b'saloua raouda choucairIN 1975THE YEARthat would later mark the her and found inspiration in a wide range of sources, beginning of the Lebanese Civil WarSaloua Raoudafrom quantum physics, molecular biology andChoucair (19162017) began what would becomeoptics to Arabic poetry, Islamic art and architecturea significant body of sculpture in several differentand modernist architecture. Although primarily amaterials, all titled Dual (thanaia in Arabic). Betweensculptor, she worked intensively and ambitiously1975 and the mid- to late 1980s, Choucair carved oracross media, designing houses, furniture, jewelry, shaped by hand numerous Duals in terracotta, woodpublic art and textiles. Some of these large-scaleand fiberglass; she cast others from brass and alumi- projects were realized; many more were not.num. The Duals elaborate on the kinds of stacking, Choucair was born in Ain El Mreisa, Beirut, tointerchangeability and infinity of form that she a Druze family. She studied at Lebanese, Frenchexplored in her earlier Movement and Poem pieces.and American schools in Beirut, lived for several years SCMAs Dual is composed of fiberglass layeredin Iraq where she taught natural sciences and drawing over clay. With their green and brown earth tones, from 1937 to 1941, and worked in the library at the the two liquid forms fit together perfectly but can alsoAmerican University of Beirut in 1945. Active in the be exhibited side by side. One sculpture in two parts,Arab Cultural Club between 1946 and 1948, shethis Duals organic, almost cube-like shape and stone- organized an exhibition in Beirut of European modern-like surface lead the eye over, under and around. ist paintings by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Georges A major artist of the 20th century, Choucair wasBraque and Alexander Calder. In 1949, she movedin her 30s when she decided to become an artist. Sheto Paris for three and a half years, studying art at theattributed the decision to her desire to disprove theAcademy of Fine Arts, Fernand Lgers studio and claims of Western cultural superiority that professorsLAtelier dArt Abstrait. She exhibited, and wasat the American University of Beirut espoused celebrated for her work in Beirut throughout the 1960s at the time. Throughout her six-decades-long career,and early 1970s. Choucair and her family remainedshe remained deeply curious about the world aroundin Lebanon and she worked throughout the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). Choucairs contributions to the history of art were recognized by two retrospectives,at the Beirut Exhibition Center (2011) and the Tate Modern, London (2013), prior to her death in 2017.In 2019, as part of its commitment to presenting the global scope of artistic modernism and abstraction, the museum purchased one of Choucairs Duals.SCMA is one of only a few museums in the United States to steward Choucairs art, which is also held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute ofChicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and theMuseum of Modern Art in New York.Saloua Raouda Choucair. Lebanese, 19162017. Dual, 197577.Fiberglass on clay. Purchased with a gift from Betty Hamady Sams,class of 1957, and the Beatrice Oenslager Chace, class of 1928, Fund'