A century of <PERSON>: a mountain who leaves behind mountains · Global Voices
Aside from her love for mountains which were strongly present in her paintings, <PERSON>'s artworks were also bright and vibrant in colour. Image published under license CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
This article was first published by Raseef22 on November 24. An edited version is republished as part of a partnership with Global Voices.
<PERSON>, iconic Lebanese-American poet, essayist, and internationally acclaimed visual artist, died on November 14 at the age of 96, peacefully at her home in Paris. She leaves behind her longtime partner, renowned Syrian Lebanese artist <PERSON>.
Over a lifetime that spanned almost a century, <PERSON> had multiple lives, through her work in journalism, teaching, writing, painting and poetry. She had had a profound impact on a multitude of people, and an outpouring of tributes, memories and condolences continue on social media, as her life is celebrated, her memory cherished, and her loss mourned by many all over the world.
‘She Gave Us Confidence’: Gallerists, Curators, and Friends Remember the Trailblazing Artist and Poet #<PERSON>, Who Has Died at 96 https://t.co/zhkisCCWJ0 @artnet pic.twitter.com/uptDmYRj2N
— Women in the Arts (NMWA) (@WomenInTheArts) November 18, 2021
The countless facets of her career come in part from her multiple identities, as she grew up in a mixed household in the city of Beirut – which she held dear to her heart-, with her Greek Christian mother from Smyrna (now the city of Izmir) and her Syrian Muslim father from Damascus, who was a high-ranking Ottoman officer. Her exposure to multiple languages and faiths from a very young age became a formative aspect of her identity, as did her time in Lebanon.
“Identity is also a matter of choice. It's not something hard, like a stone. We are also what we want to be. We make choices.”
RIP <PERSON>
— <PERSON> (@tamsinomond) November 15, 2021
She considered her age a “gift of the heavens” for the perspective that it offered her. In her nineties, she claimed to have a unique perspective on the country of Lebanon, because she was born in 1925, so close to the founding of the Lebanese state in 1926. 820
In an interview with <PERSON> in 2019, she said she considered herself a guardian of the memories of Lebanon, recalling growing up in a cosmopolitan Lebanon, witnessing the many periods of its history. She described seeing the period of French rule, the World War, and the first generation of women who were able to swim, and who were able to work; she witnessed the liberation of the women of her generation.
RIP <PERSON>, your memory lives in your words “Is memory produced by us, or is it us? Our identity is very likely whatever our memory decides to retain. But let’s not presume that memory is a storage room. It’s not a tool for being able to think, it’s thinking, before thinking”
— <PERSON> (@omar_alghazzi) November 14, 2021
Actively engaged in the liberation of her generation, she was among the first Lebanese women to work in an office. At 16 years old, she worked at a press office, where she described seeing the end of the war.
<PERSON> painted liberty through her vibrant canvases, dabbing and spreading saturated colours of vitality with her palette knife. She believed that liberty was a gift that had to be earned. For her, love existed between two liberties. Her ultimate liberty was her ability to maintain her childlike spirit and her ability to dream. In the same interview, she described her dreams for a better world:
My dreams are not for me, but for my environment, I dream of a Lebanon that is at peace with itself, a Lebanon at the level of the quality of the people that live in this country.
Throughout her life and work <PERSON> felt a responsibility and affinity towards Lebanon and the Arab world, constructing her mountains around them.
<PERSON> was educated in French schools in Beirut and studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris. She later moved to the US for postgraduate studies in philosophy at UC Berkeley and Harvard. She taught philosophy and avidly wrote poems, essays, and plays, to wide critical acclaim.
<PERSON> returned to Lebanon in 1972, where she worked as a cultural editor for two cultural journals, Al Safa and L’Orient le Jour, and met <PERSON> in Beirut. 820