa to work in the open air taking into consideration the value of the instant, the place, and the natural light and color. Delacroix inspired the people; his art reflected the problems of his society. This feeling led him to paint the Libertv Guiding the People where he expressed the images and the politics of the 1830 uprising presented by the artist in a modernist manner. Delacroix drew the workmen and the students. According to Joseph R. Lachape- lle (1988): Delacroix;... drew the workmen and the national guard, the student of the ecole poly-technique in his distinctive uniform, men and boys in rags or borrowed plumes or cocked hat, carirying a weird assortment of weapons. (P. 19) Libertv Guiding the People inspired many artists among them Bartholdi (1843-1904) who took the woman as a symbol 57 for Statue of Libertv that he gave as a gift to the United States for New York in 1886. (see Marvin Trachtenberg Art in America May-June 1974, p. 36-37). "Delacroix was compared with Victor Hugo," said Walter Friedlander (1977). He also added that "Delacroix was the leader of the romantic revolutionary tendency in painting... Like Victor Hugo he depicted "romantic" subjects whose exotism, melancholy, and sheer terror gave them excitement and drama" (p. 133). Libertv Leading the People by Delacroix is one of those rare moments when the right artist was at the right place at the right moment. So rare, in fact, that it was one of the few times that Delacrois related his work to the contemporary scene (Shikes, 1976, p. 147).

Daumier Daumier's art spurred on the French revolution, according to Shikes (1976): If Daumier had been allowed to exist in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century perhaps there might not have been a French revolution. (P. 58) Daumier, like Goya, was a moralist. He wanted to create a democratic society, to give people freedom and happiness. He sought to use the image of man in order to give meaning to life. Daumier, a man of peace, was haunted by the creators of the disastrous war. Parisians were kill­ ed, the middle class was entrenched, and violence was 58 everywhere. During that hard time, Daumier and other artists worked together to express the war and to preserve art in Paris. Manet, Corot, Millet, and Courbet participated enthusiastically to protect works of art from military vilence (Getlein, 1963, p. 204). All his life, Daumier fought a losing war for democracy. He did hundreds of lithographic prints devoted to freedom and to honesty. He once wrote: "It is necessary to be of one's time". (Getlein P., 1963, p. 206). France follies and excesses were the model for Daumier for almost half a century, especially when Napoleon had turned the revolution into an expression of his military genius and vulgar tastes. Through his daily lithographies about political and social events, Daumier played the role of the graphic journalist and editoriali­ st. He made about four thousand of lithographs. Louis Philip protested against his pictures. Gettein (1963) records that: With Daumier the protest took the form of five hundred francs and six months in prison. Daumier thus began the tradition of the journalist in jail (p. 196). Daumier worked as a photographer to express political battles. His drawing foresaw the increasing horror of war and violent protest and political repression. The artist suffered during the complicated fighting, and he strongly participated in the combat through his art work. He dedicated his life to support and defend his 59 beliefs. Daumier, like Courbet, spent some time In prison because of his drawings. The Indignant Eve (Shikes, 1976, p. 197).

Rouault (1871-1928) Rouault's artistic vision was touched with human tragedy. He witnessed the war In France In 1914-1927. His prints reveal his Christianity. Like Daumier and Goya, he reflects in his art the injustice of the social system. Rouault's father was a worker. The artist's upbringing made him aware of the conditions of life in the poorer and oppressed society of Paris. Many of his prints are tragic visions of Christ's passion, which Rouault associates with the first year of World War I. According to Getlein (1963): Rouault conceived the idea of Misere and Guerre in the first year of World War I. He was forty- three. Most of the drawings were done in the course of the war for five years from 1922 to 1927. (p. 212) Rouault relived the horrors of the war when it broke out in Europe again in 1939. In his work there is no hope, no doors, and no windows. His prints are black colors for a color-blind world. His isolated figures are set against desolate land-and-city-scapes where the walls and the buildings are blowing up. The people look diseased, lonely like shadows of their fragile flesh. We can sense in the works of Rouault that the "agony and the hope of love have come together" (Getlein, P. 220). 60 What shall an artist do in war? Rouault hesitates between religion and life, he asked: "What shall man do?" According to the art historian Wheeler Monroe (1948), Rouault faced the war and the tragedy like everybody". He asked where he could turn, "to the church, the evangelis­ ts, Jesus Christ dead and buried risen the third day". Monroe wrote the following in an introduction to Rouault's works : This is an epic without words, the story of an artist's implacable opposition to stupidity, his indignation at arrogance and brutishness, and his sympathy with fellow humanity. It is the comedy humane of a great painter. The testimony of his own integrity maintained through solitude and sorrow, (introduction) About Rouault as an expressionist, Hamilton Heard George (1967), said: In the art of the twentieth century.. Rouault occupied a singular and solitary position.. He was an expressionist in the line of descent from Van Gogh and Gauguin, but he was also an expressionist in the Germanic and wider European sense, (p. 179) "It is difficult to separate the artist from the man" (Getlein, 1963) P. 227.

Rodin (1840-1917) Rodin used historical events as subjects of his sculpture. In The Burghers of Calais Rodin used ordinary people as models to tell the story of the city of Calais when it was besieged by the English king, Edward II. At 61 that time the king refused to withdraw from the city until six noble citizens delivered themselves into his hand. Rodin in 1886 described this story in his sculpture. "He made each of these men live again the last concentrated moment of life". (Rainer Maria Rilke, 1946). Rilke in Hooart Press writes; This gesture is symbolic of departure from a happiness that has not yet been, from a grief that will not wait in vain, from men who live somewhere and whom he might have met some time, from all possibilities of tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and from death which he had thought far distant that he had imagined would come mildly and softly and at the end of a long long time. (P. 60)

Art and struggle in Germany and the lowlands before the renaissance The first stirring of protest in Germany was a Grotesorue Alphabet in 1466-67 by E. S., an anonymous artist. "These letters are formed by the groupings of human figures and animals" (Shikes, 1976, p. 3).

Bosch (1450-1516) Bosch's art deals with the violence of men's fears, the corruption and the bestiality, which can only partia­ lly be hidden under superficial respectability, and the social rank and function, which screen them. Bosch's message, though, is embodied in art of the highest order. The painter's fantastic caprices may well be the result 62 of a dream-life abnormal experience, or of hallucinations produced by the use of some drug. Geneva Bosch (R. L. Delowoy, 1960, p. 76). In his art Bosch courageously looks into himself and recognizes his reflection in the magic mirror of art (Bussagli, p. 8). He drew his inspi­ ration from real life, from the external world, and from the society of his time (Bussagli, 1967, p. 9).

Durer (1471-1528) The works of Durer in 1498 tie art, history, and religion together. This reformation appeared in his apo­ calypse woodcuts. Durer in his prints was more than an artist; he was an art theorist. He was the closest artist to the renaissance. He knew Raphael and exchanged prints with him. Durer uniquely combines of Italian grace and finesses with German intensity and introspection. His Apocalypse. The Martyrdom. The Great Passion. The Men's Bath. The Four Witches. The Knight. Death and the Devil are full of resistance, surprise, protest, agony, despair, barbaric horror, swords, madness, weapons, martyrs, prisoners, witnesses, panic, executioners, wars, and death. His work was a representation of the struggle between evil and the saints, God and Satan. His earth was full of victims and sacrifice in the name of religion. 63 Hans Holbein (1497-1543), The Specialist of Death Death, passion, and violence were an original subject matter for many artists in the middle ages. In Dance of Death a series of woodcuts, Hans Holbein developed an alphabet— even a grammar— of death. Death is the one cer- tanity. Death comes as a happy arrival to the aged monk. It appears in each scene just like any other figure. Death comes into the world when Adam sinned. Death exiles the couple from the garden. Death pours itself a drink. Death snatches away the power of the church. Death takes the arm of the queen and points out her grave. Death comes to all men. Death is the wished for release from care. Death is retribution against the powerful who use their power unjustly. Death whips the worn-out nags on towards final furrow. Death's final call is for a little child.

Peter Bruegel (1525-1569) Bruegel continued Bosch's vision in a series of prints and paintings. He confronted the pernicious violence that was practiced in Flanders in the name of justice. As in most of his work, Bruegel gained much by his sympathetic identification with the attitudes of the poor people and the man in his society. "He used to dress as a peasant and spend time in the country getting to know the workers of the land". In his art he turns his democratic 64 instincts into his works. Bruegel appreciates man as an original inspiration. Getlein (1963) comments : The sun itself in its rays, repeats the movement of the reapers from far to near, and in the mellow light, all of Bruegel's Flanders becomes more apt for art than any goodness, (p. 92) About Bruegel's Parable of the Blind. M. Dvorak (1924), in his book A History of Art as a History of the Spirit. writes; Somewhere, some poor blind men, (The parable of the blind), have been the victims of an accident. Nobody will pay any attention to them. At most one or more of their relatives will shed a tear: the life of nature and of men goes on, and it is simply as if a leaf had fallen from a tree. But the new thing is that so insignificant an occurence, with such significant characters, should have become a representation of the whole of life. What seems to be a coincidence an isolated happening, circumscribed by time and space, and without any historical consequences worth mentioning, becomes the image of an ines­ capable destiny to which humanity as a whole is blindly subjected, (p. 20) About the style, the popularity, the personality of Bruegel, A. Stubbe (1947), in his book Brueael and the Renaissance writes: ...If, in spite of everything, he is still considered one of the most popular artists of all time, it is because he seems to have taken part in the life of the common people and of the countryside as no other artist before him, and also because he succeded in disclosing the essential nature of this world, thanks to a vision and to a style which, by unanimous consent, embody the constant universal express­ ion of the popular and peasant "genre." (p. 21) 65 Bruegel treated evangelic subjects with an independent spiritual vision and attitude. Yet Bruegel was less religious than the artists of the renaissance. He was more human and more independent. More than that, he exp­ ressed human suffering. For example, in his painting The Death of the Virgin. "what concerned him is nothing but the death of a poor woman in a common district." Valen­ tine, (1961) notes: Bruguel attains a perfect balance between the elements of nature and the human being who enjoys her providential gifts, or struggle against her blind and crushing violence, (p. 20) It is clear that the observation of nature was crucial to the art of Bruegel; at the same time, Bruguel's conception of art was to express people, life, and nature. M. Dvorak (1924), writes: He considered man as a product of nature, of the soil on which he lived and of the particular conditions of his surroundings and his society... Selected criticism. Valentine (p. 49). Bruegel appeared as a follower of the Flemish artist Bosch. He was a continuation of the traditional style in the catholic and liberal, humanist and pessimistic philosophy. 66 Germany after 1871 As in France and England, during the industrial revolution in Germany, the military aristocracy created an imbalance in the society leading to World War I. In certain of his works Paul Klee (1879-1940) expressed his dissatisfaction with the mounting tensions. A number of other artists were also agitated by the social disorder, the economic injustice, and the spiritual poverty of the society. War was a constant motif for Germany's artists during the World War I. Some artists, such as Oscar Kokoschka and Otto Dix were wounded. Others such as August Marcke were killed. Germany's artistic community was politically consc­ ious at the end ofthe first World War. In 1919, Pechstein and Meidner made a passionate appeal for justice in the name of human brotherhood. George Grosz, Otto Dix, and Max Beckmann were the most succesful exponents of this movement after the war. Max Beckmann (1884-1950), wrote the following; We must take part in the whole misery that is to come.. We must surrender our hearts and our nerves to the dreadful screams of pain of the poor disillusioned people... Our superfluous self-filled existence can now be motivated only by giving our fellow men a picture of heir fate and this can be done only if you love them. (P. 280) 67 Beckmann's works registered his daily contact with death and comprise a memorable record of the violence and tragedy he witnessed. George Crosz painted a horror-fi1led portrait about the voice that was raised against the massacre. Dix and Crosz were art teachers. According to Shike (1969), "As the Nazis became more powerful, Crosz accepted an invitation to teach in the United States."

Kathe Kollwitz (1867-1945) I must create images about which I feel strongly... for any kind of art that does not form living roots... Why should it exist at all? (Art and Man. 1985, p. 10). Just as the landscape was the famous subject of the nineteenth century, war is the great subject of the twentieth century. The print was a primary medium of expression because its properties could easily be exploi­ ted by artists who wished to express political or protest themes. Kathe Kollwitz, the German printmaker, lived through both world wars. At the beginning of the twen­ tieth-century, she showed works that raised social and philosophical issues. Taking war as her theme, Kollwitz created a series of woodcuts to express the agony of human struggle. She lost her son in World War I. Her art constitutes a powerful protest without showing the battle, the soldier, or the gun. According to Getlein (1963): 68 Kathe Kollwitz was that rarest of creatures, an authentic woman artist. More she was an artist of womanhood and an artist in womanhood. Someone once noted wisely that the histories of wars are all written by the victors. Kathe wrote a history of war from the point of view of the always vanquished, confronted by the madness of her century. Before her death in 1945, she wrote "the war accompanies me to the end." (p. 244) Kollwitz speaks for all women everywhere who have lost their children in war; "her life was marked by a deeply felt empathy for the struggling men and women whose burdens pressed on her daily in the working class district of Berlin where she lived..." (see Shikes, p. 257). For several years Kollwitz worked on some woodcuts to express the madness of the struggle. Kollwitz "was torn between respect for her sense of duty and the event of war. She believed in socialism from her parents who believed that "man is not here to be happy, but to do his duty," the inscription carved on her grandfather's gravestone. The work of Kathe Kollwitz reflects the feelings of a woman for her children. It expresses the pain, the angui­ sh and the struggle for existence.

A woman between two wars and death Kollwitz did 100 self-portraits. These unforgetable black and white woodcuts reflect the effects of World War 69 I upon ordinary people. The woodcut was for her the perfect medium for anti-war prints. Fifteen years later the artist continued to work producing a self-portrait entitled Death. Death as a subject matter followed her to World War II. Death was recognized as a friend for her up until she died in 1945, a few days before the final surrender of Nazi Germany (Art and Man, 1985, p. 3). The theme of death haunted her all her life.

Paul Klee and the war Klee went to Morocco in 1914. He arrived with his friend Moilliet on April 7th. In Tunis "the sun has a dark force. The colorful clarity of the landscape is full of promise. " In the evening they would go down to the Arab quarter. The artist expresses his feeling at that time: Reality amd dream at the same time; and a third element-completely absorbed - myself. It has to turn out well... Greenish-yellow, terracotta. The color harmonies penetrate and will remain with me whether or not I paint them on the spot... This evening has sunk deep inside me and will remain forever. Many a blond northern moonrise will incite me softly like a muted reflection of this, again and again. I shall be my beloved: my other self! An incentive to find my "self". But I myself am the southern moonrise. (Will Grohmann, 1940, p. 56) But the war of 1914 made Klee grieve profoundly because his friend has died on the 16th of March. This war did 70 not stop Klee from working; "He began to shut himself off from events." He writes the following about that period: In order to work my way out of my dreams, I had to l e a m to fly. And so I flew. Now, I dally in that shattered world only in occasional memories the way one recollects things now and again. Thus I deal abstractly with memories. At the beginning of 1915 Klee recorded in his journal: "The more horrifying this world becomes (as it is these days) the more art becomes abstract; while a world at peace produces realistic art" (Grohmann, 1940. p. 57)

Art and War in Spain, Goya (1746-1818) The French invaded Spain in 1808 and then again in 1823 by the troops of the restored French monarchy. The French slaughter consisted of a series of attacks in which they violated everything. The camera eye of Goya registered the horrible days of the genocide, the murder of children, women, and rebels. Getlein (1963) writes: Under the pressure of the French invasion Goya produced one of the enduring monuments of the human spirit, a series of etchings called the Disaster of War. In these eigthy-three prints the court painter became an eyewitness to history. He testified eloquently that the making of history requires the breaking of bones and brains. He raised the serious question of whether the history is worth the bones it breaks, a question that has influenced everyone's thoughts about war ever since. He made his testimony and raised his question in the form of prints, (p. 10) In his works, Goya shows a highly critical attitude toward man and society. He was a moralist like Bosch and Bruegel. He was a very practical artist. He lived what he 71 observed. Goya makes the viewer cry with him in his prints The Disasters of War, which ask the viewer to, "see it, feel it, live it, weep with him, cry out with him in anger, and stop it." Goya did three series of etchings; The Capricios. The Disasters of the War, and the Disparates or Follies. In these prints, Goya raised and answered a lot of questions about human behavior. "Goya's reactions to his personal crisis of his divided and benighted Spain were reflected in his art", (Shikes, 1976, p. 97). His works have continued to elicit critical and political commentary. Getlein (1963) observes that: Marxists have a fairly easy time demonstrating that three series of prints are broadly pro- people and anti-rulers and are therefore proto- tJt ^ m ^ C A \

Goya discovered his genius the day he dared to give up pleasing others. He was a very "involved" moralist. He observed, felt, and lived what he drew. "He does not so much pity the victims as feel he is one of them" (Shikes, 1976, p. 101).

The Third of May, Spain 1814 In Goya's painting suggests the agony of death, the torment of the wounded, and marks a turning point in western art. Otto Simon (1964) said: A single man, wild with terror, is exposed in his defenselessness by the merciless glare of 72 light that is concentrated on him, and surrooun- ding him those whose turn will be next, driven to the place of execution, concealing their faces in their hands, supporting each other or sprawling on the ground covered with blood, (p. 52) The event Goya depicted is one episode after Napoleon's invasion of Spain. About The Third of May by Goya, Folke Nordstrom (1962) quotes Vallentine (1961), when he writes about Goya's painting: Against the ocher background of the hill a man in a white shirt stands out in relief, proudly straightening himself on his knees, arms raised, chest an offered target for the bullets... (p. 177) Goya used to express himself in black colors. He feels that this color has a special meaning in his art. The Black Paintings reveal some of Goya's uncanny observations of human folly in action. But more than that, they expose his intense awareness of the dark forces of panic, terror, fear, hysteria - the all too real ingredients of the human experience. (Richard Schikel, 1968, p. 172) Goya has a print representing a giant sitting naked on a very calm wide space and with a little moon in the comer. This print reminds us of The Thinker of Rodin. Goya's Giant looks like he is thinking or asking himself a hard question. This print tells us more about the monster and the artist and the revolution in life. Maybe this print represents Goya himself or his great dream. 73 Goya, Modem time, and the monater "The dream of reason produces monsters". The story of m o d e m times was kind of a dream. From Goya to our time many dreams have been surrounded with some monsters. No freedom has been absolute; no revolu­ tion has been complete; and no truth has been unself- interested. The dream of science produced the light at Hiroshima. Goya, lived during the age of reason and at the beginning of the age of monsters. We are still living the dream of democracy, liberty, equality, and fraternity that still produces terrors like Vietnam, South Africa, and Beirut.

