Helen Khal, Naila Art Collection

About the Artist

Helen Khal (b. 1923, Allentown, USA – d. 2009, Ajaltoun, Lebanon) was a renowned artistic personality during Beirut’s golden age in the 1960s. Khal studied at the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA) and the Art Students League, New York. She played a key role in the contemporary art scholarship of the Arab world by publishing her book – The Woman Artist in Lebanon – in 1987, which highlighted the work of thirty-nine of her contemporaries and stands as an important record to this day.

Khal started to paint in her early twenties but was hesitant to show her work publicly. She had her first solo exhibition in 1960 at the Galerie Alecco Sab in Beirut, encouraged by Lebanese artist Aref Rayess. Three years later, she became the founding director of Lebanon’s first contemporary art gallery, Gallery One.

Khal was also an art critic for the English-language Lebanese newspapers The Daily Star and Monday Morning and a teacher at the American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University.

Khal’s work is an ode to colour. In the 1950s and early 1960s, she explored Cubism in her still-life and portrait compositions. After her divorce from Lebanese poet Yusuf al-Khal, she turned to non-objective art with her Colour Field paintings. She discovered the ability of colour and geometrical form to convey nuances of expression. This growing interest in colour, abstraction and emotion was also influenced by artists such as Mark Rothko and her friendship with Huguette Caland in the 1970s.

Helen Khal in her 60s, Modern And Contemporary Art Museum, Lebanon

WORKS IN THE COLLECTION

Helen Khal, "School of Fish", 1981

Oil on paper mounted on board, 47 x 72 cm

Courtesy the artist and Bonhams

School of Fish (1981) is an abstract representation of the natural world. Figures are repeated, yet have unique characteristics, highlighting the artist’s ability to work with both abstraction and figuration. Khal’s palette transforms the marine realm into a fantastical place; the painting is imbued with light and brightness, emphasising the poetic nature of the artist’s practice.

Naila Collection

championing female artists from the middle east & the global south

Helen Khal, Naila Art Collection

About the Artist

WORKS IN THE COLLECTION

Helen Khal, "School of Fish", 1981

“For me, the directions – abstract and figurative – have been a necessary complement, one to the other. An abstract eye alone finally leads to creative sterility; by the same token, to deny the abstract neglects the presence of a significant underlying structure in life”

Naila Collection

championing female artists from the middle east & the global south

Helen Khal, Naila Art Collection

About the Artist

WORKS IN THE COLLECTION

Helen Khal, "School of Fish", 1981

“For me, the directions – abstract and figurative – have been a necessary complement, one to the other. An abstract eye alone finally leads to creative sterility; by the same token, to deny the abstract neglects the presence of a significant underlying structure in life”

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