Helen Khal Gallery One and Beirut in the 1960s

The story of Helen Khal and the artists who altered the course of modern and contemporary art in the Middle East and beyond.

Helen Khal: Gallery One and Beirut in the 1960s is a reflective exhibition catalogue, part archive, as well as a living testament to the late Helen Khal (1923–2009). A polymath, artist, educator, and writer, Khal was also the cofounder of Gallery One, the first modern and contemporary art gallery in Lebanon, which opened its doors to the public in Beirut in 1963. 

This catalogue follows an exhibition initiated by Carla Chammas and curated by Chammas and Rachel Dedman as part of Home Works 8: A Forum on Cultural Practices, which opened its doors at the Sursock Museum, Beirut in October 2019. The exhibition, like the catalogue, detailed Helen’s life and practice as a catalytic lens through which to explore the work of a group of artists whom she was close to, in life and in art, including: Chafic Abboud, Yvette Achkar, Etel Adnan, Huguette Caland, Simone Fattal, Farid Haddad, Helen Khal, Saloua Raouda Choucair, Aref El Rayess, and Dorothy Salhab-Kazemi.

From here, the publication seeks to address the exhibition’s themes of love, sex, and motherhood, the relationship between visual art and the literary landscape of 1960s and 1970s Beirut, and the galleries and studios in which public collaborations and private kinships were forged. Taking an intimate approach to a fabled period, Helen Khal: Gallery One and Beirut in the 1960s unfolds a rich picture of the friendships, connections, modes of exchange, common concerns, and differing approaches of some of the best-known and least-remembered artists of the mid-twentieth century in Lebanon.

Copublished by artPost21

Carla Chammas is an independent curator and advisor. She cofounded the CRG Gallery, New York in 1991 alongside Richard DesRoche and Glenn McMillan, hosting prominent artists from the Middle East to South America for twenty-seven years. She has worked with Christie’s, New York (1984); Marisa del Re Gallery, Monte Carlo, and New York (1985–88); and Hirschl and Adler Modern, New York (1988–1990).

Rachel Dedman is a curator and writer based between Lebanon and the UK. Current and recent work includes exhibitions for Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge; the Whitworth Museum, Manchester; Beirut Art Fair; the Tricycle Theatre, London; and the Jerusalem Show iX. Dedman was curator at the Palestinian Museum, Ramallah, where she developed three exhibitions and authored two books on the politics of Palestinian embroidery, textiles, and dress. Dedman is coeditor of polycephaly.net, and one third of Radio Earth Hold.

Dr. Omar Kholeif, a leading figure in contemporary visual culture—author, curator, broadcaster, and cultural historian, is Director of Collections and Senior Curator at Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE. They have curated more than 70 exhibitions and authored or co-authored more than 40 books on contemporary art. Dr. Kholeif is the founder of artPost21, a cultural agency that supports creative practices at the nexus of art and social justice.

Christine Tohmé is the Founding Director of Ashkal Alwan, the Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, a non-profit organization established in 1993. Tohmé curated Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj (2017), and is on the boards of Marsa, a sexual health center in Beirut that provides specialized medical services for at-risk youth and marginalized communities, and SAHA, an association in Istanbul that supports contemporary art from Turkey.