Picasso, Guernica (1937) Picasso started a modern political period with his artistic life. Picasso explained in 1945 the role of the artist in expressing social problems and war. He said: What do you think an artist is? An imbecile who has only his eyes if he's a painter, or ears if he's a musician, or a lyre at every level of his heart if he's a poet, or even if he's a boxer, just his muscles? On the contrary, he's at the same time a political being, constantly alive to heartrending, fiery, or happy events, to which he responds in every way. How would it be possible to feel no interest in other people and by virtue of an ivory indifference to detach yourself from the life which they so copiously bring you? No, painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy. (The Art of Social Conscience. 1976, p. 93) 74 A social event and a town Guernica's name meant two things. On the one hand, it was a traditional town. On the other hand, it was a social event of our time unknown until then. From this conjunction emerged an aesthetic product destined to spur the imagination and to keep world opinion deeply divided for more than thirty years. (F. E. Granell, 1981, p. 4) This work did not only attract critics, art historians, writers, poets, and painters, but it also attracted phi­ losophers, psychologists, and sociologists. It was not only a work about war, but it also was compared with works of Goya, Delacroix, Ucello, Velazquez, and others. It is difficult to ascertain the meaning of the symbols in Guernica or other works of art about war by Picasso. But it is similar to reading ethnographically. Honigmann (1976), writes that: In reading ethnography we remain undisturbed by such problems, because we read the work not in a critical frame of mind, but for the light it throws on a way of life. We approach the work from the personal perspective in which it was written; understand that it is one person's view of a culture; and see value as well as debatable points arising from its very uniqueness, (p. 249) "War has a special significance for Picasso", according to Blunt Anthony (1969); For Picasso as a Spaniard the war obviously has a special significance. In his youth in Barcelo­ na he had been influenced by Anarchist ideas which were then almost inescapable in the intel­ lectual circles to which he belonged. (P. 8) 75 Spain 1937 Picasso completed a great number of studies in preparation for his Guernica "that became a powerful message about the disasters caused by war in Spain 1937." Ronald Penorse (1964), describes the universal meaning of the symbols of Guernica: In Guernica use of the familiar and humble enabled him to present disaster in an emotional way without overstatement. It is not the horror of an actual occurrence with which we are presented; it is a universal tragedy vivid to us by the myth he has reinvented and the revolutionary directness with which it is presented, (p. 64) The British critic Herbert Read writes about Guernica; Picasso's symbols are banal. Like the symbols of Homer, Dante, and Cervantes. For it is only when the widest commonplace is inspired with the intensest passion that a great work of art, transcending all schools and categories, is b o m and being b o m lives immortally. (Lael Werten Baker, 1976, p. 127) In Guernica there is no town, no bomb, but it is a cry of protest against destmction, violence, pain, and death. Picasso returned to this theme in his works The Weeping Woman and War and Peace. In 1952 he published La Guerre et La Paix a collection of reproductions of his murals.

American artists and war In an album by the Library of Congress, Donald H. Mugridge (1947) introduces the illustrated book about American war with this note: 76 This plain recognition of the importance of war­ fare in a nation's history does not mean that war is preferable to peace, or that we are a nation of warmongers, which the record shows that we are emphatically not. (Introduction) The book illustrate the French and Indian war (1755- 1765), the American revolution (1770-1783), the Mexican war (1845-1847), the civil war (1861-1865), the Spanish- American war, the far east (1898-1900), and World War I (1917-1918). Roger C. Kennedy (1988) asks the follow question: "What did America lose in civil war?" He answers that the war pitted state against state and citizen against citi­ zen. "Why else this dearth of human expression from one of our nation's most decisive and dramatic periods?" (p. 35). The author pays attention to the visual artists who could have become great artists had the war not killed then. He nominated Thomas Eakins, Albert Pinkham, Ryder Winslow, and George Inness. About the effect of art in war, Kennedy says that propaganda art may be very effective; it must be assess­ ed, but it is different than other art. He adds war eli­ minates not only culture from society, but it also kills the ones who create art. War may purge the blood; "it purges away not the waste cells but those holding the energy to create. It removes the best from a culture, but like a thief in the night, it leaves no trace of what it has taken except a vague sense of loss, an ache of deprivation. We know but we cannot prove, that what does not emerge from war is more important than what does. (p. 37) 77 The same feeling comes to pervade art after World War I when several good artists died, great works of arts were destroyed, and young talented painters cut down.

The United States Political Art since 1870 Shikes (1969) said: "During the civil war some American artists worked in the front line. They made their artists' sketches to support the Union cause". Nast achieved several wood engravings. He drew in 1871 a big thumb pressing down the city. He did many other symbols like "The Brain" with the body of man and the head of a money bag. His graphic attacks have become classics of American political satire. Nast's influence became nationwide because of his use of such symbols as the Republican Elephant and the Democratic Donkey. These symbols have become an original part of the American political tradition. The Boss was an American magazine used to show social protest towards the political structure, and artists contributed their drawings to its paragraphs. The Mass. another magazine, reflected the social and political situation. Many American artists in the first quarter of the twentieth century made drawings without pay for Mass. including John Sloan (1871-1950), Boardman Robinson (1876-1952), George Bellows (1882-1925), and Stuart Davis (1894-1964). Under the editorship of Max Eastman, Mass contained poetry, reportage, and short 78 stories by Sheirwood Anderson, Floyd Dell, Louis Unterme- yer, Amy Lowell, John Reed, and Carl Sandburg (Shikes, 1976, p. 325). In the fifties, most American artists were concerned with two issues, the struggle for the civil rights and the Vietnam war (p. 361). During that time Shahn (1898-1969), Baskin (1922), Evergood (1897-1973), Herblock (1909), Woodruff (1900), Diggers (1924), White (1918), Fransconi (1919), Koppelman (1920), and Steinberg (1967) followed and expressed the crises of violence, the Vietnam war, the Negro's condi­ tion in the south, the fascism, and the moral and the social implications of the war. These recent U.S. crises have influenced many American artists. Meanwhile artists who had immersed themselves in abstract expressionism and pop art also protested against the government in their art. They all felt affected by the racial crisis, the unjust war in Vietnam, and their feelings of helpless­ ness .

Blood runs through history We are facing a crisis of violence, according to Charlotte Willard (1979) in Art in America. Yet, as Willard notes, the United States did not invent the phenomenon: Rivers of blood run through the history of every people, from the Dionysian rites of prehistoric 79 Greece, through the Spanish conquest of the new world, to the endless struggles for power in Europe and Asia. (p. 36-37) In the 19th century, artists such as Delacroix, Géricault, and others were critically noting social and political crises in Europe in their art. American painters also began to express events during and after the civil war. At the turn of the century, the American artist George Luks was sent in 1895 to draw the Cuban war, and William Glackens in 1898 covered the Spanish American war. More politically engaged art started to develop before World War I, especially in The Masses a radical political journal for which Max Eastman, John Reed, and Otto Dix worked. The art critic Dore Ashton (1969) writes that the "crisis, political and social, boiling up in the years before World War I brought for these artists an apocalyptic mood of depression, in which Emerson's belief in the value of each man's hidden introspection reasser­ ted itself" (see Art in Mexico. p. 25). Yet not all artists were committed to social change or to using art to express problems. Picasso's political art such as Guernica was a model for artists such as Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock, and William de Kooning in the 1940s. Since the 1950s artists such as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauchenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, 80 and George Segal have used their characteristic styles to create an art of protest, reflecting the cruelty of war, the atom bomb, the cold war, and social criticism.

Russian art and revolution The period from 1917 to 1921 was one of the darkest in all of Russia's history due to a number of factors: the civil war, foreign intervention, disease, and famine. At the same time the overthrow of autocracy produced a new artistic freedom in this country. Men and women, painters, sculptors, composers, choreographers, film makers, poets, and writers worked together to create new art to express the realities of modem life. Artists welcomed the revolution as a new chance to enter the stream of modern life with new techniques and new artistic visions. The artists cooperated to create educa­ tional films and revolutionary pictures. The artist Mayakovsky is an interesting case. The Revolution forced him to give up his notions of a "pure" or non-utilitarian art. He altered his literary style and worked with the government to create posters which disse­ minated official information to the masses. The posters of Mayakovsky at that time, for example, expressed the civil war. They appeared everywhere and played an important part in the revolution. The simple style of both the art work and the language presented the message 81 of the Bolsheviks to even the least educated (George Boumoutian, p. 116-117). Guerman Mikhail (1979) writes: "With all your body, all your heart, and all your mind, listen to the revolution", wrote Alexander Block in 1918. In order to "hear the revolution" and not lose one's bearings as centuries-old monarchy fell, talent alone was not enough. The artist had to possess a courageous and wise talent to overcome not only hunger and cold, but also his own doubts, to see the important rather than the inessential, the artist had to be fearless. Only then could his art make other people see, could show them how to "listen to the Revolution," a revolution that had no equal in history, (p. 5) At the end of the civil war and with the new economic system in 1921, a new policy began to oblige artists to express and to support new strategic and poli­ tical ideas. The situation in Russia deteriorated after the death of Lenin. The people's dream of freedom was destroyed with the coming of Stalin. According to Boumoutian ( 1986 ) : Conditions worsened after the death of Lenin in 1924. Until 1929, however, some degree of freedom continued. But thereafter, under Stalin, all free expression ceased and only artistic formulae sanctioned by the state were acceptable. (p. 119) At the time of World War I in Russia, artists favored realistic representation to express their political and social views. The government sponsored art that expressed the ideology of the political and social movement in Russia and encouraged direct visual means and messages in art. 82 The Mexican MurallstB In Mexico, the Russian experience influenced the Mexican artists, Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros to achieve their murals with their revolutionary pictures, and it also influenced many other artists around the world. Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros achieved universal art through their social and political themes. These men represent a major modern art school that influenced many artists around the world. The public art that started with them in 1930 continued to have influence in major American cities such as New York City and Chicago. The works of the Mexican artists are distinguished by their Indian heritage that incorporated Christian sub­ jects, Spanish traditions, m o d e m life, and communist ideology. Smith Bradley (1968) observes the following about art in Mexico : Mexican art has flourished for twenty centuries. The body of work covered by the term "Mexican art" includes three great historical periods : the Indian, the colonial, and the modem, (p. 10)

Diego Rivera (1886-1957) Rivera studied in Paris and his works reflect the influence of Gauguin in his popular and primitive sub­ jects. His art was an important social instrument for protest against the violence and the dictatorship during 83 the Mexican revolution. It reflects the struggle between democratic and dictatorial forces that has marked Mexican history for the last century. Pasada, the Mexican artist, used woodcuts before Rivera to illustrate all different kinds of events, stories, songs, prayers, dances, and revolutionary scenes in his country. Rivera is more a historian in his paintings. In a book by the Museum of M o d e m Art in New York (1931), we read the following about Rivera: "The subject that Diego had determined to use on the murals of the amphitheater was Mexico, her social, economic, and political prob­ lems ". Rivera also is the best colorist artist, who knows very well how to make harmony between colors. Rivera gave all his life and all his emotionto his art. Frances Pain argues that "Diego's very spinal column is painting, not politics. Every inclination of his life has led to painting (p. 35, Museum of M o d e m Art). On the hand, Rivera would not allow his patrons to dictate his subject matter. In 1932 when Rivera submitted a sketch of what he was going to paint, he said that he would include a worker giving his hands to a peasant and soldier... (Rockefeller may not have recognized the Marxist phrasing)... Rivera worked on his mural under a tarpaulin to hide it, but when the Rockfellers found out what he had insinuated into the mural, they asked him to change it. (Krinsky Carol Hersell, 1986, p. 155) 84 Rivera refused to change it. In 1937 it was replaced by another mural by Jose Maria Sert.

Orozco (1883-1949) "Like Kathe Kollwitz and George Rouault, Orozco has penetrated to the core of personal suffering. It is a frightening and memorable vision". (Paul Blum, 1976, p. 154). For Orozco the purpose of the artist in general was to encourage peace through his art. He wanted to make his art useful to create a world without exploitation or racial discrimination. Orozco portrayed workers, educa­ tors, rebels, and thinkers, because he liked in his art to penetrate the basic truth about the human condition. He worked hard to express the revolution until his death in 1949. Orozco brought an expressionist simplicity of form and compassion into his works. He drew inspiration from his memory and from his experiences with the revolution­ ary armies in the field.

Siqueiros (1896-1974) Siqueiros was an enthusiastic, and practical, revolutionary artist. He fought with the army and distilled his ideological beliefs into his work. In 1918 Siqueiros was a soldier. He spent a lot of time in prison because of his ideas and because of his belief in street violence. Political activities and demonstrations 85 dominated his life. In 1940 he participated in an attempt to assassinate Trotsky. He was arrested six times, and after the plot to kill Trotsky he was asked to leave Mexico. Siqueiros expressed the war in The Echo of a Scream, his most famous work, which "depicts the eternal grief of the innocent victims." Siqueiros places a child in the middle of a shattered world that is surrounded with the ravage of war. Paul Von Blum (1976) writes: More than most painters now and in the past, he was able to capture the pain and suffering of mankind. His portrayals of Weeping Woman and Crying Children are eternally human and reflect the artist's passionate desire to remove the conditions that have caused their despair, (p. 164) Siqueiros died in 1974, and the great mural movement lost one of its greatest artists. But Mexican artists are still concerned about war and social causes. They are also still keeping their Mexican qualities and their purely socialist themes in their unique popular and traditional vision.

Arab artists and revolution after World War II After World War II some Arab artists from Egypt, Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon were frustrated by the disasters of war. In some of their paintings, artists tried to express their impressions of the revolutions and wars that occured in their countries. 86 Jamal Al Sajini and Mahmoud Moktar, the Egyptian artists expressed in their paintings and sculp­ tures in 1952 the revolutions that happened in their countries. fAl-Hilal. 1968, p. 175) Ismail Shammout expressed the war in Palestine after the 1948 war. Jawad Salim, the best Iragui artist, who studied in Paris and Rome also expressed in 1961 in his huge horelief. The Iraqi Revolution. a famous sculpture located in Bagdad. In this sculpture, Salim expresses the human drama of his country, yet he relies on the techniques and symbols employed in Sumerian horeliefs. Salim depicts injured animals in their struggles against death (Jabra Ibrahim, 1974, p. 74). "A revolution is a sign of change", said Badr Eddin Abu Gazi in 1968 in Al-Hilal magazine, "uprising and victory are part of the history of art which artists use to exp­ ress these revolutionary events and uprisings" (p. 165). In the Middle East, after the 1967 war the political struggle changed once again the consciousness of Arab artists. In 1968, Aref Rayes held his first political show in Beirut. At that time, the theme of war also appeared in the works of Rafic Charaf, Wahib Bteddini, and others.

Art and war and the Middle East problem War, violence, and the trends of the late 20th century have influenced all of us, and especially art which sometimes finds itself isolated and disconnected. Art finds itself estranged from its original spiritual beliefs that have always been linked to religious faith or philosophy. 87 Lebanese artists, like any other artists all over the world, are influenced by violence because they share similar preoccupations and social contexts. The economic political crisis and war in Lebanon or in the world aff­ ects all of us, sometimes directly and sometimes indirec­ tly. We see the same movies, we listen to the same news, and we deal with the same kind of money. We use the same equipment such as refrigerators, radios, cars, and compu­ ters.

The effect of the war on some Lebanese artists' works In article by the poet and art critic Bland Al- Haidari (1988) in Almalalla. we translated and para­ phrased the following about the Lebanese fine art movement: After eleven and a half years I was exited to see some Lebanese artists during the opening of the exhibi­ tion about Lebanese art. But I got very upset when I did not meet any of them. Aref Rayes nor Paul Gueragosian, Wajih Nahli, Moussa Tiba, Hassan Juni, Rafic Sharaf, Halim Jurdak, Etel Adnan, Seta Manokian, Saliba Duwaihi, or Hussain Madi were not there. Many people and friends during the opening of the show asked where the Lebanese artists were and where the Lebanese art was. The Lebanon that we used to feel in the works of Aref Rayes and the works of Jamil Molaeb, whose prints appeared in 1979 by the name Near Mv Countrv. was also absent. Why do 88 the Lebanese artists need to say that they are more powerful than their catastrophes? Is that because they do not need to repeat through their own aesthetic the hard war and history? Or have they left the country and the country left them? If this is the case, the loss of hope will be the big Lebanese drama. What can I say about the friends I waited for who did not come? What can I say about pictures I waited for a long time but did not see? What can I say about Lebanon and its citizens dropping out of artists' canvases? What is left for me to say after everything that I have said? Anyway, the exhibition reminds us of the role of Lebanon in the field of art and culture. Its sound has its echo in many Arab countries. We are glad to see in this exhibition a work belonging to Saliba Duwaihi (who has lived in New York for 40 years) and Paul Gueragosian. Shafic Abboud (who has lived in Paris for more than 20 years) tried to express the civil war in Lebanon, but he felt that the clear vision and the realistic picture of the war put him under stress fAlmaialla. 1988, p. 44-46). In an interview with the Lebanese poet Sharbel Daguer, Abboud said: "I tried to draw the war of Lebanon, but ny paintings looked very dramatic so I destroyed them. " Haidar expressed the disappointment and frustra­ tion of many critics, artists, and citizens alike. 89 The war affected the Lebanese art movement because some artists left Lebanon, stopped doing art, or express­ ing themselves because life came first.

