Nabil Kanso: Darkness and Light (Part I) : On view

The art world is finally catching up to Nabil Kanso (1940-2019). Recent acquisitions by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and the Sursock Museum in Beirut, together with fresh critical attention from The New York Times and Artforum, have reaffirmed Kanso's place among the most important painters of the modern Arab world and on the international stage. His oeuvre confronts questions that feel as urgent today as they did when his works were first created, giving them a rare timelessness despite having been created decades ago. Writing in Artforum, critic Donals Kuspit situated Kanso alongside Otto Dix and Francisco Goya, while Martha Schwendener of The New York Times drew parallels between his paintings and the murals of Los Tres Grandes compared his Leaves from the Theater of War (1980-1992) series to Goya's The Disasters of War (1810-1820). 

On 23 July 2026, Lebanon will present the first major solo exhibition of Kanso's work in the country of his birth. Presented by the Dalloul Artist Collective (DAC), Nabil Kanso: Darkness and Light (Part I) marks a long-awaited homecoming for an artist whose career spanned more than five decades and whose connection to Lebanon never faded. Kanso returned repeatedly to the country of his birth, witnessing defining moments in its history while building an international practice that explored war, literature, mythology, music, and the resilience of the human spirit. "I think an artist cannot detach himself from the world," he once reflected. "We are part of it, and we respond to it through art."

Born in Beirut in 1940, Kanso grew up in a home filled with artworks, photographs, and visual objects his family had brought from Mexico, an early environment that fostered his fasvination with painting. After studying in London, he arrived in New York in 1966, as the city stood at the center of the international art world, earning degrees in Political Science and Art History at New York University. At the age of thirty, he established the 76th Street Gallery in a Manhattan townhouse that quickly became a gathering place for artists, writers, musicians, and critics. His early sketchbooks include portraits of Alfred H. Barr Jr., the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art, alongside Salvador Dalí, Henry Geldzahler, and other leading cultural figures he encountered in New York. Rich in color and ambitious in scale, Kanso's paintings possess a luminosity that recalls light filtering through stained glass windows, illuminating scenes of resilience and hope through his inimitable iconography. 

At the heart of Kanso's practice was a commitment to confronting the human consequences of war. Between the 1970s and 2010s, he created a vast series of paintings devoted to the Vietnam War, the Lebanese Civil War, the Gulf War, Iraq, Syria, and other humanitarian crises. His paintings preserve the essence of humanity long after conflicts disappear from the front pages. They ask what remains, what history chooses to remember, and what responsibility we carry toward one another. 

Kanso's artistic contributions extend far beyond depictions of war and conflict. He created numerous series drawn from literary, mythological, and biblical sources. Across more than five decades of his practice, Kanso remained committed to the subjects he believed demanded attention and never altered his vision in pursuit of acceptance. Painting was, in his own words, the condition that made life possible: "I live to paint. Without painting, I cannot function." 

Remaining faithful to that vision came at a personal cost. The weight of the subjects he carried grew even as opportunities diminished, and Kanso spent many years working outside the commercial spotlight. Yet he never stopped painting. He adopted the mantra, "producing art in the face of war, cruelty, and indifference" and continually reached out to world leaders to encourage diplomacy and the achievement of peace by sharing his work. 

Reflecting on Kanso's lifelong commitment, Dr. Basel Dalloul, Founder of the Dalloul Art Foundation, recalls an artist whose relationship with painting never changed. "Nabil Kanso is an artistic giant and among the most important artist of our time. Painting for him was life. now more than ever, it is essential that we exhibit his work in Lebanon and cross the globe. Kanso's iconic visual language communicates a message of peace and gives us a window into the soul of humanity that must be seen."

Encountering Kanso's work asks something of the viewer. Conceived as immersive environments, his paintings surround us with figures, movement, and light that refuses passive observation. They demand attention, empathy, and a willingness to remain present before histories that are too often reduced to statistics or forgotten altogether.

Saleh Barakat, Founder of Saleh Barakat Gallery and a leading authority on modern and contemporary Arab art, knew Kanso personally and believes time has only strengthened the artist's relevance. "He was speaking about these things fifty years ago. We weren't ready to listen," Barakat said. "It took us decades to understand what he was trying to tell us and now it's time for the world to open its eyes to Nabil Kanso." 

For Daniel and Lilly Kanso, who established the Nabil Kanso Estate follwoing their father's death in 2019, the exhibition responds to a hope their father carried throughout his lifetime. Bringing his paintings to Beirut marks Kanso's first solo exhibition in the country where his story began. 

"Beyond introducing these paintings, we wanted people to know the man behind them: his compassion, his curiosity, and his unwavering belief that art could build bridges between people," says Dr. Daniel Kanso. "This exhibition is as much about who Nabil Kanso was as it is about the work he created over more than five decades. The works on view illuminate his deeply held belief that realizing our shared humanity and interconnectivity is essential to life itself."

Darkness and Light (Part I) brings together paintings from The Split of Life series alongside a range of works and archival material spanning the 1970s to the 2010s. The exhibition features major paintings inspired by the Lebanese Civil War, including the cover image of Kanso's twenty-year retrospective monograph, Lebanon (1983), Lebanon 1977: Vortices of Wrath, and Blazing Vortices: Lebanon Summer of 1982 (Sabra and Shatila). Running concurrently as part of Darkness and Light  (Part II), the Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF) presents all 242 drawings from Leaves from the Theater of War, executed between 1980 and 1992. Together, the two spaces offer the most comprehensive exhibition of Kanso's work ever presented in Lebanon. 

"Seeing these paintings in Beirut is especially moving because this is where so much their story begins. My father loved Lebanon profoundly, and witnessing the way people here connect with his work means a great deal to our family. Presenting this exhibition feels like bringing an important part of him home," says Lilly Kanso. 

For all the devastation Kanso committed to canvas, those who knew him insist he never painted without leaving space for hope. The optimism that sustained his practice remains present throughout Darkness and Light. His paintings ask us to remember, to bear witness, to resist indifference, and to imagine a future in which the histories they record no longer repeat themselves. 

"There is always hope," Kanso once said. "Somewhere in every painting."

His daughter, Lilly sees that same belief running through his life's work. "He believed we could be better. He believed art could create positive change, even in the darkest times." 

Opening Reception: Thursday, 23 July 2026 | 6:00 - 9:00 PM 

Dalloul Artist Collective (DAC) 

Exhibition on View: 24 July - 19 September 2026