The Sursock Museum (), officially known as the Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock Museum, is a modern and

contemporary art Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...

museum in Beirut, Lebanon.

History

In 1912, the Lebanese aristocrat Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock built the private villa that now houses the museum. He decreed in his will that the villa be transformed into a museum. When he died in 1952, he bequeathed the villa to the city of Beirut.Daratalfunun.org
Between 1953 and 1957, President Camille Chamoun transformed the villa into a ''palais des hôtes''—a presidential guesthouse designated to accommodate visiting heads of state, including the Shah of Iran and King Faisal of Iraq. The museum opened in 1961, directed by Amine Beyhum, with an exhibit of works of contemporary Lebanese artists, setting a precedent for cultural events in Beirut. The Sursock Museum building exemplifies Lebanese architecture, with its Italianate (specifically Venetian) and Ottoman architectural influences. It is one of the few remaining villas from its epoch in Beirut. It is located in the Rue Sursock in the Rmeil district of Beirut. More than a hundred exhibitions have been held at the museum, including displays of works by Lebanese and international artists. The museum's permanent collection includes modern art, Japanese

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...

s and Islamic art. The museum collection consists of over 800 artworks, including paintings, sculptures and graphic arts from the 19th and 20th centuries. On 4 August 2020, the museum sustained significant damage and some of its artworks were destroyed as a result of a catastrophic ammonium nitrate explosion. The museum was restored thanks to various donors among them the Italian government with a donation of one million euro in May 2021. It finally reopened on 26 May 2023. During the 2024 Israeli invasion of Lebanon,

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

gave enhanced protection to 34 cultural sites in Lebanon including the museum to safeguard it from damage.

Expansion

The museum was expanded with four new underground floors beneath the current garden, at a cost of US$12 million.Annahar.com
French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte and Lebanese architect Jacques Abou Khaled designed the expansion project. The project increased the museum's area from 1,500 square meters to 8,500 square meters and opened additional exhibition spaces, a research library, an auditorium, a restoration workshop, new storage spaces for the collection, as well as a store and restaurant. The museum reopened on 8 October 2015.

Collection

The following is a list of Lebanese and international artists whose works are in the museum's permanent collection: * Chafic Abboud * Rafic Charaf * Saloua Raouda Choucair * Kees van Dongen * Paul Guiragossian * Mamdouh Kashlan * Hussein Madi * Omar Onsi * Mohammad Rawas * Aref Rayess * Nadia Saikali * Juliana Seraphim

Exhibition history

*Hommage à Jean Khalife, 1993 * Omar Onsi Rétrospective, 1997 * Georges Schehadé : poète des deux rives, 1905-1989, 1999 *

Max Ernst Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...

, 2000 * Sergei Parajanov, collages and drawings, 2000 * Moustafa Farroukh Rétrospective, 2003 *Regards sur Beyrouth, 160 ans d'images, 2015 *Danielle Genadry, The Fall, 2016 * Assadour, landscape in Motion, 2016 * Ali Cherri. A Taxonomy of Fallacies: The Life of Dead Objects, 2016 *Let's Talk About the Weather: Art and Ecology in a Time of Crisis, 2016 * Susan Hiller Magic Lantern, 2016 *Adelita Husni-Bey: A Wave in the Well, 2016 *Fabrik, 2017 *Les mondes de Willy Aractingy, 2017 *Hrair Sarkissian Homesick, 2017 *Partitions et Couleurs : Hommage à Amine El Bacha, 2017 *Fruit of Sleep. Curated by Reem Fadda – Part of Act II program of Tamawuj, Sharjah Biennial 13, 2017 *Monira Al Qadiri: The Craft, 2017 *Joseph Sassine, The Experience of Light, 2018 *Abed Al Kadiri, The Story of the Rubber Tree, 2018 * Cy Twombly Photographs, 2018 * Zad Moultaka: ŠamaŠ *Fleeting Exits, Curated by Marwan T. Assaf, 2018 *Past Disquiet, Curated by Kristine Khouri and Rasha Salti, 2018 * Gregory Buchakjian Abandoned Dwellings, Display of Systems, Curated by Karina El Helou, 2018 *Laure et Mazen : Correspondance(s), 2019 *La Fabrique des illusions: Collection Fouad Debbas et commentaires contemporains, 2019 *

Baalbek Baalbek (; ; ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In 1998, the city had a population of 82,608. Most of the population consists of S ...

, Archives of an Eternity, curated by Vali Mahlouji, 2019 * Picasso et la famille, 2019 *At the still point of the turning world, there is the dance. Curated by Carla Chammas and Rachel Dedman, 2019

References

External links