Lebanese Artists and the War In the following pages I will introduce seven Lebanese artists: Paul Gueragosian, Etel Adnan, Helen Khal, Aref Rayes, Seta Manokian, Halim Jurdak, and Amine El Basha. These artists represent, in my opinion, the contemporary Lebanese art movement before and during the war because they played an original role in expressing Lebanese society. My purpose in choosing them is to find out how these artists expressed themselves differently and how the war affected their lives and their art.

Paul Gueragosian Before the Lebanese civil war, the Lebanese artist Paul Gueragosian (1982) was an Armenian. The artist shows a pessimistic vision in his paintings. This dark aspect in his art came from some dismal historical events. Genocide had happened to his people and families in 1905 by Turkey. In an interview with Althakafa, the Arab magazine, Gueragosian (1974) said: "I am sometimes pessimistic, I think every moment about death, not only the physical death but the death of freedom." He added: "Unfortunatly there is a time in history in which the ki­ llers are the heroes. I am still afraid of the genocides. 90 I am still worried about who died, about the children who died without cause in unjust wars" (p. 73).

Etel Adnan Etel Adnan (1978), (living in California) is a poet, a writer, and a painter. Her works have been exhibited in the U.S.A., Europe, and the Arab countries. I met her in 1974 in Dar El Fan in Beirut. She arranged for me to have a televised interview about my show. I met Etel again in 1978 in Beirut when I gave her a copy of my book about the civil war. She looked briefly at the book and asked me, "How are you doing Jamil in this scary war?" And I saw tears dripping from her eyes. Etel published a book about the Lebanese civil war by the name Sitt Marie Rose. The book isabout a friend of hers who has been killed because of her belief and her heroism: This female monster dares to stand up to us when she is at our mercy. What a fooll I should have squashed her like a bedbug the moment we captu­ red her. They want to go on talking, questioning her, and for what? Mounir wants to keep his cool. He is crazy, thousands of deaths should have erased these affectations of false civili­ ty. Me, I know that might makes right, that the wolf doesn't ask the sheep's permission to eat him. It is his right as a wolf. (p. 92) This novel is about a woman abducted by militiamen and executed; "it reveals the tribal mentality which makes of the Middle East a dangerous powerhouse." I call Etel from time to time. She sent me a letter from 91 California writing that she is still waiting for peace because she feels homesick from time to time. She writes : "Dear Jamil... It is hard to be sick in this country. It is not like in Beirut where friends come one after the other to keep you company. Distances are big, and people are busy. " (From a letter from Etel Adnan, October 19, 1988).

Helen Khal Helen Khal (1988), is a painter and an art critic who lived in Lebanon and had several shows. In 1976 she was requested by the Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World to conduct research on women artists in Lebanon. The author chose 12 leading artists, eleven of them were prominent Lebanese artists, and she gave the following conclusions which she based on experience and investigation. First, most of these women belong to cultural and well-to-do families whose daughters are not obliged to start working for a living early in life. Second, teaching art is obligatory in Lebanese schoo­ ls. It reaches a high level in some of them and forms a good background for an early discovery of talents. Third, painting and other plastic arts may be studied at home and meet no opposition from parents and family. 92 Fourth f the study of art does not require a long a period as, for example, music or medicine. (M Raida. 1988, The Women Artist in Lebanon). Rose Ghurayyib, (1988), writes the following about Helen Khal: Helen Khal tells us about her art experience which started with her love for reading, her force of express ion... Then she took drawing as a hobby and succeeded in drawing the house of her father in Shedra (Akkar, Lebanon) where he lived before emigration to the states... After returning to Lebanon and marrying Yussuf El- Khal, she studied art at the Lebanese Academy, exhibited her work, which won appreciation. In her art, she was first attracted by form and subject; then she concentrated on color, (p. 19) In an interview with Mondav Morning magazine (1978), Khal expressed her feelings about her experience as an artist who lived in Beirut before and after the civil war. She said: My work demands serenity and this is what I try to express in any painting. I had it for many years in Lebanon, despite occasional crises, but living through the war here shattered that inner serenity I had. I need time to rebuild it as Lebanon needs time to rebuild itself, (p. 44) I met Helen Khal with Moazzaz Rawda in Beirut in 1978 during a few weeks of peace. She was pessimistic about the situation. I met her again in 1984 when I held my exhibition in Washington D.C. On December 1988 she wrote me a letter in which Helen answered some questions I had asked about our art and war: 93 I have, however, been seeing some work of Lebanese artists from time to time. My feeling is that those artists who remained in Lebanon... most of them, with a few exceptions have not advanced in their art. They appear to be working with a less dedicated spirit. But on the whole, I believe that the really serious artists., those to whom art is their life.. continue to work with honest creative intention. Many artists, of course, are no longer living in Lebanon. To know how the war and displacement has affected their work would require personal interviews with them. About her art, her displacement from Lebanon to Washing­ ton, D.C. and the war, Khal writes : As for myself, my displacement from Lebanon to Washington affected ny color expression. Color was always my primary interest in painting, and the sun and light of Lebanon directed me into a special expression of color that strongly rela­ ted to Lebanon's sun and light. In Washington, all is grayed, and my paintings show this change. War and politics do not enter into my creative intention. I pursue a private vision of a safe and serene world. I try to create on canvas a sort of oasis for the emotions through the power of color. When I paint I shut out the harsh and noisy world outside. (From a letter from Helen Khal, 1988)

Aref Rayas The political vision of Aref's paintings began to appear after the 5th of June War in the Middle East in the show. Blood and Freedom that took place in L'Orien Le Jour's Gallery in 1979. We felt the influence of the war in that show. In 1973 Aref made a sérigraphie collection in black and white entitled Scenes From the Realities of the Third World. He expressed again in this collection political events in the Arab World. From 1965 until 1975, 94 Aref was the most influential artist and art teacher at the Lebanese University. He arranged more than six solo exhibitions and he did several conferences in Beirut and in other Arab cities. I used to see Aref in school, for he was m y advisor at the university and my friend. In 1975 after the beginning of the civil war in Lebanon, Aref was driving his car from the mountain to his house in Beirut when some anonymous fighter kidnapped him to take his car. Between 1975 and 1977, Aref was in Algeria with his wife. At that time the war became very aggressive in Beirut. He drew images from the news, magazines, and newspapers photographs to achieve another black and white collection. At the end of 1977, Aref came back to Lebanon and we began to work together. We made many group exhibitions in Beirut. In 1979, Aref published his Algerian collection in a book entitled The Road of The Peace. It includes fifty reproductions of his art work and combines realism and surrealism. As Amy C. Lawenstein (1979) observes, "his sketches have been exhibited world wide and are a protest against the war" (p. 149). Aref continued to put on shows and to teach at the Lebanese University until 1980 when he left to make some sculptures in Jadda in Saudi Arabia. 95 Seta Manokian Seta Manokian was a very active Lebanese woman artist and art teacher during the civil war. She participated in many group exhibitions, seminars, and cultural activi­ ties. She did many posters about the war. She arranged an art calendar showing some children's drawings about the national crisis. She also created some street art with some students in the Alrawshi area of Beirut in 1984. Seta was one of the artists who represented the new fine art movement in Lebanon. From the beginning of the war, her art was distinguished by its photographical realistic vision. Martin Giseen (1977) writes in Mondav Morning of the works of Seta Manokian. He said: For Seta Manokian, man is caught up in a hopeless fight to rid himself of the animal in him. Hopeless, because this being is the object of it (sic) surroundings, unable to influence its environment, literally tied up by its own chains, (p. 39) Because of the war and because of 13 years of suffering. Seta felt as many other artists feel that she couldn't tolerate the hard situation any more. In 1987 she left the country to live with her parents in California. She is teaching art in schools to survive. 96 Hal.lm Jurdak Halim Jurdak is a Lebanese pioneer printmaker and an art teacher. He has taught at the Lebanese University since 1965. Jurdak wrote about art and culture in many cultural magazines and newspapers, especially in Mawakif. In 1972 he published his first book. The Trans formation of the Line and the Color which expresses his personal artistic vision. He also wrote about the spirituality of art and what we need to know to understand line and color in modem art pictures. Jurdak was my art teacher in 1972 when he held his art show The Brandfire and the Ash in Dar El Fan Gallery. He explained his points of view about modern art, abstraction, lines, colors, and objects. He spoke about nature and human feeling and the indirect transformation of light, events, and history into a work of art. During the civil war in Lebanon, the artist suffered from the cruelty of the war. He worked alone in his studio, often he tried not to express the events of the war. He preferred to be free in his life as he was free in his drawings and prints. In 1987, Jurdak made a solo exhibition in Beirut. The war never entered directly in his picture. In an interview with Joseph Assaf (1988), the artist spoke about his art and the Lebanese movement during the war. He said: the war blew apart Lebanese society. 97 creating for the Lebanese people an extraordinary feeling toward art. This art appreciation may have happened because of the hard situation, which people wanted to escape from into art. Art opened a new perspective for their life after the time of death. About Lebanese modem art, Jurdak adds: There were no measures because it is very difficult to say anything about fine art in times of war, when everything is mixed up, the good with the bad, the pioneer artist with the professional. In ny opinion this is natural in a time of war. The real enduring art will become apparent later. The artist who is going to get the gold cannot avoid getting the soil that surrounds it. To get the gold they will have to work a long time in the laboratory to free it from the other substances.

Amine El Basha After working and studying in France, Amine El Basha came back to Beirut, where he started, as other Lebanese artists, to teach art at the university. Since that time, he held many shows in Beirut, Spain, and Italy. He expressed Lebanese nature, life, and tradition in his watercolors. And during the war he never stopped working hard. Sometimes he liked to express his ideas and opinions about the war and the crisis. In his pictures he occasionally used signs, symbols, and handwritten words and paragraphs about what had happened in Lebanon. 98 El Basha is a distinguished Lebanese colorist. He takes his objects from eveiry day life. In 1982, El-Basha created an art collection about the Israeli invasion and its catastrophic effects in Beirut and Saida. In some interviews with newspapers and magazines El-Basha expre­ ssed his feeling about the nation, history, and the war. Mondav Morning (1978) published one of his letters that was sent to an Israeli artist. El Basha met him in 1959 when they were students together in Paris at the National Academy of Fine Arts. In the letter the artist explained his beliefs about the cause of the war, the violence, and the impossible peace: You were b o m in war, lived in war and forever prepare for war. What is this peace you are demanding? You create agents, organize massacres and in your schools produce specialists in crime. You claim to be a chosen people, an advanced people, a civilized people. You demons­ trate for peace, but you have stormed Lebanese land and your tanks have crushed innocent unarmed people. Today you demonstrated for peace for peace, but yesterday your planes bombed our South, and your warships invaded our coasts... I would have respected you had you demonstrate in occupied Palestine against your army's occupa­ tion of our South. But now, my contempt for you and your baseness has grown. My aim is to take back Palestine and turn it into a country where Christians, Jews, and Moslems can coexist peacefully. (Monday Morning. p. 14-15) In 1988, El Basha held his last exhibition in Dar El Fan. He drew once again the Lebanese landscape and the familiar objects in his studio. “He tried to create his 99 internal world in contrast with the exterior world. His pictures are a world of exile and absence from the envi­ ronment of the other. But the impression of the Lebanese situation is translated indirectly into an atmosphere of inspiration and isolation" (Hashem Kassem, 1988, Alminbar p. 79). Artists have reflected different attitudes about war through the ages. Artists reflected historical incidnets that have resulted from religious, political, economical, and cultural forces. The earliest works about political subjects and wars expressed the religious struggles and conflicts between the churches, and political institu­ tions . With Goya and Delacroix the war began to appeare absurd. It began to reperesent human catastrophy. Since World War I and II artists began to confront war by drawing its realistic scenes, like Kathe Kollwitz. Paul Klee expressed the war in spiritual visions. Picasso's Guernica seemed to summarize the horrors of war for the first half of the Twentieth Century. The Lebane­ se artists as any other group responded differently to the theme of war. Some of them moved it into abstruction, some confronted it by drawing its every day scenes, others just ignored it by doing landscapes and beauties. CHAPTER IJI

This chapter describes how autobiographical research can be a helpful method to describe events, art, beauty, war, history, the human condition, and "truth". This chapter also discusses the value of autobiogra­ phical research through some anthropological studies. My purpose is to find out how autobiographical research can be a valid method to document reality, culture, and his­ torical situations. My study concentrates only on contemporary fine art, art education, and culture. My chief consideration is with what I saw and read; through what I lived. Writers on the whole are in three groups: those "who write with their ears to give the people what they wish to hear and to read; those who write with one ear open to give the people part of the truth to please them; and third, those who write and express only the truth". (Malek, 1970). When I express what I feel and know, I am unconcerned with whether it pleases or not. If what I feel looks and sounds too personal and opinionated, it is because every truth needs personal interpretation to be clear and sig­ nificant. I explain some of these truths because I be­ lieve that only the truth can save us.

100 101 "Beauty Is truth, truth le beauty” (John Keats, 1795-1821) We cannot hide the truth in a work of art or in music for example. We cannot tell about beauty in our poetry or painting if that harmony of colors and lines and express­ ion do not fascinate us or convince us. Words, music, and color are abstract languages, and it is impossible to hide their expression. The work of art reflects our feelings. It expresses different talents in our personality. It expresses true feelings. Color is truth, poetry is truth, and landscape is truth. Artists work to pick up the reflection of the object from reality, and this reflection sometimes is concrete, and sometimes is abstract. It is abstract be­ cause it reflects a reality beyond mere appearances and comes to our consciousness through practice and knowled­ ge. For many artists this invisible reality is more true than surface appearance. It sometimes looks very compli­ cated to the audience, but this is no problem, our body itself is very complicated in its physical and psycholo­ gical organization. And as we need medical knowledge to understand our bodies, we also need to understand the language of art to perceive what is being expressed.

Truth in the press Michel Abu Jawdi (1983), the director of Anahar. a Lebanese daily newspaper, told us in his daily seminar about truth in the press: "Whatever you read in a 102 newspaper is not the truth, but the cover of the truth". He gave an example: "an article about an accident that happened the other day in Hamra Street is only a little personal description, or report about some tzruths, and every report describes the same event taking under accou­ nt only the personal observation. Sociologically and politically, truth is expensive and sometimes dangerous. It is as a beautiful rose with sharp thorns; it is good to look at but is hard to remove it. Actually or histori­ cally, many truths disappeared and it is very hard to find out about them. Twenty-five years ago, for example, they assassinated John Kennedy, and last week, a lot of films, reports, and articles had been written to celebra­ te him. Some articles were written about the reason for the death of the young president, but where is the truth? The Will was the last book by Kamal Jumblat that appeared just after his assassination on March 16, 1977. In the Will Jumblat revealed what may be called secrets and truths about the Lebanese war, culture, politics, and religion. In some Arab countries truth also means no job, prison, death, exile, or assassination. As a matter of fact this situation was expressed by many Arab artists and poets, among them Miihammad Almaghut who was refugee in Lebanon in 1960 because of his political, national ideas. Almaghut expresses this fact in many of his theatre pieces and poetry. He comments in 1984 in an 103 interview in Anahar Al-Arabi Waldawlv magazine: "One day I thought I wanted to be a democratic leader to help people, to let workers, students, and laborers follow me, but unfortunately, nobody does except the spies and the inspectors." In the Winter of 1983 when I was in Beirut, we discussed the hard situation during the invasion. The popular poet Ajaj Almohtar said to us; "We cannot say the truth to every one at any time everywhere. " Truth some­ times hurts, and we have to be heroes to say it, as Socrates was when he preferred to drink the poison to save his friend. Jesus Christ never hesitated to speak up about love and truth. The violence never stops the Prophet from confronting his enemies and continuing his message.

War and truth Autobiographical research or the life story is a primary source of data for me to describe what I know. The information that I treat includes historic events. I agree with Karen Hamblen (1985) when she states: just as art can imitate, art histories tend to beget histories... It is therefore an obligation of historical researchers to choose well events of study for their perspective impact, (p. 8) An account of an event cannot be a perfect photocopy about what happened. Hamblen adds: 104 A histozry about an event is not the event. Rather a history is the creation of yet another event that results from an attempt to grapple with the nature of meaning, multiple truths, and levels of interpretation. There is no final definitive history of the past. (p. 8) History exists separately from its original reality. Therefore written autobiography or written history is an open concept; the event can occur in different media. "By its very nature historical analysis is always incomple­ te; " according to Hamblen in her article. Historical Re­ search in Art Education: Any one historical interpretation is no more real than another. Just as no one work of art in a particular style and medium has a claim above one in a different style and medium and created for a different purpose, (p. 5) This point is only partly true since interpretations with more factual content would carry more weight than ones lacking factual content. History helps us to remem­ ber some significant events that happened in the past. These causes are important because they still have their influence in the present. According to Paul Goodman (1960): The use of history... is to rescue from oblivion the lost causes of the past. History is especially important when the lost causes haunt us in the present as unfinished business, (p. 216)

Art criticism, time, memory, and reality Art criticism, in a sense, makes narratives out of works of art, and telling a story about a work of art is 105 like telling a story about an historical event. The clo­ ser we are to the work in time/ in culture etc./ the better able we are to make relevant judgments. Sometimes/ the "truth" about a work of art or an event becomes obs­ cured through time and through its dissemination from one place to another/ from one person to another/ or from one reporter to another. This problem has pushed some artists to explore quick techniques for expression/ such as pho­ tography/ film/ and recordings that seem to capture "ob­ jective" reality. It has also led them to exploit the trendiness of art movements by developing new kinds of conceptual art. Some artists try to capture a contemporary fresh vision. This attempt reminds me of the Lebanese actor and art teacher Roger Assaf (1974)/ who brings people from South Lebanon to his theatre in order to express themsel­ ves. He thinks that people can tell their problems better than any theatrical scene or anybody else. Assaf has also gone to some villages where he has done some scenes and movies. The Arab poet Adonis (1985) comments that the theatre of Assaf is very alive because he does not rehash the stories of other writers or translate someone's novel. Art criticism has an important role in establishing the value/ or the significance of an art work. But it is quite separate from the work itself. An original oeuvre 106 belongs to a real artist. Take for example the paintings of Gauguin; it is impossible for a work of criticism to capture its colors, composition, spiritual feeling, its primitive vision, its romantic background... etc. A work of criticism chooses a perspective from which to view a work. The museum is a convenient place for a painting because it keeps the work in its natural state, protect­ ing it from oxidation, conserving if for a long time. But while a museum gives a work a place to be where it can receive critical attention, it removes it from its origi­ nal environment. The object of art is the subject matter for every art critic. However, the color changes through the years. When I visited Venice in 1971 with a group from the Lebanese University, I was surprised by the huge paintings and murals of artists of the renaissance such as Fra Angelico, Titian, and MichealAngelo. But I felt a lot of black and gray colors in their paintings in comparison with the same pictures in some catalogues and some of books about art history. When I asked about the causes of the color change, they said that it was the oxidation that comes from the salty water around the island. For ny research, I have considered several theories of autobiographical research. The life history and the personal approach help me to understand how to conduct my study. I believe that the cultural background of the 107 subject, other autobiographical studies, art works, and artist's studies enable one to assess the unique experie­ nce by comparing it with the experience of others under the same circumstances.

