Description

Salwa Rawda Choucair was born in Lebanon in 1916. Her affinity to art was present from her childhood, she has been making objects and drawing from an early age. She took art classes only for three months with Omar Onsi in 1942, she is otherwise self-taught. Her learning process involved travel and museum visits in the Middle East and North Africa. Her appreciation of Islamic elements evolved when she integrated them into her sculptures. She started out by painting, shifting her attention towards sculpture later on, which became her major medium. She is known as the first abstract artist in Lebanon. In the 1950’s she lived in Paris where she visited the École Nationale des Beaux Arts and shared a studio for three months with Fernand Léger. In 1950 she participated at the Salon des Réalities Nouvelles in Paris and a year later she had her first solo exhibition as well. Salwa Rawda Choucair had a retrospective exhibition in Tate in 2013. Her works are held in major museums around the world from Tate to Louvre Abu Dhabi. She passed away at 101 years old in Beirut.