Review of Two Publications on Lebanese Visual Culture and Art's Ontology

In the latest issue of ARTMargins, Volume 14, Issue 1, pages 132-146, Natasha Gasparian's essay, released on February 5, 2025, analyzes two academic texts: Zeina Maasri's 'Cosmopolitan Radicalism: The Visual Politics of Beirut’s Global Sixties' (2020) and Kirsten Scheid's 'Fantasmic Objects: Art and Sociality from Lebanon, 1920-1950' (2022). Both works investigate how visual culture influenced modernity and identity in Lebanon during the 1950s to the 1970s, utilizing cultural anthropology instead of poststructuralist visual studies. Maasri focuses on the tangible and emotional impact of print, while Scheid delves into the imaginative aspects of modernity through art. The review points out their critique of positivism in Middle East Studies but observes a lack of exploration regarding the social origins that define art as both a commodity and an independent entity. The essay can be accessed through MIT Press with the DOI 10.1162/artm_r_00403.