The effect of the story teller in the Arabian Niohta. In the Arabian Nights. Shahrayar killed many women until Shahrazad, the daughter of AlWazir, married him to save other women from torture. She began to tell "a tale, and king Shahrayar, listening, was enchanted. And she was not killed on the morrow, as more than a thousand of her predecessors had been. Nor did she die after the thousandth night, nor after the thousand and first.. And so it was when, centuries later, she said in the easy French of Antoine Galland; I will tell you a tale. All France listened, was enchanted, and hoped that Shahrazad would never die" (Richard Burton, 1932, pp. 8-9). "The skill of Shahrazad and her conscious style of telling the story obliged the harsh king not to kill her". Shahrazad used art to save life (Issam Mahfouze, 1988, p. 7). Shahrazad strings the stories together like beads on a chain in order to compose a collection. No one had ever told the stories before. The stories came out in a very dramatic fashion. They varied enormously with the style, the places, the time, and the individual talent of each hero. It looked fascinating as segments of a myth from beginning to end. 108 Gerhardt Mia (1963) translated F. Gabrial's remarks about the significance of ancient literature. He sees the 1001 nights as a historical process about the Arab cultu­ re and civilization: This is the inevitable result of the long histo­ rical process which has led to the actual form of the 1001 nights; in which several cultural periods are superimposed and amalgamated, that of classical Arabic civilization being not the most conspicuous nor the best preserved. (Gerhard Mea, 1963, p. 2)

Pictures in a cava. In the Southeast of Algeria, there exist more than 12,000 paintings made 8000 years ago. These prehistoric paintings represent warriors, symbols of social activity, and ritual dances. They also represent battles and scenes about men, women, and animals fighting together. Jean Dominique Lajoux (1964) wrote about (The Archers of Tassili) the Algerian cave: "The terrifying masks and inhuman cries of the warriors carrying the Tauten were more important for victory than the force of arms... ". The author added, in a comparison between the Tassili cave and other prehistoric caves in Altamira in Spain and in France: The earlier cave art at Altamira in Spain and at Lascaux in France has been left behind. Instead of isolated figures of animals or men the Tassi­ li artist depicts communication between man and man, and between man and animals he uses hands. (p. 15) 109 The archeologist described the paintings to make them more understandable, but "no one can observe the real meaning of the images". Everything the archeologist said was a personal observation about the works. These obser­ vation came from self conscious attention to certain features or cicumstances. This archeologist's perception of these cave paintings are necessarily subjective; "the reason probably lies in the limited capacity of human beings to deal at one time with numerous individual ins­ tances of anything." (Honigmann, 1976, pp. 246-247). At the time of Tassili, nobody described in words the magic stories of the society. The people were themselves the historians and the artists. When modem historians write about this period they must take into account that the frescoes are situated at a height of 5,000 feet in­ side a cave, (here the frescoes are primary data for the historians and archeologists).

History and words. The triumphal imagery of war is represented in an Assyrian relief depicting the king Ashurnasirpall II fighting the enemy. The relief is followed by a literary text explaining that the king in his battles was protect­ ed and helped by the God of Ashur. The text accompanying the relief is as follows : 110 Roaring like a lion, I put on the breastplate. I put the helm on ny head, a necessary equipment for battle. And took in hand the bow and arrows which Ashur, king of the Gods had bestowed upon me. (David Castriota, 1986, p. 3) The translated text helped the historian to understand better the Sumarian horelief, and the art work helped him to read faster the theme of the battle. The image just as the word, just as the color, helped create a visual pic­ ture to express and elicit visual responses. Painter or writer, painting or poetry can express a special kind of message for a situation. And the word can be as clear as an image or a poetic verse or an arrange­ ment of objects in a colorful painting. The word must be as true as a beautiful art work. Stephen Cooper (1987) in his book The Politics of Ernest Heminowav comments that nature and human beings remain the same throughout the years no matter what revo­ lutions take place, when, and under what politics,... Eteraity remains. .. This view reminds us about Hemingway, he adds, "Hemingway was an individualist who found the essential values of life in nature and art, not in the passing events of human history". But the strong belief in personal liberty, he adds, "caused him to oppose poli­ tical problems. He wrote that in a thousand years politi­ cs and economics are forgotten, but that art will endure" (p. 135). Ill Hemingway was not only a distinguished American writer who appreciated fine art. He also was revolutionary; he spoke about human reason in the civil war in Spain, the war in the Middle East, and Cuba. He said in 1958, "The writer without a sense of justice and of injustice would be better off editing the year book of a school for ex­ ceptional children than writing a novel" (Cooper, 1987, p. 51). Hemingway suffered as a person and a writer from the struggle of war and politics. He shows his readers this unexplained pain. He is like Kafka; he tells his story about violence without explaining it. According to Steph­ en Cooper (1987): ... The reader feels the same horror, confusion shock, and indignation in the face of unexplain­ ed seemingly meaningless violence that the cha­ racters feel. Kafka does something similar in The Trial... When reading In Our Time the reader shares with the characters the confusion and despair of facing a violent world that seems to have no rational order or explanation, (p. 24- 25) Emily Watts (1971) compares Hemingway's Old Man and The Sea with Paul Klee's paintings The Sea. Watt concludes by saying, "both Hemingway's and Klee's seas are made more mysterious by the choice of colors" (p. 108).

Artist and human condition I believe that the hard events that have happened throughout history have violated human relationships and character. War can leave us without the right to choose 112 our futures, to make decisions, and to determine our faiths. The cruel sadistic struggles of war violate us without reason and attack our personalities. My research is only one example of a particular kind of autobiographical approach. What is important, after all, is to make sense of art, artists, and art education during the war. We are investigating our right to express and to defend our rights and beliefs as artists and tea­ chers. The anthropologist Lawrence Watson (1976) said: The life history is, I believe, the way a person conceptualizes, the stream of experience that constitutes his life as he knows it, in accord­ ance with the demands and expectations he and others impose on the act of relating that life. ...What is depressing to many of us is the lack our research evidences of a true feeling for human life as it is subjectively experienced by the individual. (PP. 127-128) In other words, the wars, the events, and ideas are transformed in some creative process into the human cons­ cience. The Age of Reason by Jean Paul Sartre (1947) is one example that comes to mind. Sartre states: The richness of man's existential dilemma is revealed as he contemplates his own freedom in a world where ready-made solutions threaten to snap asunder his will to act alone as responsib­ le for his own destiny". (Quoted by Watson, p. 128) This situation reminds us of Goya's painting. The Third of May, about which Andre Malraux remarked: "Goya gives man his responsibility and makes him discover himself by bringing him into contact with the reality with which he may be identified". (Goya, Margherita Abbruzzese, 1967, 113 p. 26-27). This situation is also represented by the myth of Sysyphus, by Albert Camus. Sysyphus the man felt him­ self responsible for his existence and destiny. He accep­ ted the challenge, and he alone revolted against the divine power. His revolution was his freedom. According to Peter Selz (1976): Albert Camus in the Mvth of Sisvphus puts forth the theory that man's only response to the absurdity of life is revolt. In face of the futility of his mission, Sisyphus keeps rolling the rock up the hill. He becomes the hero becau­ se he will not resign himself but perseveres eternally in his revolt against his condition. (P. 10) In an article entitled A Public Notice On Waiting For Godot (1956), we read the following: Man's nature, man's dignity, is that he acts, lives, loves, and finally destroys himself seek­ ing to penetrate the mystery of existence, and unless we portage in some way, as some part of this human exploration (and war) then we are no more than the pimps of society and the betrayers of ourselves, fVillage Voice. 1956, p. 325)

Anthropology and personal research Autobiographical research attracts my attention. What is it? What does it mean to me? The personal investigation in a specific situation is worthwhile, especially if the investigation of the re­ searcher deals with a peculiar problem. Anthropologists work to combine traditional methods with new procedures. Honigmann (1976), for example, writes about those anthro­ pologists who appreciate the single investigation: 114 Some anthropologists... Appreciate the advantage gained from a single investigator's getting to know an exotic way of life by immersing him or herself in it and temporarily indentifying with the people's values and understandings in order to communicate them. (p. 243) Honigmann ' s study shows how the personal approach can be used. He defends it by demonstrating how it can work to be objective. Under certain circumstances the personal approach can be very interesting because it reports non- repeatable events. Honigmann (1976) says: The personal approach rests on the premise that under certain circumstances value lies in the very uniqueness and nonrepeatability of a parti­ cular version of reported events or in conclus­ ions drawn from those events, (p. 244) In order to discover fresh ways of seeing and new truths and beliefs, the personal approach can be effective if it can avoid personal interests. Quoting Nadel, (1951, p. 48) Honigmann writes: "The personal equation is always present in all research pro­ cedures and in all knowledge, no matter how objective or impersonal it may seem" (p. 244). Although Honigmann values objectivity, he is realistic: As a result, know­ ledge produced by objective means is necessarily to some degree relativistic, dependent on historically limited judgments and values. Ethnographers, however, usually store information about singular events in written field note, audio or videotapes, photography, maps or plans, and memory. What follows deals only with written descriptions, the majority of which 115 never directly appears in published reports. Unique events loom much more prominently in life histories, (p. 245) No matter how honest or clever we are, Honigman adds, "since no one can observe everything, not even with the aid of the fastest of the sharpest camera lens, the se­ lection of certain events and features of them is inevit­ able" (P. 245). The events will never be represented in totality; a lot of pictures and colors will remain missing. In a piece of poetry, a landscape, or a statue, the artist chooses the objects, just as the historian or the inves- tigatior chooses the events in order to describe the situation. Throughout our lives we select events to make sense of history, indeed, to create history, in order to draw conclusions about life. We know about the world or about the human being through our personal experiences. We know the pain of people through our personal knowledge, feeling, suffer­ ing, and pain. I study the war from a personal perspecti­ ve and with personal knowledge. My study is significant because war produces pain for everybody whether that pain is conceptualized in a Platonic, Freudian, Marxist, or other theoretical context. The personal interpretation of human suffering, I think, is the most important interpre­ tation, especially in art or poetry in which the more we express ourselves honestly, the more we are universal. 116 Najib Mahfouz, the Egyptian novelist, expressed this truth in his comment in AShara-Al Awsat 1988 when he received the Nobel prize for his novels in October 1988: "the more we are ourselves the more we are universal." "The writer speaks to us all," writes the Arab News news­ paper 1988; "the depiction of individuals relates very clearly to intellectual, social and political conditions" (p. 12). About his belief in universal art through a personal approach, Needham (1972) agrees with Mahfouz when he indicates the following: The role of the personal approach in cultural anthropology is immensely greater when anthropo­ logists venture to infer an actor's feeling, purposes, and other covert states.Current Anth- ropolocrv the personal approach, (p. 246) Researchers provide data to study the culture- These data are collected from many sources, among them people, art work, books, reports, articles, and interviews. This research involves personal activity; it needs the person to choose the books, the people, the examples, and the samples to clear up certain problems. I will present some Lebanese students, art teachers, and artists, who expres­ sed themselves through their books, articles, Istters, and art works. And I will analyze the similarities and the differences between themselves and my personal exper­ ience. I use their responses as a mean to help me unders­ tand my own respond and support my experience. 117 In ethnography the use of the personal approach is appropriate for research especially when its goal is historical. It is very valuable to state the relationship between cultural patterns. Honigmann (1976) concludes with the following: The personal approach in cultural anthropology, self-consciously and deliberately undertaken, perceives value in the unique combination of interests, personal values, theoretical orienta­ tion, imagination, sensibility, and other idio­ syncratic qualities embodied in a particular competent investigator or team of investigators. Because of the uniqueness of the factors through which the personal approach yields knowledge, the approach is not easily taught, and the conc­ lusions it reaches are incapable of being fully tested for their reliability... considering the very substantial part played by the personal qualities of the observer. When knowledge is produced by this route, accuracy of conclusions cannot be equated with one-to one faithfulness to independently existing facts, (p. 250) Concerning Honigmann's article The Personal Approach... Mina Davis Caulfield comments that the best research is provided by someone immediately involved: "Not only in­ sight, but also relevant problems and strategic goals for research, are best provided by those immediately involv­ ed" (p. 252). Thus both Honigmann and Caulfield value the personal components of research. They seek to give the personal approach legitimate status for current research and tea­ ching. "Each personal procedure is unique." Raymond Eches and Paul Wald (1976) also note that "this applies not 118 only to anthropology, but to the procedure of all know­ ledge" (Current Anthropology. 1976, p. 252).

Anthropology and Art Art can include the concept of social functions ; it provides a perspective of social relationships. It refle­ cts an event in its form, its style, and its symbolism. It is a significant form of data to study history because it reflects dates, places, and beliefs. The study of art can also tell us about the position of an artist in his culture. African art, for example, reflects the beliefs and the religion of its culture, and a particular work's status as art can reinforce the religious and cultural values it depicts. Art, therefore, has social value. Roy Sieber (1971) maintains that Art itself can have a social value. That is, in addition to the utilitarian or associative cha­ racter of the arts... the excitement delight, and admiration visible in an Igala audience at the appearance of a mask was elicited not only by functional associations, but as one informant put it, by its "well carved goodness". The sheer quantity of traditional arts that once existed best attest to the presence of the aesthetic as a social value, (p. 211) A life history is a subjective document, according to Watson C. Lawrence (1976) who explains that history helps us to understand human behavior in a particular area in a particular time. It serves as a reference telling about our actual life. 119 In the psychoanalytic movement/ Freud and his follow­ ers use "individual life history materials... to demonst­ rate the reality of basic personality structure" (Lawe- rence, 1976, p. 96). David Mandelbaum (1973) also explores the implica­ tions of Charlotte Buehler's (1968) ideas when he argues: The individual experiences new directions that open up for him new potentialities (turning) to which he chooses to respond and to which he adapts within the constraints set by his charac­ ter and culture. (Watson, 1976, -Ethos p. 96)

Life history and literature Life history in literature is very significant as data to identify, investigate, and study the behavior of the man and his culture. The life history of a person is a tool for social scientific research. In order to under­ stand someone's behavior, we must understand how he looks at certain events. In an introduction for a book story, Howard Becker (1966) emphasizes "how important it is to study "the subjective side" of institutional processes and how the life history helps directly in realizing this objective" (Ethos. 1976, p. 97). Watson discusses eleven categories for understanding life history. The first five are related to hermeneutical issues and the next six to phenomenological ones. All eleven represent the basic assumptions about "the herme­ neutical and phenomenological positions." 120 The first five categories are 1. the sociocultural cont­ ext, 2. the individual life in context, 3. the immediate context of life history data gathering, 4. preunderstand­ ing, 5. the dialectical relationship between the investi­ gator and the object of investigation. The next six categories are 6. the life world and the phenomenological attitude, 7. cognition, 8. self-identi­ ty, 9. conflicts, 10. decisions, 11. the unity of pheno­ menal consciousness. In the following pages I will discuss cognition, self-identity, conflict, and decision as they are rele­ vant to my study.

Self-identity Usually, the author tells us about himself. He is a self-reflective phenomenon. To represent identity he makes decisions and selects information. A life history needs a source of information from which the person makes his inferences. (Ethos, 1976, p. 106).

Conflicts There is conflict between the man and his needs, hopes, his self image, and the reality of the world. Irving Hallowell (1955) in his book Culture and Experien­ ce states "that conflict may be an inherent aspect of the human condition" (Ethos. p. 107). This condition puts pressure on him which shapes part of his character. 121 Decision Man can respond to the conflicts that he perceives by doing something about them. The decisions he makes can be of minor or major consequence to his "life design." About the validity of a particular life history, some authors argue that there is justification for regarding a life history as a source enabling us to know about cer­ tain experiences in a certain place and time. A sociocul­ tural context affects man and his experiences together. We must consider the general culture and the interperso­ nal situation in which the sources are gathered. The political conflicts in a society, such as wars, murders, rapes, thefts, and insults are the responsibility of political groups, but nonetheless these activities affect every individual.

