Forthcoming

Vol. 7 (2025) "Lebanon’s Visual Arts in the 1980s: Artistic Production and Reception in a Conflicted Decade," edited by Nadia von Maltzahn.

The 1980s in Lebanon were marked by the ups and downs of its civil war that had officially started in April 1975 and lasted throughout the decade with varying intensity. Artistic production and exhibition practices have largely been overlooked for this conflicted period. While the circumstances of the war 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 emerge. This special issue focuses on the experience of Lebanon’s artists and its art world during the 1980s. It questions how the political, social and economic environment impacted day-to-day artistic production and reception. One concern is to rethink the conventional periodisation of Lebanon’s history into a “golden age” leading up to the civil war, a war period, and a post-war period starting in the 1990s. Instead, the nuances of artistic production and its reception throughout the 1980s will be analysed by interrelating context and artistic production. Whereas the so-called post-war generation of artists engaged extensively with the aftermath and memory of the war, in the midst of conflict artists had different approaches to their engagement with what was happening around them. War did not emerge out of nowhere; underlying social and political tensions had been present since the foundation of modern Lebanon. Artistic production during the 1980s will be situated within the larger trajectory of artists and institutions. While taking one country during one decade as a starting point, the issue speaks to overarching questions that are relevant for art historical inquiry in a broader sense. These include the question of periodization in art history, breaking down the idea of a monolithic bloc of wartime cultural production or even a shared experience of conflict, transnational experiences, how artists and institutions adapt to an unpredictable environment, how artists relate back to their home country in case of exile or migration, and to what extent the use of diverse media can be linked to the socio-political context of production. Artist’s trajectories will also be embedded within socio-cultural debates of the time, such as the global movement for civil rights or the cultural studies movement.