Samia Osseiran Junblatt, the Lebanese modernist painter whose influences were omnivorously international, has died. Initially working in dialogue with Western abstraction, a trip to Japan precipitated her dive into figuration and an interest into the forms of Ukiyo-e art history.
Line-drawn figures, typically presented in states of agitation or restful repose, began to fill her canvases; compositions influenced by death in her own family and the turbulence of Lebanese history. ‘Words are not sufficient,’ she said, ‘and one picture can convey all that has to be said. I once believed in the classical concept of time and space and the idea of permanency; but because of events in my life, this has changed and has been replaced now by the idea of change and impermanency, all this is reflected in my work.’
The sun also became a recurring motif, typified in Sunset (1968), one of her most famous works, and which was featured in the 2024 Venice Biennale. Here the earth’s star takes a menacing quality, burning red and vast in size, it hovers over tight and elongated walled passageway.
Osseiran Junblatt was born in Saida. Her father, Adel Osseiran, was one of the founding fathers of the Lebanese Republic and a former Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament. She graduated from Beirut College for Women with a BA in Fine Arts in 1965 and received her MFA in 1967 from the Pius XII Institute in Florence, Italy. She returned to Lebanon, where she taught from 1971 to 1973 at BUC (now the Lebanese American University). In 1974 she received a scholarship and enrolled at the University of Fine Arts in Tokyo to study graphic art student. Settling in her city of birth in 1977, she founded Artisana of Saida and South Lebanon, an organisation to encourage women artists, which is still in operation.
