A portrait of war: a psychosocial analysis of the impact of wars on contemporary visual arts displaying conflicts in Lebanon, Palestine and Syria

This dissertation looks at the impact of wars on contemporary visual arts in Lebanon, Palestine and Syria with a specific focus on the art genre which is characteristic of wars. By examining the relationship between the nature of wars and the artistic outcome, and by investigating the effects of wars on the artists’ identities (collective and personal), I argue that the art scenes of those countries were affected differently according to the specificity of each crisis. While many researchers addressed the issues of war, nation and identity in art, this study takes a psychosocial approach toward analyzing this art genre in the context of the combined influence of psychological factors and the surrounding social environment. This offers a new perspective in viewing this art and contributes in understanding it. I position artworks featuring the war of each country within historical trajectories to illustrate their tight relationship and reveal the diversity of this art among the three scenes. By providing an overview of the histories of the crises, I follow a contextualized method underscoring their role as an essential context that generated different artistic representations and phenomena. I elaborate the depictions of psychological and physical impacts of each war within its social context. I reveal how wars generated the display of national identity through inspecting its various dimensions among the scenes. Furthermore, I propose that artists (re)constructed distinct identities embodied in art as an outcome of war. I find that the nature of the conflict influenced the artist’s aim, targeted audience, (re)constructed identities, portrayal of national identity and modes of representations, thus creating diversities among the scenes. This dissertation demonstrates how the field of visual arts presented a platform for artists in Lebanon, Palestine and Syria to expose the ways in which they were affected by wars. It documents the multi-faceted effects of different conflicts on visual arts and reveals the diverse artistic representations that were created in response.