"Rembrandt"

"Deja Vu"

"Memory"

"Future Window"

During the recent Israeli invasion of Lebanon, contemporary Lebanese artist Youssef Ghazzawi lost his entire life’s work. The home and studio he shared with his wife, Lebanese artist Suzanne Chakaroun, was located in the bustling southern suburb known as Dahiyeh. What once consisted of narrow streets and a multitude of apartment buildings is now virtually leveled. Ghazzawi’s paintings had adorned the walls of their home. Since receiving a doctorate in the visual arts from the Paris Sorbonne University in 1992, Ghazzawi has participated in numerous exhibitions in both France and Lebanon, and is a member of the Association of Lebanese Painters and Sculptors.

Palestinian artist Samia Halaby interviewed Ghazzawi just days after he returned to Beirut, where he found his home and studio buried beneath the rubble of his destroyed neighborhood. Below is an excerpt of an article written by Halaby paired with images of a selection of Ghazzawi’s paintings that were destroyed.

A War Against Art and Culture, Against Our Progress and Development
By Samia Halaby

This past month, Lebanese artist Youssef Ghazzawi’s studio was destroyed by Israeli military bombardment for the third time in his life. The first time was in 1977 when his home in the southern Lebanese village of Khiyam was severely bombed. The second time was in 1983 during the Israeli occupation of Beirut. The apartment building he was living and working in collapsed due to continuous shelling. Under each barrage, his entire studio and most of its content were destroyed. He had salvaged a few things from the previous two demolitions and was saving them. In the most recent destruction of Youssef’s studio his entire life’s output was lost. Able to escape the incessant bombing of his neighborhood by Israeli war planes, he and his family returned to his home and studio, both located in Dahiyeh (the southern suburb of Beirut), to find disaster. Scattered, buried, or torn to shreds in the bombing, were hundreds of paintings, mosaic panels, work on glass and wood, work on paper, sketchbooks, notebooks, precious mementoes, and a vast library of art books in numerous languages.

Youssef, a professor at the Lebanese University, is an artist of breadth and vast experience. He spent many years in Paris studying and later practicing his art. Much of his work bears the stamp of his international experience. His wife, Suzanne Chakaroun, also an artist and art instructor, shared his studio and lost all of her work.

During a phone interview on August 16, 2006, Youssef discussed what has transpired over the past month, “I was planning a retrospective exhibition of my work from the past 25 years, and all this work is now gone.”

When asked if he was able to salvage anything this time, Youssef said, “Only some books. The paintings which I pulled out are torn to ribbons. I suppose there might be a chance to restore a couple of them.”

Later in the interview he affirmed, “We are all fed up with war and the attacks by Israel…We know that at any moment they can hit us. I see this war as one against our art and culture, against our progress and development, a war against humanity. We want to create beauty and they find an excuse to demolish us.”

The Lebanese government recently declared that 7 billion dollars’ worth of damage has resulted from the recent Israeli bombing. My estimation is that if this number is doubled, it would not make up for private loss, let alone cultural loss.

As a painter, I am horrified to learn of Youssef’s losses. I immediately understand what he conveys. His reaction is also my reaction. Under the Israeli occupation of Palestine, Palestinian artists are subjected to terrifying crimes against their artistic production. Our art is often destroyed and confiscated, our palette governed by Israeli laws that prohibit the use of certain colors. In Palestine, artists work knowing that their work could be confiscated or cause their imprisonment and many have been put in prison for merely being artists. Our galleries are shutdown by the Israeli military without warning. Art centers and studios are ransacked or destroyed. In 1982, the Museum of Solidarity with Palestine in Beirut was destroyed by Israeli bombardment. Many of us feel this was a deliberate attack. My work and that of other Arab artists was destroyed alongside that of internationally known artists such as Joan Miro, Eduardo Chillida, and Antoni Tapies.

As have many Lebanese and Palestinian artists, Youssef Ghazzawi and Suzanne Chakaroun lost the creative output of a lifetime. As a Palestinian artist, I express my empathy, admiration, and respect for them and to their Lebanese sumoud (steadfastness). May you both create the most brilliant masterpieces of your careers as time and life allows you in the coming years.