Defying the Violence: Lebanon's Visual Arts in the 1980s.

The Manazir Team is proud to announce the publication of Manazir Journal volume 7 (2025), titled “Defying the Violence: Lebanon's Visual Arts in the 1980s,” edited by Nadia von Maltzahn (Orient-Institut Beirut).

This special issue delves into how Lebanon’s civil war during the 1980s shaped the country’s art world—a conflicted period during which artistic creation and exhibition practices have largely been overlooked. While conflict forced some exhibition spaces to close and artists to migrate, the 1980s also saw cultural infrastructures and artists adapting to the evolving context, and new spaces and art practices emerged.

The contributions address how the political, social and economic environment impacted everyday artistic production and reception. By challenging the conventional historical divide of pre-war “golden age”, wartime collapse, and post-war renewal in the 1990s, this issue offers a nuanced rethinking of periodization. It situates artistic trajectories within broader social, political, and transnational currents, speaking to overarching questions that are relevant for art historical inquiry in a broader sense.

The issue features seven peer-reviewed research articles and two perspectives. Together, they shed new light on a neglected decade and offer fresh insights into Lebanon’s visual arts that defied the violence.

Manazir Journal is a Platinum/Diamond Open Access journal (BOAI) and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0). It is hosted by Bern Open Publishing (Bern Open Publishing). Manazir Journal endeavors to ensure the high quality of its content (COPE) and is committed to publish only original material. All articles undergo a peer review process. You can find all volumes of Manazir Journal on its website: https://bop.unibe.ch/manazir/issue/view/1535.

Table of Content

Introduction

Introduction: Lebanon’s Visual Arts in the 1980s Defying the Violence
Nadia von Maltzahn
2–19
https://doi.org/10.36950/manazir.2025.7.1

Articles

Ruptures and Continuities: Lebanon’s Art Galleries in the 1980s with a Focus on Galerie Damo (1977–88)
Monique Bellan
21–56
https://doi.org/10.36950/manazir.2025.7.2

Beirut’s Sursock Museum in the 1980s: Inclusion and Exclusion in a Decade of Conflict
Ashraf Osman
57–82
https://doi.org/10.36950/manazir.2025.7.3

The House Stands Tall: The Social Dimension of Dar el Fan and Janine Rubeiz’s Curatorial Activities during the Civil War in Lebanon
Flavia Elena Malusardi
83–107
https://doi.org/10.36950/manazir.2025.7.4

Against the Current: War Motifs and the Medium of Printmaking in 1980s Lebanon
Çiğdem İvren
108–32
https://doi.org/10.36950/manazir.2025.7.5

Tracing Lines, Forging Connectivity: The Tapestries of Amine El Bacha and Antoine Saadé (1984–1985)
Jessica Gerschultz
133–59
https://doi.org/10.36950/manazir.2025.7.6

Fadi Barrage, an Artist’s Diary: “To Think Things Out in Painting”
Nadia von Maltzahn
160–89
https://doi.org/10.36950/manazir.2025.7.7

Mona Hatoum’s Other Story: “Third World Post-modernism” in 1980s Britain
Joan Grandjean
https://doi.org/10.36950/manazir.2025.7.8
190–220

Perspectives

“I Have a Friend Named Time”: Interview with Greta Naufal
Nadia von Maltzahn
222–47
https://doi.org/10.36950/manazir.2025.7.9

Roundtable Discussion with Rose Issa and Mohammad El Rawas on the Exhibition Contemporary Lebanese Artists at London’s Kufa Gallery in Early 1988
Nadia von Maltzahn
248–65
https://doi.org/10.36950/manazir.2025.7.10