Reality and art As men go to war to defend themselves or to destroy other groups, we must be aware of the way people behave under stressful situations. We must make difficult deci­ sions about political parties, economic matters, and human feelings. "In the brain", writes Anthony Wallace (1970), is housed various other surrounding things... Its content consists of an extremely large num­ ber of assemblages or cognitive residues of perception. It is used, by its holders, as a true and more or less complete representation of the operating characteristics of the real word". Understanding a. life history, (p. 105) 122 Depictions of reality are persuasive when they are expressed In azrt, which requires skill, craft, symbols, and a social stage on which to perform. Artists require people, even when our culture Is divided, when our socie­ ties are fragmented and In serious disarray, when approp­ riate audiences and people are hard to find. In times of war we became heroes In our own right: We are heroes In our own drama, and we need an audience to tell the story: Any reality Is cap­ able of being made convincing If It combines art, knowledge, authentic, symbols, and rituals. And If It Is validated by appropriate witness­ es... Cultural performances are reflective In the sense of showing ourselves to ourselves. As heroes In our own dramas, we are made self-awa­ re, conscious of our consciousness. At once actor and audience, we may then come Into the fullness of own human capability and perhaps human desire - to watch ourselves and enjoy knowing that we know. Center Magazine. (Barbara Myerhoff, 1980, p. 25) Myerhoff adds: Sometimes the Image Is the only part of their lives subject to control. But this Is not a small thing to control. It may lead to a reali­ zation of personal power and serve as a source of pleasure and understanding In the working of consciousness... Life histories give people the opportunities to become visible and to enhance their reflexive consciousness. (pp. 22-23) We experience rather than believe; we create when we work at the same time. A life does not only belong to the Individual who has lived It. It also belongs to the world (Center magazine, p. 27). 123 Art expresees pain In art lifelike or referential representation helps better to express human belief and pain. According to Paul Bhum (1976) when he speaks about Kathy Kollwitz The artist refused to treat war in the abstract. Real people suffer real pain, and Kollwitz dest­ roys the facade of the patriotic fervor that causes so much grief, (p. 62) Artists draw the war, they live the war, and they descri­ be the disasters of war in their works. Today we can express the war better because of our advanced technolo­ gy: photographs, newspapers, magazines, films, televi­ sion, and satellites reveal the war better than before. Reporters describe the problem to us from the actual place of the tragedy. The more closely they experience the war, the more its events affect us physically and psychologically. D.J.R. Brucker, Seymour Chwast, and Steven Heller (1984) maintain that War becomes a nystery of evil that has baffled theologians, philosophers, statesmen, and sold­ iers alike... The artist always has a problem that is not different from that of the urchin on the street comer or someone buying detergents in a market: how to define overall human purpose and how to divine the intentions of other peop­ le? When the artist takes up thinking about war, he is in the same position as everyone else. (p. 124)

Art against war We lived the war in Lebanon; we lived through the time of the bombardment. We were refugees; we saw and felt the fear of the struggles and the scary time of the 124 genocides; we read and published books, we read magazines and newspapers. There are many articles about artists and friends who disappeared at night or at noon. I read about my art teacher Ibrahim Marzouk when he died. I read about my friends, the photographer Abdel Razzak EsSayed (1977) when he stepped on a mine, the caricaturists Naji A1 All, Hani Abi Saleh, and others when they were kidnapped and assassinated. I saw the house of my art teacher Saiid Akl destroyed in Aldamour. I lived the tragedy of the war with Moazzaz Rawda when her house in the mountain burned with its art works and sculptures. The bombardments kill­ ed Samia Tutinji and her father, the famous Lebanese novelist Youssef Awad, in April 1989. The bombardments destroyed some of my works and some sculptures of Aref Rayes in Aley. The conservative religious war removed the sculpture of Salwa Shukair from its place in Al Awzai Road. The war affected the Lebanese National Museum in 1982. The Lebanese Fine Art's collection was destroyed with its center in the Unesco's building in 1982. And the war destroyed the gallery of the art critic George Zeeny in 1985 in Beirut. As artists and poets we have been inside the field of war. We worked; we considered ourselves humanists. We were not partisan to the political propaganda but we believed in the country as a free place for every citizen. According to the poet Abbas Baydoun (1988), 125 "ultimately the Lebanese culture lives and confronts the war... There are some artists who took the war as a sub­ ject to deal with from a personal point of view. Some of them tried to understand the war and to analyze it to pick up the questions and the deep aspects of its trage­ dy" . We refuse to share the game of war in its blood... We were against all of the participants in this war. We were against all the political peurties and all the false religious military forces. To be subjective, as a researcher, is not necessarily a drawback, because the problem of the war has not been solved, and the war still continues its bloody scenes. The objective dates of the battles are registered in many books. The events are already written in the calendar of history, but there are many details left behind the smoke of the explosions. Some artists tried to express the war, to give shape to the drama, to draw it clearly so that people could understand its harsh cruelty better. It is very difficult to say what constitutes objective truth in a war, especially in 15 years of civil war. We felt as artists sometimes that our mission was to register, to write, and to communicate what happened not only in Leba­ non but also in any place in the world. The television could show hour after hour the Lebanese war. But from my perspective the tragic mistakes made in Lebanon resemble those leading up to World War II. 126 After 15 years of civil war, each side needs to make sense of what has happened and of what continues to happen. We don't understand the war; all we know are our feelings about the war. In the article Telling One's Storv by Barbara Myer­ hoff (1980), we read Manning's interpretation of what it means to tell one's story of the past: To get rid of the past? I am thinking of a kind of ambiguity that Words­ worth makes much of. He talks about enshrining the past, in which the story is the tomb. One does the past honor by telling it, but by tell­ ing it, it is over, and one can put the emphasis not on witnessing the past but on the act of integrating or creating the present. The story­ teller is thus caught up in his own story. He frees himself. He does not just bear witness. Rather he escapes from who he was, in order to become something at a distance from himself, and there is always that gap between his present and his past self. (p. 38) By writing a dissertation on art and war in Lebanon I cannot avoid nor do I wish to avoid telling the story of my experience as an artist in wartime Lebanon. But despi­ te its subjectivity, my study will contribute to our knowledge of the development of art in Lebanon during the war. CHAPTER IV

In this chapter I discuss the ways in which the war has influenced my life and my art. In addition, this chapter includes critics and poets who have examined my works. My purpose in providing this material is to show the effects of the war on me as well as on the artistic community in Lebanon. I come from a mountain village in Lebanon. My father used to read literature and he liked Plato. He also stud­ ied music and learned to play the clarinet. He stopped practicing because it was too difficult to be an artist in the very conservative society existing in our village. I feel that my love for mixing color and drawing came from the fact that my father was a painter, who learned this skill from the British when working in Palestine prior to 1948. I grew up surrounded by the smell of paint and constantly observed my father mix oil paints from scratch and make his own tools. My only diversion from high school was my work, my sculpture and my painting. All I wanted to do was to practice my art and to show my work to my teachers and my father. He pushed me towards the arts and encouraged me

127 128 because he knew how hard It was to be an artist and how much help I would need. One day an artist and prominent leader of contempora­ ry art came to see my father. Upon seeing my work he commented: "Your son is a genius, you must teach him art. I will help him to enter the University of Fine Arts. " I did not know at that time what art was; neither did I know about modern sculpture. I definitely did not know what was meant by a " school of art. " All ity knowledge about this field was based upon my enthusiasm for every­ thing that related to color and form in nature. I strugg­ led to model from nature, to draw and paint flowers, and to make portraits and forms from wood. I began to see gallery shows in Beirut and to work with some artists who encouraged me and supported my efforts in art. As a re­ sult, in the autumn of 1967, before graduating from high school, I participated in an exhibition in the Sursock Museum in Beirut. In 1969 I began to study at the Lebanese University. For four years I studied painting and printmaking and practiced sculpture at home and in my studio. I graduated with highest honors. Then, in 1972 I received a sholarship for one year to L'ecole National de Beaux Arts in Algiers after I showed my work to the Algerian ambassador, who greatly liked it. 129 In Algeria, I expanded my knowledge in the field of color and introduced the flatness of vision in painting as did Klee and Matisse. I worked hard, not only in art, but also in improving my French since I had to be fluent in it when speaking about my work. During my residency in Algiers, I exhibi­ ted in the Almogare Center in the Salon of the Ministry of Information. About my show in Algiers, A. Mekhelef (1973) writes: Les gouaches de Jamil Molaeb témoignent d'une certaine douceur de vivre toute Orientale... Des souvenirs d'enfance et personnels jalonnent l'oeuvre du peintre gui a su éviter les sentiers battus pour leur donner un caractère symbolique très prononcé, il apporte quelque chose de neuf et d'insolite a l'art arabe. (Algérie Actualité) I enjoyed my stay in Algeria tremendously, in spite of the workload and having to live alone and fend for my­ self . Algiers was the first place I had the occasion to confront the solitary life. In winter 1972, I began to produce some landscapes. I went from place to place in the city trying to make my pictures from certain tradi­ tional areas, especially the Oriental decorations in the Arabic mosques and the old houses with their very bright colors. I used the flat vision, the contrast and the clear white, violet, and blue. In the studio I drew from the model in goauche and I studied the anatomy of the human body by myself from books in the library. I tried 130 to imitate Ingres in drawing, but in painting my teacher said that I worked like Matisse. Matisse also used to come to work in nearby Morocco and he got his color har­ mony and the flat vision from this area. Algeria gave me the opportunity to broaden ny exper­ ience without eliminating my Lebanese origins as an arti­ st, to develop myself without losing myself in the occi­ dental abstraction and the unceratin artistic movements and experimental ways of Europe. In 1973 I returned to Lebanon and I began to teach in a private school, as the public shcool system did not consider art to be a valid subject. During that time, I showed my work in the Dar El Fan Center, Beirut, and sold my work. I also began to write for a magazine about the cultural life in Beirut. At that time, Lebanon was the center of the Middle East connecting the Oriental culture and the European. There were many exhibitions of works by Rodin, Henry Moore, Picasso and many other international artists and movements in art. Beirut was considered to be the Paris of the Middle East. In Lebanon, I tried to find a new subject, to practi­ ce my skill, to enjoy the harmony of the colors in the Lebanese villages. I used to go to very remote villages to draw people, towns, nature, and houses. I went to Damascus, to the suburb of Jaramana, where I drew the Arabic dress of the women, and to the city of Soaida, in 131 south Syria, and its capital with Roman ruins, with the old decoration and the original style of the traditional costume. In 1974 I exhibited Village Scenes in the Contact Art Gallery in Beirut. The director of the gallery introduced me by the following: Jamil Molaeb's village scenes are concerned with people; individuals who are part of the social situation of the village. His colors are vivid and daring while retaining the opaqueness of his medium. His treatment is sensitive, simple and direct. He catches the spirit of the village he knows so well and leaves the viewer with the feeling that he had shared the hospitality of the villagers.

About my show in the Contact Art Gallery, 1 ' Orient le Jour newspaper (1974) writes: Jamil Molaeb ne pursuit qu'un seul but: exprimer l'essence même de l'être en conservant a son art un caractère Oriental. I never have any problem with what I have to draw or to paint because I believe that nature and reality are the original sources of my work. In 1975 the civil war began and disrupted life in general. Schools closed, work stopped, and exhibitions were no longer held. The city began to be destroyed, and the walls started to fall. Life was confusing because of the different ideas and politics complicated by many religions. At that time we felt that something veiry difficult would happen in the country. 132 The conservative people in Lebanon disagreed and refused to change the political system because a small minority benefited by the religious traditional rule. So the situation was not easy in a country with different religions, and in an area where every party had support in other regions of the country or in neighboring count­ ries. So, from that time on, the war continued to destroy the land part by part. What could art do in that country? What could an artist do? It was impossible for me to participate in the war because I started to experience its horror from the first sound of the weapons and the first funeral of the first martyr. A lot of friends and artists participated in the war directly or indirectly. Some of them died accidentally, some of them died in combat, and others died because there was no way to escape from the dilemma. If originally the war was an attempt to modify the cons­ titution to improve civil rights, it developed into a civil war, and we began to live in crisis. The artists were confused, and the war frightened them. In 1976 I drew my first water color. It was of a young man who was killed in combat. Somebody asked me to put the picture in a magazine, and I did. The picture had strong influence on the vision of the people, especially because I followed it with some symbols of realistic objects and one short paragraph. It was understood and 133 accepted as a first expressive essay about the scene of the absurd death. The picture had a magic power for me and it gave me the energy that I had lost in the sad daily war. I continued to work for two years I drew about a hundred pictures. The water color made it possible to express the capa­ city of the shapes and the transparent forms. At the same time, it gave me the opportunity to draw dreunatic scenes in detail. The ink medium was also useful to me because it moved easily over the surface of the white paper, and it had enormous ability to make transparent areas, to make points, and to add texture to the drawing. In 1977, after two years of work, I finished about a hundred pictures in black and white. I chose thirty-three of them to publish in a book. I asked one critic in Bei­ rut to write an introduction for me about this collec­ tion. This book appeared in 1977 and was the first pictu­ re book published about the civil war in Lebanon. The book is illustrated with one picture on each page. The cover is illustrated with one picture which was chosen from the collection. The size of the book was 15cm.x35cm. We printed about three thousand copies, and the book was distributed throughout the country. At that time I felt that the picture book could be an effective artistic medium because due to the war exhibitions could not take 134 place anymore. The book was an easy way to show works of art and to communicate ideas. It also provided good docu­ mentation, and it was a new discovery to express the war in a picture book. Below, I have paraphrased a part of the introduction of my book. Notebook of Civil War (1977) by Aref Rayes, a leader of the Lebanese Association of Sculptors and Pain­ ters from 1974 to 1980, Rayes wrote that The human crisis and the civil wars play a radical role through the ages to make man drop old fashioned and false theories in order to create new theories, techni­ ques, and solutions. The art work of Jamil Molaeb could give birth to a new art that will appear during this Lebanese war. The artist has begun to knit a new dress; he has the ability and the gift to create new art that will be free of the old sophisticated fashion and propa­ ganda . Indeed it is not strange to see the young artist presenting in his collection a kind of confrontation with the shallow vision that has almost been an obstacle to previous art when it has tried to express and deal with this war. His work suggests surrealistic explosions and invisible combat. They free him from the trap of feeling isolated; they create a new aesthetic for his exile. His work allows him to express himself and to draw what he feels exactly. 135 It is very important to know how to behave to keep alive our artistic creativity and our culture during these hard times and struggles. It is a historical responsibility for an artist to confront these dilemmas. So we should be honest when we express ourselves, and we should accept the good critics who allow us to see ourselves clearly. At the same time, we should discourage the unconstructive judgmental criti­ cs, who destroy instead of build. We should develop our­ selves to reach the level where we can see obviously our art, because our art will be our tradition for the next generations. What has happened in Lebanon is a reaction to the absence of patriotic feeling, of national responsibility, and of a sense of a national community. We should assume and work to understand the importance of our native cul­ ture to follow our cultural roots instead of the colonial culture with its disorder that ruptures the unity of our country, geographically and spiritually. Foreign cultures have divided our people by inciting massacres between different religions, allowing poisonous winds to blow them apart. Against this background, we should be able to understand how to build a national art for our lives from our relationship with our tradition. We should work 136 individually and collectively so that our art unifies the people themselves, in order to create a great unity in the same country. The critic Samir Sayegh (1977) wrote, "The face of the witness, and the face of the victim" to introduce also my Notebook of The Civil War. He attempted to inter­ pret what the drawings should say to us? His very poetic essay describes the kind of personal experience he belie­ ves my drawings offer. Below I paraphrased a part of what Sayegh wrote. “What do these drawings wish to tell us? We must begin with this question. The war channels our sight. The pictures disorder our vision and our hearing, raising anxiety and challenging us. The cpiestion looks like part of the answer, one that offers a kind of peacefulness. This answer is represented by these drawings which open our eyes widely onto crowded wispering lines and consecu­ tive forms. Our sight becomes an open window over the days ruled by the red commercial flag, which we call the war. How can we tell reality twice? How can we approach the war twice? Once in the physical body and another time through memory. One time with our hands and over our shoulders and another time in front of our eyes. Some­ times we know the war as a silence that deceives the 137 heart, a silence that returns when we contemplate what has happened, a silence that wakes us up again. There is a witness, maybe an ordinary witness. The sound, like a loud scream, is deep mixed with a deep scratch. Each vision continues slashing its way through the sky to shape a knife of affection, or an image of intimacy. The cry is a cover for a broken heart, a cover for the memory after its fearful travel through the big collapse and the weakness of man... The intention is to unify, to avoid making life a loss, to make death a real witness for the heavy loss. Jamil Molaeb was witness to whatever he drew; he cried, painted, looked, and listened. His work is a part of what he saw and heard. The artist's desire was to question the war. Every man feels that he himself lives in the same land and inside the same circle, yet is afraid of being a witness as Molaeb is in his art. Regardless, the blood is still running, and it will continue for a long times (Samir Sayegh, 1977). Before the war I used to go out to the country frequ­ ently to make landscapes in color, especially in the fall. But during the war it was dangerous to visit cert­ ain places because of the repeated bombardments from different sources which burned the countryside with daily explosions. The violent skirmishes eliminated the beauty of the mountains because fire destroyed the trees. The 138 great number of bombs sporadically falling everywhere pocked Lebanon's natural landscape. In spite of the war, I drew pictures from nature during the peaceful times, and I worked inside my house and garden. In 1978 I exhibited a collection in color called My House My Village. And in 1980 I painted and exhibited another collection of landscapes called Another Winter Has Gone. In 1978 I started a new art collection in black and white about the war. At that time I had to stay home, living only in my village. It was possible to visit Bei­ rut, but we needed to take a safe road to it and only during peaceful times. My drawings about the war were taken from these narrow roads and places. I drew in the evening in my room, or with friends in their houses as we read the newspapers that announced new martyrs, or pre­ dicted the next combat. I had the feeling at that time that I was registering the events, and that I was playing the role of reporter. But my pictures expressed life visually as well as my personal interpretation of the events and situation. I used to draw from ny imagination or from reality. My vision was based on two issues: first, natural reality, and, second the cultural background. My goal was to exp­ ress myself through the surrealistic scenes of the drama, to move with it, to assimilate it, to fix it in ink in 139 the construction of a new picture, or to make illusions in the picture for some possible resolutions. The picture shows the dramatic situation with the intent of express­ ing how the event is dangerous in this civil war of mis­ understanding . My pictures were humanitarain, first in their inten­ tion to give a human message about the horrible war; second in their intention to mention dangers to life; and third in direct artistic expression of part of the truth. I never liked to show segregation or religious feeling in my picture. I tried in my pictures to participate cultu­ rally in the tradition of the whole country, to share with the people their beliefs in the unity in the land, and to share their beliefs in one ideology that could unify the nation uder one democratic constitution in a unique political system. My second picture book bears the name Near Mv Country. I drew its pictures between 1978 and 1979. This book was published in 1979 and appeared first in a solo exhibition on April 5th, 1979 in the gallery of the Leba­ nese Sculptors and Painters Association in Beirut. This book reflected the situation. The visual language of its pictures served to express the human problem at that time. Below, I paraphrased a part of what Omran El Kaissi (1979) wrote in the introduction of my book: The object 140 In the pictures is combined with a flat vision that is moving on the surface to create the three dimensional perspective. The pictures combined a perspective with a value. With a simple medium, they treated a real subject in dangerous circumstances. The anxiety, the fear, and the sadness emerged from the realistic object in the pictures because, as a matter of fact, the war never stops posing the question about the purpose of the strug­ gle. So the pictures raise the value issues as have the works of many artists under similar circumstances throughout the ages. Below I briefly describe and explain the meaning of some pictures in short paragraphs.

