tour 24 of 25
Word into art
Aref el-Rayyess (Lebanon), The road to peace: images of the Lebanese civil war, bound book
This book contains a series of images that
highlight the Lebanese civil war. This terrible conflict tore
Lebanon apart between 1975 and 1989 and set communities against
each other. The powerful images are reproduced from charcoal
drawings in grey and black. The stark picture illustrated here is
called In anticipation of a
settlement. People are stacked together,
soldiers aim at a fractured wall of faces, mothers and children are
frightened, and all are grim and
unsmiling.
El-Rayyess
started his career as a self-taught artist. He worked and studied
in Paris from 1950, returning to Lebanon in 1957. After this he
taught at the Institute of Fine Arts, University of Beirut, and in
1973 was appointed president of the Lebanese association of
painters and sculptors. Following the civil war in Lebanon, he
moved to Jeddah. He died in 2005.