ART TALKS
Check out some of DAF's latest Arab Artist Biographies
Laila Shawa
Laila Shawa was born in 1940 to a wealthy Gazan family. As a child, she was curious about art, but per her own description, her career as an artist started with a happy coincidence. In the mid-1950s, she was enrolled in the American University of Cairo as a student of political science and sociology when she had tea with her father and a family friend. Read More >>
Kader Attia
Born in the Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, France, in 1970 to an Algerian family originally from the mountainous areas around the Algerian city of Constantine, Kader Attia grew up between two countries and cultures. He studied at the École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués Duperré and the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs both in Paris. Read More >>
Hussein Madi
Hussein Madi was born in Chebaa, a town on the southeastern tip of Lebanon, in 1938. He spent his summers following his paternal grandfather into the orchards, observing him perform with talent, diligence, and mastery of his daily farming, carpentry, or blacksmith chores. From his stoic and wise grandfather Read More >>
Samia Halaby
A leading abstract visual artist, Samia Halaby, was born in 1936, in Jerusalem, Palestine. Halaby and her family relocated to Lebanon during the Nakba, Palestinian exodus in 1948. By then, most of the Palestinian land was occupied, and the Israeli state was declared.
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Yasmina Hilal
Yasmina Hilal was born in Beirut, Lebanon in 1996. She is a Lebanese-American collage artist and photographer, whose work is influenced by and concerned with fashion. This is no surprise, considering that her grandmother owned a clothing store in Beirut called Beverly Hills, in the 1960s. Read More >>
Dalloul Art Foundation
Modern & Contemporary Arab Art
The Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF) is a Beirut-based visual arts institution dedicated to making modern and contemporary Arab Art accessible to local and international audiences through archiving, exhibitions, education, publications, public programs, and research. Its aim is to preserve and disseminate its permanent collection which includes works in drawing, installation, mixed-media, painting, photography, ceramics, and sculpture.
Providing a comprehensive survey of visual arts from most of the Arab region, DAF’s extensive and massive collection reflects the diversity and boldness of Arab creativity, inspired by the complex realities of the region.
Since late 2017, DAF has been made accessible to the public through its presence on social media where it highlights the history of Arab art weekly. Researchers and doctoral students can also gain access to the foundation’s extensive resources, collection management system, and in-house research, in order to further their studies. DAF also organizes weekly visits to its extensive storage galleries for schools, universities and other interested groups. The foundation also provides loans to local and international museums.
DAF is essentially a research institute, creating a reference for Arab art, and as such we will continue to add features, information and materials about our pioneering artists, so please come and visit us often or become a member and have this information pushed to you as it comes available. In the meantime, enjoy our site and the massive collection it now hosts.