Saloua Raouda Choucair, Lebanese painter and sculptor, Died at 100

Saloua Raouda Choucair was born on June 24, 1916, in Beirut died on January 27, 2017.

She was a Lebanese painter and sculptor.

She was the first abstract artist in Lebanon though she sold nothing there until 1962.

Choucair started painting in the studios of Lebanese painters Moustafa Farroukh (1935) and Omar Onsi (1942).

Choucair’s exhibition in 1947 at the Arab Cultural Gallery in Beirut is considered to have been the Arab world’s first abstract painting exhibition.

During 1948 Choucair left Lebanon and went to Paris, where she studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts and attended Fernand Léger’s studio.

During 1950, Choucair was one of the first Arab artists to participate in the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in Paris and had in 1951 a solo exhibition at Colette Allendy’s gallery, which was better received in Paris than in Beirut.

Saloua Raouda Choucair passed away at 100 years old.