GALLERY

galerie janine rubeiz
levantine legacy

Narrating the history of Modern and Contemporary art in Lebanon can be a dicey endeavour. Throw a group of artists, gallerists, critics, curators, and collectors into a room together and it is highly unlikely that they would agree on any one trajectory from, say, luscious Levantine landscape painting in the late 19th century to the critically bracing adventures in video and installations by artists who live and work in Beirut today. This history is inevitably complex and undeniably rich, replete with moments of explosive innovation, refined skill and tender reflection. Unfortunately, it simply hasn’t been written down or recorded anywhere.

There is no major museum of Modern or Contemporary art in Beirut to provide common points of reference. Art history textbooks in any of the three languages that are spoken with ease in Lebanon are few. Art students may learn the lineage of Western art in their classrooms and studios, but they would have to seek out for themselves the story spanning several generations of creative expression in their own backyard. Still, connecting the dots is crucial - even more so in a country where continuity is a luxury and political ruptures are the rule - and that is precisely what Galerie Janine Rubeiz has been doing for 15 years and counting.

“Galleries in Beirut play a dual role,” says owner and director Nadine Begdache. They are commercial ventures for the display and sale of artworks, yes. But they are also noncommercial spaces for the play and exchange of ideas. In the absence of substantial public institutions for cultural production
in Lebanon, galleries substitute a robust infrastructure with a fragile ecosystem. “Galleries are the references,” says Begdache, “There are no others here.”

Begdache opened Galerie Janine Rubeiz in 1993. Anyone interested in assembling a narrative account of artistic practices in the Lebanese capital can start with a visit to the gallery...