The Split of Life is a series of over 80 mural size oil paintings by Nabil Kanso. The paintings span a period from 1974 to 1994, and deal with contemporary and historical issues of war and violence.
The subject of war in Kanso’s work began during 1972-74 in New York when he did a series of paintings and drawings on the Vietnam War. After a brief pause, he started in 1975 the Lebanon war series evoked by the civil war that broke out in his native ...
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The Split of Life is a series of over 80 mural size oil paintings by Nabil Kanso. The paintings span a period from 1974 to 1994, and deal with contemporary and historical issues of war and violence.
The subject of war in Kanso’s work began during 1972-74 in New York when he did a series of paintings and drawings on the Vietnam War. After a brief pause, he started in 1975 the Lebanon war series evoked by the civil war that broke out in his native land. The intersection of the two series reflecting similarity in composition, scale, style and theme provided the framework for a larger series whose underlying theme formed the basis of the Split of Life series in encompassing several other series dealing with war.
The Split of Life series delineates two periods: 1974-85 and 1986-94. The works of the first period are characterized by the use of warm colors dominated by red, orange, yellow and black, and the depiction of compositions in which masses of figures occupy the entire surface plane....
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