The Eagle represents the reality or the truth as a live bird looking up toward the sun and the infinite. The reasonable look expresses man in his continuous struggle to see and to find the impossible vision and to know about the purpose of existence. Man never stops asking the serious and the difficult question. In the background we can see chronologic scenes of civilizations dating from the prehistoric period until our modem time. The picture shows symbols, and hundreds of themes represent man in his anxiety to create image and idea to satisfy and to express himself. 141

The Baclcaronnd of the Cltv. The sea floor of the city. The snakes represent the dangers of life in Beirut during the war. The streets are a river of martyrs, or man moving in successive rows from day to day, from crash to crash, and death is a connection between man and hard times. An inexplicable movement is represented by the big snake behind the little ones as secret propaganda or a hidden drama acting secretly between many sections and teams.

The Lantern of the City represents an electric bomb that is used to light up the city. It shows the buildings or the place of the combat so that bombers can hit the right target.

The Fish has metallic spiny rays. Its sharp points hurt. It is big enough to swallow casually the small fish. There is no chance to change the rule that is created. The large wild fish represent the contrast between the most powerful team and the less powerful one in an abst­ ract combat.

The Emigration. The birds are gathering together, scared by the unsupportable circumstance. They are suffering from the misunderstood struggle and waiting side by side to fly together, to escape and to go far for another peaceful place. All the birds are facing the same direc­ tion. They have the same feelings and the same beliefs. 142 The birds will take off very soon because it is the only chance for them to survive after years of waiting in a country without hope and peace.

The Battle. The scene represents the confrontation bet­ ween the children and the women in one part, and the soldiers and their machine and the weapons in the other part. It is a confrontation between primitive people and the military. It is a combat dèpicting the war's ugli­ ness, its martyrs, and its symbols. There is a pigeon held by a young woman, but nobody takes care of the horses screaming. Nobody hears the rockets striking behind the bombardment and crashing on each side. There will be more martyrs, and there will be a lot of dead people, and there will be no victory at all.

Adloun. Once upon a time in 1978 in Adloun, a village in South Lebanon, there was a car full of people who were escaping from the bombardment that destroyed their houses. And there were planes up in the sky looking for other military fighters. The planes were flying over the car dropping bombs on innocent people. The car disappear­ ed the way a sound of a big scream is muffled by the echo of the sea. My poor country.

After the Bombardment. The wind blew suddenly, but it was not winter. We could see children and women sleeping or 143 dying. What happened exactly to the old house and the pine trees? The radio announced another strike on the mountain of Lebanon. It took place half an hour ago.

The Coffee Shop. Time is running out for the coffee shop because the mind left certain hope on the surface of the table, like a sip of tea in an arabesque decoration on the doors. There is no fortune telling because of the continuous discussion. A man is waiting for another dream for his afternoon. Anyway the city is still living the story of the One Thousand And One Arabian Nights. And between the joke and the seriousness, there is an imposs­ ible wish.

The Ghetto. Innocent men do not have the chance to fight back anymore. Everybody is against the wall. The weapons speak today on Saturday at 7 am. It is not like an old scene from World War I or World War II. The investigation is going very fast because the war is very fast; no time to postpone, to think, to wait, or to look at the identi­ ties or to consider social security.

Street Market. From the heart of the city the market stretched out along the side walks. The war created new open air markets. People need to shop. They need to get food. New markets and new shops are necessary, no matter how the goods are arranged. On the other hand, the 144 illegal goods that used to enter the city without offi­ cial permission, lately, have created a serious economic crisis in the country.

The Modem Babylon. Like the tower of Babel the country is full of strange weapons surrounding it. People do not know why they have to kill each other using the strange weapons. The democratic country promised great victory to one group, if it agreed to begin a short war. But the battle continues and the country beceime like Babel full of a lot of strategies, ideas, troupe, and religions from many other areas and countries. The combat left everybody regretting and suffering an absurd struggle and death. In 1980 I continued working daily to express the Lebanese events and politics, I finished about 17 pictu­ res. I used multimedia for this collection, but I did not complete or show it. In 1982 I exhibited another collec­ tion in the Epreuve d'Artist Gallery. The show contained the etchings and woodcuts that I did between 1970 and 1982. These prints were published in 1982 in a collection entitled The End of the Darkness, the Beginning of the Light. I introduced it by the following: The hard circumstances of the war forced me to escape into my art. In my prints I participate in the human struggle to capture a mirage-like vision of future pros­ perity. The horrible events have influenced me as well as 145 other Lebanese artists to try to create a better environ­ ment for a better future. But my participation In the struggle Is rooted In a society In which man Is threate­ ned by disaster. My prints are a kind of confession In the medium of wood and metal. They are a visual message that declares what Is Impossible to say In writing. I would like In my work to create an unusual vision that will Illuminate my society as well as myself. I use the fine arts because they Involve me visually and tactu- ally and they awaken my conslousness. I would like to be like any other man, to love and fight In a hard world In order to live a better life. In my art I try to represent my ideas and the way I see the world. Practically and spiritually, I am not Indifferent to my subject matter or my media. When I am working on a print, my hand pursues the smallest details to the end of Its extremities and Its equilateral form. I refuse the deaf spaces trying to say everything at the same time through the relationships between Images and maximum colors. I strain to bring the composition to a perfection that Is poised above disorder. I work to remove the accidental textures from the surface of the paper so that the Ink or colors that I draw line by line, point after point, space after space, and picture after picture represent the consequence of my actual visual conception. 146 I have to confess here that the fine arts and espe­ cially the printmaking medium are a continuation of my nerves and hands. Printmaking dominates zy consciousness and sinks into my flesh. Fine arts have fascinated me for a long time, and they have exerted a much more powerful influence since the war because they allow for a contrast between life and war, black and white. They allow me to register my existence. I use the medium of prints to express sadness and happiness, waking up, and being indi­ fferent. The medium allows me to express my society and to understand the identity of ny country. Also, I have the opportunity to create art for the next generation, and I hope that my work will help create a peaceful future. In my work I use both primitive and sophisticated media. I incorporate mythological and modem symbols. I use all available means to confront the war. I believe that art reflects a consiousness that is the result of intuition and technique. I used art to confront and express my sadness, but at the same time I am not working to relax, or to relieve my feelings, for I am afraid of being satisfied. I am always searching for meaningful relationships that will convey a perfect artistic vision. My prints are extensions of my body. They reflect the forces that affect me at the same time. But, when I have finished a print, it takes on an existence that is 147 independent of me. I confess that I leam things about nature and about myself when I re-see ny print at a later time. Hy picture expresses my freedom when it becomes an independent entity. My print frees me by leaving me alone. It is itself free because it has an existance playing out in tones and relations the distance between birth and death. I am like a traveler in the land of the unknown who searches for what is not yet drawn. I draw my pictures to visualize what has been invisible, to give a form to something that had as yet been without form. Regardless of the objects represented in my prints or the provenance of my subject matter, my art work is transformed by the difficult circumstances ; and it does not reflect a specific human event. My art transforms the objects it depicts. My prints refuse to become decorati­ ve. My picture in this sense is the sound and the echo, the reality and the environment, the man and his cons­ ciousness . It emerges from the cultural tradition of my country and my interaction with those traditions. (Jeuoil Molaeb, 1982). The book. The End of the Darkness. The Beginning of the Light, is composed in two parts. The first part con­ sists of woodcuts dating from 1980 to 1981, and the second consists of eleven etchings printed between 1970 148 and 1972. Together the collection represents human images and subjects in a surrealistic style. Nohad Salameh (1982) writes the following about my printmaking show in Le Reveil newspaper: Jamil Molaeb a choisi de confirmer sa présence humaine et culturelle dans le temps et le lieu en ayant recours au procédé de 1'integration: procédé thématique, tout d'abord, puisque des ténèbres surgit l'aurore; de la mort la vie; de l'amour la haine; de la violence la tolérance, et vice versa. Voila pourquoi dans l'ensemble des compositions présentées, le apparait au spectateur que le theme constitue en lui-même un prologement d'autres thèmes ou qu'il n'a de définition que dans le développement d'autres thèmes. L ' Orient le Jour (1982) also writes the following about the same show: Jamil Molaeb est certainement l'une des valeurs les plus sûres de la peinture Libanaise des dix dernières années mais surtout un grand artiste qui n'aime pas les fuites en avant. S'il s'exp­ rime toujours en noir et blanc, par le biais de la gravure, et si ses visions disent souvent la désolation de l'homme moderne et du Libanais en particulier, il reste aussi très sensible au bon côté des choses. C'est ainsi qu'on le découvri­ ra, une fois de plus, a travers sa nouvelle exposition qui débutera demain a "Epreuve d'Artiste". In 1983 during the Israeli invasion I made a print- making collection, but I never had the chance to show this collection in Beirut. In 1984, when I was a refugee in another village in Lebanon called Almraijat, I did ny fourth series. That year, I did about forty woodcuts that express the refu­ gee life and a lot of subjects from the events of that 149 period. My intention was to publish this collection in another book with the following introduction by Adonis, a contemporary poet: In his paintings, Jamil Molaeb bears witness to an event: the disintegration of Lebanese life on the social, political, cultural euid psychologi­ cal levels. His testimony is neither external nor that of an artist who observes and keeps himself within the frontiers of ashes. It is an internal testimony of a man who participates and gets embroiled in the flames. His works are documents painted with the rubble of the present, with torn bodies, scattered limbs, shattered houses, and the burden of time. His works are paintings of massacres. Through the scattered limbs, however, some light glimm­ ers, and voices of hope rise from the mibble. Molaeb's paintings are an artistic project in which the sensitivity of construction fuses with the sensitivity of a man who walks in a waste­ land it is the sensitivity of a man who stumb­ les; nevertheless, his stumbling is part of the process of ascending. Molaeb does not escape into the past in search of instruments and concepts, nor does he resort to the future embracing its dreams and fanta­ sies . Though the reality he portrays is almost like a dream, the dream we discern through his lines and compositions is stunned by violence. What distinguishes his artistic work is probably the point at which the ugliness choking the splendor of his homeland meets and clashes with the beauty surrounding it from all sides. In his paintings, Molaeb is not only a painter, but also a critic, a politician, a fighter and a lover. Beauty in its traditional sense is none of his concern. He is chiefly interested in describing the decay of the world around him, comprehending the tragic and tearing off the masks that block us from seeing reality in its spontaneity and nakedness, his concern is to embrace the historical contradictions along with their suffering and disintegration. Thus art is a means of feeling his existence, of being cons­ cious of his role, of moving, of working, and of dreamimg. 150 Molaeb'8 work is a part of the battle, but it is painted with new weapons: organization and com­ position. His paintings are an explosion on a canvas corresponding to an explosion on earth. As a result, his paintings are not spaces as much as motions; they are not technique, but rather a thunderbolt trying to tell the viewers: You can't symathize with us unless you prepare your sensitivity to look at us as though you were delving into this book like someone descen­ ding endless stairs into some inferno." (Adonis, 1984,translated by Dr. Edmir Korieh) The high price of paper did not allow me to publish this collection in a book. In the Spring I participated in a graphic art exhibi­ tion sponsored by the 1'Association des Artists Peinters et Sculpters. According to Susanne Nehme (1984) of Dailv Star magazine, "Cautious States" is a woodcut by Jamil Molaeb. "The repetition of forms in each of the four columns reflect the repetition of events in our daily lives," says the artist. "It is almost as though time is standing still, as hours become days and days become years. " Among others of Molaeb's interesting prints is the "Book of Life." The artist interprets the hand as one of most significant parts of the human body, yet its presence is taken for granted. "Our palm is a world of his own, and on it is written our life story." Molaeb's exhibited works are all woodcuts, a form of high relief. In August 1984, I was invited to show in the Alif Galleiry in Washington D.C.. There I had the chance to meet again the American art critic David Tannous who had seen my work when he visited Beirut in 1983. In 1984, I enrolled in the printmaking program at Pratt Institute. But in 1985 I had to come back to Beirut for a while to arrange my student visa. 151 In Beirut I waited 13 months. During that time I did a solo exhibition in Chahine Gallery in which I exhibited some Lebanese landscapes. According to La Revue du Liban magazine (1985 ) : A partir du 2 Mai Jamil Molaeb expose ses dernières oeuvres é. la Galerie Chahine Solemar. Cet artiste regarde la nature, la décompose et la réorganise selon un ordre bien moins concep­ tuel que lyrique. Toutes ses ouevres: aquarell­ es, gouaches ou pastels décrivent les charmes d'intérieurs intimes ou de paysages Libanais et traduisent son hostilité aux outrances, le sens inné qu'il a de la mesure et de la discipline, son goût de la prudence, sa simplicité.

The effect of war on my art From 1972 until 1986 I made 10 solo exhibitions and three art collections about the war, and I published three books. In these shows, collections, and books, I continued to express the Lebanese war, life, and landsca­ pes. Below is a translation about what Issam Mahfouz (1979) wrote about my book. Near Mv Country could be an art reference about Lebanon during the war. Molaeb, who has exhibited his works in many cities, collected some of the pictures he did between 1978-1979 and published them in this book. The black and white drawings, comprising altogether one work, represent a vision... of Lebanese life and events. His spontaneous and moral work is dis­ tinguished by its realistic vision of inside the Lebanese socialist historical structure. The best of Molaeb's work 152 in my opinion is that picture which represents historical events from ancient civilization to the present in the middle east, including the contemporary revolution. The war has influenced the subject, the spirit, and the compostion of my art. Below I have translated an article by the Lebanese art critic Nazih Khater (1985) who wrote about my paintings in Annahar newspaper: "Jamil Molaeb is an echo of directed nervous energy, and he has some things to add to the surface of the picture... The picture by Molaeb has the meaning of defiance. His work is abstract in the colors but realistic in the form and meaning. Even when he isn't explicitly treating the war, violence appears in the strong brush strokes. His hand is moving to express a nation in a war. His sensitive per­ ceptions tell us about his specific art personality. He chooses landscapes that allow him to escape from the hell of war. Molaeb's art responds to the real man that we still hold in our subconscious" (Annahar, 1985, p. 7). As a graduate student at Pratt Institute in New York between 1984 and 1987, I participated in two group shows in Brooklyn and Manhattan. In 1986 I also participated in another group show with the Arab artists in America which was arranged by the League of Arab States to the United Nation. That took place in Dag Hcunmarskjold Tower Sky Lounge, New York. In the introduction of the catalogue of the show we read: 153 There Is no better way to foster understanding between two people than having them become aware of and appreciate each other's culture. For it is the arts— music, painting, sculpture, litera­ ture— of a nation that reveal its cherished values, its traditions and its contributions to human heritage, all important elements in reach­ ing out to other nations... Our aim is to nurtu­ re good relations between the American and Arab peoples, and we can think of no better way to achieve that than opening a window to the Arab soul. In 1987 I made my thesis exhibition at Pratt Institu­ te. In this show I had the chance to meet many Arab artists and friends. The architecture, Naji Al-Hasani (1988), who used to see my works in Beirut and in New York, writes about my art the following: Jamil Molaeb's pictorial imagery as seen depict­ ed in his art is the sum product of the artist's critical eye and extra sensitivity to war. Having survived the bitterness of shelling and many innocent killings, Jamil has the bless­ ing positivism of turning the raging destruction and death into a soft picturesque and colorful symphony. Such a feeling is generated by his perceptual eye and sensitive heart on the one hand; and his flowing pen on the other. The overall end result in Molaeb's works reiterates the complex contemplation evident in epic poetry by virtue of the above, Jamil Molaeb earmarks a very special contribution to Lebanese art throughout the civil war. On February 1987, I sent letter to many universities in the United States to get the application fo Ph.D study in Art Education, and I met David Ecker in New York Uni­ versity. The chairperson of the graduate fine art depart­ ment, Cyrilla Mozenter (1987) wrote a recommendation for me to David Ecker: 154 Mr. Molaeb has made an excellent adjustment at Pratt and has created an enormous body of work. His prints are well crafted and manifest an imaginative, personal vision. In addition, he has explored other media: painting, photography, ceramics, and drawing along with the required study in liberal arts classes in which he has excelled— an accomplishement for one who began Pratt in the Fall 1984... I recommend Mr. Molaeb highly to you. He is a bright and serious person with a life commitment to art and art education. On August 1987 I was admitted to the Ohio State Uni­ versity. My advisor recommended that I go to Columbus, Ohio to continue my study. While I am writing this study about the art and war in Lebanon, the war is still going on. The war has not stopped, and the drama has never stopped producing new events and new situations. So I am continuing to follow this drama to create a perspective of it, to understand its effect on art. But the drama is like untouchable time; it is hard to stop it; but it is easy to drop it like a date on the surface of the white paper. It is easy to transform the event only into ink and colors. I have never been satisfied with m y expression of the war, be­ cause the war has never been satisfied to leave me free from its bad scenes. I have worked to take off the black picture by drawing it on the paper before it stuck on my consciousness. At times I have had to drop the sadness of the war in my art works. My only reason for doing this study is to have the ability to understand better the effect of war on art, and to see if art could be a signi­ ficant way to communicate better, to create hope and peace in the country. CHAPTER V

This chapter discusses the following: First, How the war has affected art, artists, art teach­ ers, and Lebanese culture since 1975. Second, The role of art, artists, and art educators in life as expressed by philosophers from Plato to Ibn Kal- doon, Camus, and others. Third, How art, artists, and art educators might have a role; A communicating, B in confronting the ritual crisis and the war in society, and Ç raising the national consc­ iousness and in developing culture in society. During the social and political turmoil of 15 years of war in Lebanon, some Lebanese artists, writers, and art teachers have been witnesses in their country. They have felt involved and have worked to make an artistic comment to express the human tragedy. The Lebanese war has affected life, education, culture, art, and society. In the following pages I will introduce additional Lebanese witnesses and some of the different kinds of effects of the war, and I will paraphrase and translate some articles in order to show how Lebanese art, education, and culture have been affected by the civil war. 155 156 The effect of ear on art cultural centers Below is a translation of what Janine Rubaiz (1989), who has been the director of Dar el Fan in Beirut since before the war, said about the changes in the Lebanese culture and art: The war affects art activity in our cultural center, first, because of the emigration of some good Lebanese artists; second, because of the geographi­ cal partition that has divided the country; and third, because of the hard situation and the religious military forces that never allowed some good artists to express themselves. Rubaiz added: As a manager and director of Dar El Fan I have found that because of difficulty in communication, it has been hard for us to make group art activities such as drama, music, and seminars. What we have done are some solo exhibitions from time to time. We cannot do more than four art activities each year. Before the war we were able to do that much in only one month. (Nour El Dine Ali, 1989, Al-Afkar. p. 62-63).

