Afaf Zurayk

Born in Beirut, Afaf Zurayk graduated from the American University of Beirut in 1970 with a BA in fine arts with distinction, and obtained an MA in Islamic art from Harvard University in 1972. She taught in Lebanon at the Beirut University College (now Lebanese American University) and the American University of Beirut, as well as in the continuing education programs of the Corcoran College of Art and Design and Georgetown University in Washington D.C.[1]

Through her most recent exhibition statement, Afaf captures her innermost values best, when she writes:

"My life in art is a perpetual return to what resonates within me and what prompts me to open gates into unknown gardens: to plant and to weed, to prune and to cultivate, both senses and thoughts into a coherent, organic and complex whole. As I move forward I always return to what underlies my direct experience: a shaft of light. A memory of closeness. The feel of earth as I descend an old staircase. The wind. Riding a wave. Saying something ‘right’. Being a part. Forming a whole.

I see my art as a garden without a fence. In the past I built fences that bound my return, my search, in time and in space. Today I feel my garden opening, becoming limitless and free, having been watered by endless journeys of exile and of communion; of love and of separation; of milk and of merging mirrors.

I only wish that my garden is deep enough and expansive enough to contain you. For we are each other’s mirror. And our birth grows out of our joint reflection. My hope is that these reflections form the roots for more growth and more love. Despite all."[2]

Recounting her journey in life in her own words:

I was born and grew up in Beirut, Lebanon, the third of four daughters in a closely knit, highly academic family. Always an introvert, I was introduced to art at a very early age. In painting, I discovered a language that gave expression to my thoughts and feelings and conveyed their inner dialogue beyond words. Preparing myself to paint, I spent time in nature, both in solitude and within community, and reveled in its mystery. This enabled me to see from within and to communicate in what connects rather than what separates us.

During the civil war in Lebanon, I experienced wrenching fear through the destruction of the life and the self that I knew. Yet, I was gifted with grace and love in the midst of overwhelming violence. In time, my belief in our intrinsic humanity deepened as I came to understand how to calibrate terror and grace—dark and light. I continued to paint from within as I charted an inner map of layered contradictions that illumined my life for years to come. With the war still raging, I left Lebanon for Washington, DC. There I built on my experiences and reflections of connection and disconnection, and honed my skills at transparency. I coupled painting with writing to express feelings of both agency and belonging. I shaped a new sense of self and began to appreciate meditative solitude as a way to till my ground creatively. The privilege of being in and with nature was restorative and generative. My poetry emerged from a wellspring of love, and I grew.

I now live in Beirut and remain quietly introspective despite so many political and social upheavals. I center my art in the riches of our essential humanity with respect for our ability to correspond with and imagine our inner truth. Painting and writing in loving awe, I remain within, crossing those passages that connect us in kindness, gently.[3]

To date, Afaf Zurayk has authored six books:

1. My Father. Reflections, published by Rimal Books in 2010,[4] is an essay in photograph that tells a very personal tale. Yet in its scope, the essay moves beyond the particular to explore an understanding of a very complex relationship of a daughter with her father. The father, Constantin Zureiq, was a historian and a leading force in contemporary Arab thought. The daughter, Afaf, is an artist. Drawing on this most basic and formative relationship, Afaf examines visually, through images of light and shadow, the deep roots of bonding as well as the concept of time as it unfolds for a historian and for an artist.[5]

2. lovesong, published by Rimal Books in 2011,[6] is a portfolio of poems and paintings that unfold rhythmically to echo love as it moves forward and backward in time.

3. Drawn poems, published 2012, a collection of drawings printed and bound in an edition of 500 copies.[7]

4. Return Journeys, a monograph published in 2019, documents Afaf’s creative journeys over the last several decades; journeys that traverse a wide range of media and themes, all united by a shared expression in visualizing what afaf calls , “the resounding sound of silence.” A collection of voices from colleagues, students, and friends who reflect on Afaf’s art, the publication stands testimony to the power of an art that speaks from the depths of the souls. Return Journeys Monograph was produced alongside its eponymous retrospective exhibition, held at Saleh Barakat Gallery in 2019.[8]

5. Drawn By Light, published in 2019 by the American University of Beirut Press, represents a dialogue between image and word, and experience and thought. In this sequence of twenty pairs of images and texts spanning forty years of the artist's personal growth, it offers readers a rare view of the nature of expression. The intuitive choice of couplets and the way they flow reveal singular aspects of the creative process. The book invites readers on a journey aimed at understanding art through the transformative shift that comes from combining experience and thought, looking within while also observing from without.[9]

6. Beyond Art: Printed and bound in Lebanon, Beyond Art brings together poems and paintings that artist Afaf Zurayk created during the COVID pandemic lockdown. The book reveals the deeply introspective nature of quarantining and of discovering one’s self in isolation. Beyond Art is a prayer that invites the reader in a non-linear emotional narrative that captures the sentiments of the moment. In a world that is constantly rearranging itself, friendship and love endure to pave the way for a more hopeful future.[10]