#TAMMY KANSO SERIES#

The dark grays and black make for a gloomy, sad mood. His painting The Vortices of Wrath (Lebanon 1977) is a perfect depiction of the country in a time of war. The Lebanese Civil War gave a lot for young Kanso to paint about. In his biography, he talks about how he spent much of his time at the houses of friends and families doing sketches and painting to pass the day. In 1958, Nabil Kanso had to stop going to school in Lebanon due to the civil war. The installation surrounding the viewer aims to convey the intensity between the reality of the subject matter and the actuality of painting, and reflect the artist's engagement with the canvases whose contents represent his visual life and relationship to conflicting Eastern and Western cultures and traditions.

Kanso displays his works by covering the entire walls of the exhibition space with his paintings.

The exhibitions were an invaluable stimulant in initiating the Journey of Art for Peace through which his works were shown under the auspices of art museums, cultural institutions, and peace centers in extensive solo exhibitions that traveled internationally and particularly in Latin America. In 1984, he went to Venezuela where his works were shown in Maracaibo (1985), Caracas (1987), and Mérida (1987–88). In 1980, Kanso established a studio in Atlanta and held several exhibitions.

#TAMMY KANSO SERIES#

Among the works of this period are the series Vietnam (1974), Lebanon, which he began in 1975, at the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War, One-Minute (1978–79) on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Jazz suite (1978–79) on jazz music, and Faust (1976–79) comprising over 100 paintings on Goethe's drama. īetween 19, Kanso took studios in different locations in the Carolinas, Atlanta, and New Orleans producing a large number of paintings. Although the exhibitions drew attention and reviews, the lack of sufficient subsistence forced the closing of his studio whose contents including over 700 works were placed in storage, and, eventually, lost or destroyed. Between 19 he held a series of solo shows that included the Wanderer, Danse Macabre, Birds of Prey, Place des Martyres, and Expressions. In 1971, Kanso held his first one-man show at the 76th Street Gallery exhibiting 80 paintings that included portraits and nudes in compositions reflecting in varying degrees expressionist, romanticist and symbolist influences. That Creed of Modernism fell apart after skepticism in mankind's inherent goodness came about after the Holocaust. Characteristics of this style is stressing 'communication' from artist to audience, and throwing out the traditional narrative the 'life has meaning'. Kanso was part of the post-modernist movement, which enveloped music, fine art, film, and writing. 1968, he committed himself to painting, acquired a studio in Manhattan, and embarked on developing his ideas and method of painting.

In 1966, Kanso moved to New York, and enrolled at New York University where he received BA and MA in art history, philosophy and political science. In 1961, he went to England, and attended the London Polytechnic studying mathematics and science. Nabil Kanso grew up in a house adorned with Italian and Oriental art.

Tammy kanso