The artist's reaction In a report signed by thirty-two reporters, authors, and artists we read the following: "Those who would neg­ lect the unity of Lebanon will get the most difficult punishment and humiliation from the next generation. " Lebanese educators, artists, and writers have refused to accept the destruction of the country. They declared their commitment to peace, unity, and to the existence of 157 a government which should protect the freedom of its citizens. They fear that Lebanon might become divided and die. They add: "Those who want the destruction of the government are on the margin." fAl-Anbaa of Kuwait. 1988, p. 29).

The effect of war on art galleries Below I have paraphrased a part of an article that have been written on the occasion of the opening of a new gallery in which Samir Sayegh (1987) wrote in ^ Kifah El Arabi magazine: Beirut, the art center, was affected by the war because many art galleries closed, many artists left the country, and art activities became a dangerous venture. Hope is very difficult in a dark time and it seems that it is very hard to use art to answer the war's ques­ tions. There is still some hope, but the artist can hard­ ly hold this hope alone. He needs the people, the socie­ ty, and others to help him to practice and express his dream. About the importance of the opening of the Contact Gallery in Hahr El Kalb, Sayegh said: "This art gallery is like an art magazine, a modem poetic movement, and the publicational office of our new cultural art move­ ment. It is not only a connection between the artist and audience, but also it ultimately represents historical movement and witnesses this movement. 158 The effect of war on writers and poets The horror of the siege of Beirut has led Kamal Bou- lata and Fawwaz Traboulsi to use Picasso's Guernica to symbolize the destruction of war. Traboulsi collaborated with Boulata on the project Beirut-Guemica: A city and a painting. a book in Arabic that dramatically shows the horrors of the war through photographs and Picasso's images. Traboulsi and John Berger have translated a por­ tion of this text which Kamal Boulata has designed for presentation. One moving passage in The Middle East Report (1988), "the city as painting" reads: Eyes saw: They gathered them in a mosque, a church, a hussainiyyah, a village square or a sports stadium. / Hands begged, conjured and supplicated. How tragic and desperate was the language of the hands. / The exordium of eyes: a Bismala of blood and a sign of the cross with tears drawn /... The eyes, wounded by what they saw, told the story of the eyes that s+eod up to the spike. And the eye witnessed that when an eye resists the spike, it does not always grow claws and canines, (p. 34)

The effect of war on fine art The war has placed different demands on the artist. During the last 15 years of war in Lebanon, some Lebanese artists explicitly confronted the horrors of war in their art. Another group of artists, however, has tried to ignore or perhaps to escape from the crisis by trying to express only "beauty". A third group of artists has used art to reflect religious feeling. From my perspective the 159 first group of artists has best tried to understand the war, to show its horrible and dangerous scenes to the world. The effects of war on the Lebanese fine art movement have had mixed consequences; the negative effects are summarized by the eight following points: First, the destruction of many artists' studios and houses. Second, the division of the Lebanese Fine Art Institute into many weak sections. Third, the death of artists such as Ibrahim Harzouk who died accidently by a bomb, Hani Abi Saleh, who was shot dead after being kidnapped, and Saiid Molaeb, who was kidnapped in 1976 and has disappeard. Fourth, the destructions of 90 percent of public art sculptures including the following: In Beirut 1) The Statue of Liberty of the 6th of May Martyrs, by Moriani, the Italian sculptor; 2) The sculpture of Buchara El- Khouri, the first Lebanese president; 3) The sculpture of the Lebanese president, Habib Abu Chahla; 4) The sculp­ ture of the first prime minister, Riad ElSolh; 5) The destruction of the experimental sculpture of Salwa Shukair. Outside Beirut the following public sculptures were destroyed: Jamal Abdel Naser in Baalbek, Fakhr Eddine in Baakline, Chakib Jaber in Aley. 160 Fifth, the destruction of the Lebanese art collection at the Unesco Center during the Israeli invasion. Sixth, the frustration that hit the Lebanese artists who were constantly worried about their economic situation. Seventh, the creation of two kinds of art, religious and sectarian. Religious art, such as Shiite, Sunnist, Maro- nist, and Druze art, began to appear during the war. Sectarian art, also emerging during the war, is represen­ ted by regional artists and movements such as the artists of South Lebanon, the group of 10 artists of Tripoli, and the artists of the mountain in Beit Eddine Museum. Eighth, Political and orthodox feelings during the war have caused Lebanese contemporary art to decline in qua­ lity and traditional religious art to increase in quanti­ ty. According to a letter from the art critic Omran el Kaisi (1989): "For the first time in Beirut we can speak about Armenian art, Shiite art, Sunni art, Druze art, and Maronite art. There have been, however, some positive effects of the war. The war has allowed some Lebanese artists to concentrate more on their art works. This group has work­ ed perpetually to develop the Lebanese fine art movement. During the past troubled years in Lebanon, some Leba­ nese artists have created works that transcend the chaos and retrieve the spirit of the country. These artists 161 have refused to participate in violence. A recent exhibi­ tion arranged by Ramzi Rihani in Washington, D.C. inclu­ ded eleven artists and attests to the stalwartness of the Lebanese artist still working. This recent exhibition "showcased the vivid colors and the stylistic range for which the country's painters are known" fAramco World. 1989, p. 26). One of the artists who exhibited, Hrair, explained his view of his art: "I want to give this mes­ sage: joy, love, beauty. Not hate, not problems, because people want to escape from those things... I want to give them something - even if it's five minutes - to rest their feelings, their imaginations, their dreams." (P. 33 ). Some Lebanese artists have reacted to the war by creating their own world. According to Aramco World (1989), "Some artists have lost their homes, others their works, and some even their lives in their country's turm­ oil." The Washington show demonstrates that Lebanon's artists are very much among her survivors. The Lebanese artist continues to work even during periods of shelling because, as George Akl said, "the will to survive is stronger than the destruction" (Aramco, 1989, p. 33). In addition, some Lebanese artists have used the war constmictively to tap into their sources of creative energy. They have confronted the crisis by creating a new artistic vision. They have created pictures, published 162 books, and arranged exhibitions in Beirut and in many cities throughout the world. Omran El Kaisi (1989) writes that "Lebanese artists act and react to create hope through their art during the war. A new vision of the civil war appears in the books of Jamil Molaeb and in his barrelief sculpture in Bais- sour. It appears in the book of Aref Rayes and in the works of Saiid Akl who has labored perpetually. It also appears in the prints of Mohammad El Rawas." Many Lebanese artists have begun to show their works abroad, such as Mohammad Kaddoura, Nadia Saikali, Moham­ mad Shams Eldine in Paris; Omran El Kaisi, Amin El Basha and Fatmah Elhaj in Madrid; Jamil Molaeb in Washington, D.C. and New York City; Rabia Sukkarieh in Los Angelos; Shouki Shoukini in Tokyo; Fadl Zeadi in Australia; and Jean Khalife in Germany. These individual shows by Leba­ nese artists have all occurred during the war. In addi­ tion, many group exhibitions have taken place in London, Brussels, Cuba, and Washington, D.C. Finally, the violence of war is a metaphor for many kinds of ugly problems that often persist even in times of peace. "To express war is easier than to express peace," said Ralph Shikes (1976). He explains that "it is far easier to portray the specific evils of war than to show an abstract vision of peace" (p. xxvi). In some ways the war has stretched the artist's imagination. Just 163 recently a young Lebanese boy competed In an art contest for his vision of peace. According to the Ohio State University Lantern. (1989): A Lebanese boy growing up amid the rubble of Beirut has known little but war in his 14 years, but his vision of peace has been singled out in an international poster contest... Mustafa Ta- houkji captured the theme of the contest. "Peace will help us grow," said Charles Stuckey, curat­ or of 20th-century painting and sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago and one of five judges. It just came as a stunner when we found out the winning poster came from a child who was witnessing the nightmarish reality that one associated with Lebanon for the last decade. (P. 11)

Lebanese art, a part of Arab art Lebanese art derives from multi-cultural Arabic inf­ luences as well as international ones. Originally, the arabesque showed spiritual and abstract power in line, colors, and shapes. This artistic vision distincfuished it from western abstract art taught in the art schools of Paris and New York. If we compare Arab art and western art for the last two thousand years, we find that western painters and sculptors have been trying to represent God and goodness by creating their own representative art world. They represented men, animals, and plants by using the realis­ tic natural forms and proportions. They tried to express historical, moral, religious, and social themes. They borrowed their objects from the reality of history. They were preachers and created representational art. 164 Islamic art and art r^resentation The Prophet destroyed sixty idols when he entered Mecca. He also ordered people to erase the pictures of the Prophets on the wall and wash them with the water of zEunzam. "Only one picture was spared, that of Jesus and Mary which Muhammad had covered with his hand" (Philip Hitti, p. 163). The Koran uses only the word for creating expression or making a form or an image, because "He is Allah the Creator, the Maker, the Former. His are the beautiful names" (Hitti, p. 164). Painting in the Arab world evolved mainly into calli­ graphy, illustration, decoration, and miniature paintings in which birds, plants and animals tend to be gemometric abstract forms. The Arab artist concentrated more on calligraphy to express the spiritual religious belief and goodness. This tradition created different styles of calligraphy corresponding with the Islamic faith and the traditional art in each nation in the Arab world. As Barbara Meyerhoff (1980) argues: "The ritual is the most important thing. In certain cultures various forms of civilization seem to predominate" (P. 39). Lebanese and Arab artists participate easily in modem abstract art because the Arab painter never tries to copy objects or to imitate nature or to study perspec­ tive. He remains true to his Islamic decorative art 165 heritage. He deals from the beginning with lines, colors, textures, and two dimensional flat vision. He attempts to make order, balance, and logic meaningful in his work. Traditionally he has felt that painting is an arrangement of objects and forms, abstracted on a flat surface. Inte­ restingly, this vision appeared later in the works of Georges Braque (1882-1963). According to Feldman (1967): A mandolin, a knife, fruit, a magazine, a paper, a pipe, an open book, and so on... The objects in themselves are unimportant... They have shapes and colors and texture which Braque can rearrange. (P. 44) Arab art in general provides a notable exemple of the spirit that dominates Arab culture. The Arabesque inspi­ red many famous artists, among them Delacroix, Matisse, and Klee. These artists visited Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria several times for the purpose of capturing and adapting the Arab vision. See (Grohmann Will, 1940, p. 56. And Alfred Barr, 1951, pp. 143-145). The Arab artist preferred abstraction from the begin­ ning. His abstract vision has never been independent of his faith. The arabesque in this sense was his best exp­ ression of his faith in life and God. He looked for a spiritual beauty that existed behind the objects. He sought to represent the purity of sensation linked direc­ tly with memory. "By the fourth century representational painting in Syria had lost most of its vigor and 166 conviction; it needed but slight encouragement to turn completely towards the abstract" (Cochrane Yvonne, 1969, p. 232). Arab writers also learned from the Greek philosophers about art and aesthetics. If we study the Greco-Arabic "wisdom literature", we find that the word beauty means good, ethically or spiritually. Aristotle said: "A man without intelligence is like a statue (Timbal) without spirit." This translation was found in the large collec­ tion of the Arab writer Ibn Hindu, see (Four Essavs on Art and Literature in Islam by F. Rosenthal, 1971, p. 10). There were some connections between Greek aesthetics and Islamic spiritual art. According to Rosenthal (1971): The fateful process which had begun in Greece with the pre-Socratic philosophers and continued relentlessly to the last days of Hellenistic Neo-Pythagorianism and Neo-Platonism had been leading to the almost exclusive equation of beautiful with, on the one hand, "useful", and on the other, "inner beauty" that is good, ethi­ cally or spiritually. The value of purely sensu­ al beauty for producing nobility of character was not entirely lost to Muslims studying the Greco-Arabic wisdom literature. (P. 11) Rosenthal adds, "with the Muslim wisdom literature or art, the equation of beautiful with material and spirit­ ual values rules supreme." This view is not incompatible with Plato's when he states: "Complete beauty and comple­ te ugliness in this world lie in the composition of the powers of the soul and not in the composition of the 167 limbs of the body and the face. (Platonic saying found in the edition of the Arabic writer Ibn Hindu) (Rosenthal, p. 14). Yvonne Sursock Cohrane (1969) discusses the relation­ ship between Middle Eastern artists and their understand­ ing of abstract art and religion: Any representation of God by image or by symbol was looked upon as an attempt to degrade the divine essence. God must be apprehended immedia­ tely as a spirit without the intermediate of figuration. (P. 232) About the western abstraction in art, Yvonne said: The western artist turned away from the visible world into pure abstraction but he came again to express nothing... According to Salvadore Dali (1955): "Modem painters believe in almost no­ thing ..." It is quite natural that if one does not believe in anything one should end up by painting particularly nothing. (P. 233) In Europe, Salvador Dali created surrealism with Max Ernst and Joan Miro. John Russell (1989) wrote the follo­ wing in New York Times when Dali died: Dali, with his meticulous persuasive visions of a world turned inside out, brought home to the public at large the full potential of surreal­ ism. More than anyone else, he made his audience believe that nonsense could make the best sense (and the most memorable sense, too). (P. 1) Problems say create a new vision Art of the absurd became a significant modem art school, especially after World War II. In America, the Vietnam War and the fear of nuclear weapons led to the formation of an art movement in New York where new artis­ tic visions began to appear in the works of many artists. 168 These causes led art in general and especially fine art all over the world toward different pessimistic visions. During the World War II Rouault tried to confront the disaster of war in his art. He "cries, ny sweet country, where are you?" Death is everywhere, in the city at home and in a lot of bodies stretched upon the earth. Rouault changes the traditional artistic representation of war by expressing in his prints how war affects the meaning of the old image. He creates startling effects through his use of complex faces and the juxtaposition of light and dark over a deep black (Frank and Dorothy Getlein, 1963, p. 220). In Guernica Picasso shows how art can play a role in politics and life. Michael Kimmelman (1989) writes in the New York Times about Picasso's Guernica ; It was not simply the image that Picasso creat­ ed, potent and unsetting as it remains, that inspired this turn of fate. Buoyed by an aggres­ sive promotional compaign after the fair and swept along by historical circumstances that seared the issue of battle onto the public's consciousness "Guernica" by the end of World War II came to epitomize the role art might play in politics. (P. 20) Art can be a useful medium to disseminate an idea or to serve society. As Bernard Aptekar (1986) argues : "To be sure art has many functions and serves many ends, but there is always a political element of some sorts" (Making the invisible visible, p. 174). 169 Just: as the Spanish civil war in 1937 led Picasso to re-envision the war through Guernica. war led Ernest Hemingway to write A Farewell to Arms. Fredrico Casia Lorka to write poetiry, and Andre Malraux to infuse his novels with new humanistic ideas. The war in Algeria inspired Albert Camus to write The Plague, and The Stranger. The Lebanese civil war has, as previously stated in this chapter, also brought about a special artistic vision, possibly a new Lebanese school of art, which expresses and confronts the Lebanese civil war, but also expresses every war in any other place in the world.

