Just in Time, a Lebanese Artist's Work Is Shown at Tate Modern
Share with others:  Print Email Read Later  Saloua Raouda
Choucair did everything in her life early, or late.  Her first
exhibition in Beirut in 1947 is thought to be the first-ever
show of abstract art in the Arab world. She had her only child
at age 40 -- rare in the 1950s. Now, at age 97, she is having
her first major museum retrospective, at the Tate Modern in
London.  "All the timings were wrong with my mother so I'm not
surprised this happened so late," said her daughter, Hala
Schoukair, now 56. "She started with abstraction when people in
Beirut were just discovering Impressionism. In the '60s, no one
was paying attention to her and then when they started paying
attention, the war started. Even if there was some good
attention, something always went a little wrong."  Over the
years, though, Ms. Choucair kept at it, working in the studio
that filled the top floor of her home in Beirut, while
canvasses, sculptures, jewelry and other bits and