Focus on The Split of Life and discuss the Development and description.
The subject of war in Kanso’s work began during 1972–1974 in New York when he did a series of paintings and drawings on the Vietnam War. After a brief pause, he started in 1975 the Lebanon war series evoked by the civil war that broke out in his native land. The intersection of the two series reflecting similarity in composition, scale, style and theme provided the framework for a larger series whose underlying theme formed the basis of the Split of Life series in encompassing several other series dealing with war.The Split of Life series delineates two periods: 1974–1985 and 1986–1994. The works of the first period are characterized by the use of warm colors dominated by red, orange, yellow and black, and the depiction of compositions in which masses of figures occupy the entire surface plane. Among the series in the period are the Vietnam, Lebanon, One-Minute on (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and Time Suspended in Space on (South Africa) series. The works of the 1986–94 period depict compositions that divide the canvas in two or more sections depicting figures painted in dark blue and black within an enclosure of red and orange surrounded by a white space. Everywhere in the painting there is the dynamics of transformation, rather than static forms of distribution and knowledge. Among the series in this period are the Cluster Matter, Glory and Cruelty, and Living Memory (Auschwitz) series.  It is suggested that most of the Split of Life paintings are recessive in the upper center, and somewhat bilaterally symmetrical. This division is often in the form of a face placed against a V form. The violence seems to deploy itself towards that opening so that the center is dominated by a mother of war, a kali-figure.
Auschwitz One-Minute native land Vietnam War Time Suspended in Space (South Africa) Living Memory civil war (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) Vietnam Glory and Cruelty Lebanon