Art, education, and philosophy "Man is a social animal who must live in groups and communities, to survive he does have a private and sepa­ rate individual existence. He can never escape the consc­ iousness of other men and their relation to him" (Feldman, 1973, p. 17). Each of us represents a multitude of events which take place in our personality from diffe­ rent sources, languages, and cultures. "If we study the history of humanity we find that history is a series of political events and philosophy." Philip Hitti (1969), in Maker of Arab History, defends the first philosopher of history, Ibn Khaldun, when he writes : On the surface history is no more than informa­ tion about political events, dynasties, and 170 occurrences of the remote past, elegantly pre­ sented and spiced with proverbs... The inner meaning of history, on the other hand, involves speculation and attempts to get a truth, subtle explanation of the causes and origins of exist­ ing things and deep knowledge of the how and why of events. History, therefore, is firmly rooted in philosophy. It deserves to be accounted a branch of philosophy. (P. 238) In The Arab Heritage of Western Civilization (1972) we read. While before Ibn Khaldun historiography was concerned mainly with rulers, battles and straightforward accounts of man in events, the great Arab thinker was the first to recognize that events did not happen in a vacuum but dep­ ended upon an endless variety of factors pre­ viously neglected by historians, such as climate, social custom, food, fetishes, and so on. So, in his Muaaddima he deals extensively with the subjects of the nature of society and occupation, labor conditions, climate, and best methods of education. Modem scholarship acknow­ ledges that, thanks to him, latter-day historio­ graphy has changed fundamentally. (PP. 75-76) History and philosophyboth are basic instruments used to tell about life. Art was a carrier of argument from the times of ancient Greece. According to Arthur Efland (1987), The arts were discussed by such philosophers as Plato and Aristotle in terms of their didactic value in the general education of future citi­ zens. Then, the value of the arts was not stated in terms of their capacity to offer aesthetic experience, as we tend to argue today. The issues raised by the philosophers had more to do with the efficacy of the arts as potent carriers of cultural meaning and with their suitability to foster the individual's sense of identity with his culture. (P. 57) Robert E. Fitzgibbons (1981), quotes Plato when he writes about the philosophy of education: 171 No aspect of education is to be disparaged; it is the highest blessing bestowed on mankind, and it is the best of them on whom it is most fully bestowed. When it takes a false turn which permits of correction, we should, one and all, devote the energy of a lifetime to its amend­ ment. (P. 3) Writing about art or aesthetics was and is still not simple. Even in our time, we still find it difficult to judge a work of art, especially when this work represents a new movement. Robert Sommer (1973) observes: Writing about art movement while it still goes on is like trying to capture the wind. The alternative is to wait until it has passed its creative phase and becomes dry material for the historian. Art and artist have suffered since the philosopher Plato. Plato in the Republic attacked the artists who stopped on the lowest level of reality, artists who port­ rayed only the actual not the ideal. Elsewhere he refer­ red to the good artist as one who "paint a model of what might be the most beautiful human being" (The Republic. p. 472). Artists in every time respond by creating beau­ ty. Artists continually try to express themselves and their culture as completely as possible. Albert Camus felt the suffering of the artist throughout the age. Camus protests and states: "We do not need to ask artists to do the art that represents reality cr to do abstract work." Camus (1960) likes the artist to be free to exp­ ress himself; he said: 172 There Is no need to determine whether art must flee reality or defer to it... Each artist must solve this problem according to his lights and abilities. (P. 251)

Art and freedom In an interview in Demain Issue. Albert Camus (1957, October 24-30) says: For a hundred and fifty years the writers belonging to a mercantile society, with but few exceptions, thought they could live in happy irresponsibility. They lived, indeed, and then died alone as they had lived. But we writers of the twentieth century shall never again be alone. About art Camus adds: After all, perhaps the greatness of art lies in the perpetual tension between beauty and pain, the love of men and the madness of creation, unbearable solitude and the exhausting crowd, rejection and consent. Art advances between two chasms, which are frivolity and propaganda. On the ridge where the great artist moves forward, every step is an adventure, an extreme risk. In that risk, however, and only there lies the freedom of art. (P. 267, 268)

The role of art in politics and revolutions Albert Camus needs the artist to take sides in life. In his book Resistance. Rebellion and Death in an article entitled "The Artist and His Time," he writes; The artist of today becomes unreal if he remains in his ivoiry tower or sterilized if he spends his time galloping around the political arena. Yet between the two lies the arduous way of true art. It seems to me that the writer must be fully aware of the dramas of his time and that he must take sides every time he can or knows how to do so. But he must also maintain or 173 resume from time to time a certain distance in relation to our history, fResistance, Rebellion and Death. translated by Justin O'brein, 1969, p. 238) Robert Sargent (1945), in his book Between Two Wars, quotes Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Parnassus (1941) who said about the role of the artist in war: The true artist is not expressing himself, but making himself a willing instrument through which the truth is to be expressed. The beauty or perfection of a work of art is a matter of accuracy; art is imagery, and to be judged as art by the correctness of its iconography. Only that art which is both accurate and adapted to good use is suitable for free men. (Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Pamassu. March, 1941, p. 316) We can do nothing without liberty, liberty saves us; liberty makes justice and beauty. According to Albert Camus : Without liberty, we shall achieve nothing and that we shall lose both future justice and ancient beauty. Liberty alone draws men from their isolation; but slavery dominates a crowd of solitude. And art, by virue of that free essence I have tried to define, unites whereas tyranny separates. (P. 269)

Painting and writing An existentialist writer, Eugene Ionesco, (1977) asks some significant questions when he introduces the artist Pierre Alechinsky's book Paintings and Writings. Ionesco writes the following about the goal of painting: The goal of painting is to discover, to invent forms, views, visualization, unprecedented visu­ al worlds. A different criterion must be adopted for each painter. Criterion? No. A different view-point. But let's not "narrate" painting. 174 There is no need to duplicate the painter: cri­ ticism is just so much pointless labor. A new language has to be created each and every time. Ionesco adds: What is painting? Chromatic happenings, above all. Whatever it means, it cannot possibily be expressed by a narrative thread. (P. 9)

Art and its role in our modem time About the roots of original magic language in art, Bernard Aptekar (1986) considers our society an artifact of big proportions. Our society is not only material structures, technologies, and ideologies, but also of "dreams, passions, fears, desires, and visions... We live in with phantom thoughts, feelings, ideas, continuously passing from one state, through all the intermediate steps to another" (P. 171). What can art do in that country? Aptekar asked. He added that we live "in a so­ ciety in which a catastrophe may well bring that huge ball of masonry down to crush us all to blood. All of us and artists in particular because they have an immediate and direct route to new reality must know and understand where we are in order to know where to go" (P. 173). Aptekar sumarizes the role of artist by the following: A. The artist must think, sort, and evaluate in order to solve some problems in our society. 175 B. The artist must have something to say, because the artist has a magical power that transposes his mind that would move upon a stream of silence into palpable concre­ te reality. C. He or she must invent a language, and must translate, create a plastic structure, a form to translate and com­ municate all the relevant thoughts and feelings. D. The artist must produce images which reveal a purpose and unconscious assumptions and attitudes. E. Art is "universally human". Everywhere the artists are urged to produce works that are fresh and good to get the true meanings across as powefully as possible. We should work with the shortest distance between mind and material reality, thought and object. We have to believe in art- that if we think it, we can make it. Art is a direct and immediate action. (P. 176) Art is a language that can capture and express ideas and feelings, and it can include history, society, poli­ tics, emotions, myths, religions, and philosophy. The artist's situation today may look confusing, because there are thousands of years of art history and hundreds of cultures to draw from. Altogether these cultures and histories have to produce new art. Today "the technology that the artist must use is a philosophical, political, historical, and intellectual" one (P. 178). The artist is in relationship with the 176 general human culture» the natural and the supernatural world. He reflects "the laws of morality and logic, the ideals of truth and right, the destiny of man and the purpose of social institution" (P. 178). Aptekar adds: At the same time the artist has the right to reject all things in order to decide by himself what to choose to say and to decide what the work is about, what it means, whom it serves, what it's for, what it should communicate... Art is still, as it was in its beginning a magic aid toweurd mastering the real world. In a frag­ mented and alienated world, social and psycholo­ gical reality must be presented in an arresting way, in a new light as it were. It must grip its audience but hopefully not in a passive way. It must make you do more than just look. (P. 178)

The role of art in education The past fifteen years of civil war have seriously affec­ ted the educational system in general and the teaching of Lebanese art in particular. The educational system has had to deal with security problems, population, displace­ ment, and the destruction of schools and buildings. The violence has affected a number of educational institutes, their teachers, employees, and their students. But despite the disruptions which has been caused by the fighting, the Lebanese teachers have continued to provide education and art even during the difficult period of war. The academic schools have been extended for some years to compensate for interruptions by war, and program material has been consolidated in order to make up some materials for students who have missed part of their 177 academic year. Several branches in several areas in Leba­ non other than Beirut have opened to make up for the lack of security and the displacement of some population groups during the war.

The role of art education and art in society Art has a communicative role. Art could reflect values of society and culture. It is a language and tool for certain, types of communications. It expresses ideas, beliefs, emotions, attitudes, and influences behaviors and decisions. Art is necessary for an intellectual life. Art can play a role like religion to solve social problem and to objectify feeling. In the following, we will discuss some ideas of some contemporary art educators in order to understand what role art and art education can play in developing a national consciousness and creating culture. Besides satisfying our individual needs for personal expression, art also satisfies our social needs for dis­ play, celebration, and communication. An art educator and artist's major purpose is to show how art is necessary in life. About the social function of art, Frank Cream Chal­ mers (1971), quotes Ross L. Finney (1917) when he writes about the social function of art; 178 There are very important sociological reasons why the more common forms of art should be wide­ ly distributed among the people. Three may be mentioned here: (1) The arts inculcate and enforce the traditional virtues; (2) The whole­ some pleasure which they furnish is an effective protection against vice; and (3) they contribute to the social efficiency of the family and other fundamental social institutions. (P. 5) Can education change society? This question has been raised by many art educators; Theodor Brameld (1950), writing after World War II, paid attention in the End and Means in Education to the causes and effects of war on the American tradition, and he noted the attitude of art educators in that precarious period: We should know that the burning causes of depre­ ssion and war are not removed with a prosperity made possible largely by nonproductive prepara­ tion for war. We should know that the causes remain, and again that only the most courageous examination and advocacy of basic change can possibly eradicate them... That vital education, aligned with other forces of expansion, can and must lead toward creation of a new free world. (PP 120-121) Education has always been a bulwark of social reinforce­ ment. Throughout history, education has helped to change and influence society and create culture. What we need is just to advocate such influence. Also we need a new poli­ cy for the teaching profession for keeping and developing our educational system in order to keep its dynamic lead­ er and to reshape our culture in this century. According to Brameld, 179 Education is a penetrating critic, dynamic lead­ er, and imaginative re-creator which anticipates dangers before they crystallize into calamities, which helps simultaneously to reshape the cultu­ re of America and the world in accordance with the immperatives of this catalytic age-here is the supreme obligation of the teaching profess­ ion to the second half of our century. (P. 194) Art plays an important role in developing life. In an investigation that was made in the winter of 1989 with Dr. Nancy MacGregor, 25 students drew up the eight follo­ wing items about the significance of art education in life. 1) To develop an ability to communicate and to be used as a means of communication. 2) Art enriches creativity and imagination. 3) Art is important because it enhances critical thinking skills and abstract reasoning. 4) Art develops new avenues towards students' individua­ lity and expression. 5) Art forms a vital bridge between past and present, culturally, aesthetically, and historically. 6) Knowledge of art allows us to be visually discriminat­ ing. 7) Art provides aesthetic enjoyment. S) The study of art provides the opportunity for students to leam about various cultures, beliefs, and moral atti­ tudes toward life from our society and the society of others. 180 About the role of art education to develop human culture, Eliot W. Eisner (1985) believes Art education is that learning in art is related to the course of human development. This means that developmental features define abilities that curriculum planners and teachers must take into account. (P. 15) "What's in it for our children?" Eisner (1985) asks in The Role of Discipline-Based Art Education in America's schools (p. 35). In this analysis he discusses the prog­ ram that we should make to provide an effective art dis­ cipline for our children in school. He warns that it is dangerous to neglect art in our schools. And he said that the educational responsibility is to give the student general information about art in order to make the works of art as understanding as possible. Eisner says; The arts have much to say about the world that is not revealed in language in its customary form. Humans have created the arts precisely because they wanted to express what could not be expressed in conventional discursive form. Great works of visual art help us see for the first time what we have so often simply missed. They capture a slice of the world, stabilize it, and present it to us for our contemplation and ref­ lection. Who has shown the visual world of light more vividly than the impressionists? Who has informed us about the character of religious belief more movingly than the great Italian painters of the 14th century? Who has helped us see the teeming character of the urban landscape more acutely than the likes of a John Sloan, a Paul Cadmus, and a Raphael Soyer? Who has penet­ rated the corruption of the German bourgeois more convincingly than George Grosz? These artists and these periods speak to us in a language that carries meaning that cannot be conveyed through words. Will our children be able to understand what they have to say? Even 181 more, will they know their messages exist? ...We all come into the world like all others, like some others, and like no other person. The inc­ lusion of the arts in the school's curriculum provides opportunity not only for all students to leam to read the arts, but especially for those students whose aptitudes are in arts. For them it is a chance to find a place in the sun. (PP 35-36) L. Chapman (1969) speaks about the role of art in expres­ sing values, beliefs, and ideas in society. "°S§he con­ ceived three major goals for general education and their counterparts in art education." Arthur Efland (1987) summarizes the chapman's third goal about the role of art in society; Express various beliefs in visual forms. Change or stabilize beliefs through visual forms. Make choices that shape their environment. Per­ ceive visual qualities. Interprets visual forms. Judge and explain visual forms. (Aesthetic Edu­ cation . p. 75) The Lebanese heritage has been jeopardized because of different religious beliefs that have not always worked for the unification of the Lebanese society. Religious leaders have failed to recognize the interests that they have in common with others to stop the war and to develop the constitution. The schools operate within religious systems. Education in general and art education in parti­ cular could play a role in communicating among the reli­ gions in order to raise a national-consciousness that valves peace and democracy for the purpose of unifying the people and the country. 182 Art Is a sigpiificant part of a country's general cultural heritage. It Includes the past and the present, and it can work to make connections with the future. Edmund Feldman (1970) mentions the role of art in society in the following: Having considered the meaning of art in the individual's existence, let us now examine art as it affects groups, and communities. Of course, a group is a collection of individuals and it possesses no organs, no nervous system, no anatomy and physiology in the same way that persons do. And yet, organized groups often behave as if they possessed organs of perception and expression; they act as if they have an anatomical structure and a nervous system. Certainly we refer to social groups as if they have needs, interests, and rec[uirements. States­ men and politicians have been known to speak of the "character" and the "destiny" of a national group. (Becoming Human Through Art, p. 52) Art education, obviously, has a relationship with a physical community. It expresses the group's values which fluctuate over time and with the political and economic environment. It can play a very crucial role in the life of a community. According to Feldman: Art education is so vital for the functioning of a democratic society. Because of our form of political organization, it is possible for in­ sensitivity, brutality, conformity, apathy, violence, and knownothingism to become dominant social and aesthetic values. Such qualities are occasionally visible in both the fine and the popular art... The citizens of a democratic state must leam that there are alternatives — many of them — in the realm of artistic and aesthetic value. (P. 53) 183 Art and art education confront the criais and war Art education could function to dissipate "individual anxieties (as well as arousing them within established limits), restating and consolidating group values" (Feldman, 1970, p. 178). Through art people can explore their relationship with society and with other people; they can attempt to confront reality. And this attempt to deal with reality is the basis of all human creativity. Feldman (1970) explains how art can confront the complexity of our lives. He argues that art confronts reality that is threatening us. It allows us to express our ritual needs in a time of crisis, especially as life becomes harder and more complex. Every day we confront a new kind of fear such as war, technical challenges, or strange feelings, a new fear or a nystery that we cannot explain. Feldman agrees that art education helps us to identify this fear and crisis. It helps us to deal with them in creating art, in acting, painting, singing, and dancing. The role of art is to ritualize feelings in order to eliminate them. Art is also a type of moral activity for both primi­ tive and civilized people. By providing new colors, lines, music, images or other media that can manage crea­ tivity and forge human relations, art helps people to face life (P. 180). 184 The night of truth In Resistance. Rebellion and Death by Albert Camus, (translated by Justin O'Brien, 1969), we read: Harsh combats still await us. But peace will return to this t o m earth and to hearts tortured by hopes and memories. One cannot always live on murders and violence. Happiness and proper affe­ ction will have their time. But that peace will not find us forgetful. And for some among us, the faces of our brothers disfigured by bullets, the great virile brotherhood of recent years will never forsake us. May our dead comrades enjoy by themselves the peace that is promissed us during this panting night, for they have already won it. Our fight will be theirs. (P. 39) Walter Kotschnig (1943) writes in his book Slaves Need No Leaders that "Education has been considered the main road to success and social standing, to social eman­ cipation and freedom" (P. 3). One of the duties of educa­ tion is to challenge fascism. He discusses the civil wars of various western nations and cities. Antoine de Saint Sxupery speaks about man's inability to recognize his own situation: "The physical drama itself cannot touch us until some one points out its spiritual sense" (P. x). Kahlil Gibran defended the rights of his nation after World War I. He published many articles criticizing the religious political system and its conservative suppor­ ters at that time. Gibran creates a new Lebanon in his art and in his philosophical works. Michael Hudson (1968) quotes Gibran when he says : "Your Lebanon is a political 185 riddle that time tries to solve, but my Lebanon is hills rising in splender toward the blue skies" (P. 3). The Lebanese civil war is as cruel as any other civil war. Weapons change, and the tragedy is acted out in different places with new faces. The Lebanese artists are working to express the war, but the horrors of the actual war are something else again, something that no artistic medium can ever fully capture. The live war is much more horrible than any of its depictions. Moreover, the Leba­ nese artists do not share one vision of the war, but, like the Lebanese people, the artists are divided, see different problems, and desire different solutions, which their art reflects. My research may help to describe Lebanese art and art teaching during the civil war, inc­ luding my own personal experience of the war, but in living through the war I have realized that works of art books and research projects are unable to tell all the stories about the war. Each endeavor only grasps a part of it. It cannot bring the war to an end but can provide temporary hope and perhaps tap new sources of energy. REFERENCES

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