by , – Forbes – On a street in Achrafieh, one of Beirut’s oldest districts, is an imposing mansion. Between the embassy buildings and post-millennium high rise apartment blocks of the area stands a palatial house built in 1912 by the Lebanese aristocrat and art collector Nicolas Ibrahim Sursock as his family home. With it’s pearly white exterior, Ottoman-reminiscent stained glass windows and grand stairway entrance, the house is a perfect example of the Italianate style, a mix of Venetian and Ottoman influences, popular in Beirut in the early 20th Century. It’s one of the only examples of this once-fashionable architectural style left in the city.
But Sursock’s stately mansion isn’t just a Instagram story-worthy building. Today, it represents a series of important creative histories in Beirut. In 1952, by request of the will of Sursock, the house was donated to the city of Beirut following his death. Sursock had stated that the house was to become a museum for contemporary Lebanese art. Just a few months after Sursock’s death, work began on this mission and in 1961, under the direction of Ibrahim M. Beyhum, the Sursock Museum opened. Within a year it became the centre of Beirut’s art scene, acting as a microcosm of the prolific arts movements of Lebanon with work on show by Lebanese artists including Saloua Raouda Choucair, Etel Adnan and Chafic Abboud. Beirutis enjoyed the museum’s social scene as well, and the Sursock Museum was even home to the famous arts salon Salon d’Automne, which it continues to host. The museum still holds one of the largest collections of Middle Eastern art in the world During the Lebanese Civil War, artists in Beirut took a hit. Many Lebanese artists left the country, there were an an estimated 150,000 casualties during the war and Beirut was separated into two sides. The Sursock Museum remained open during this time, but it had lost it’s status. In 2007 they closed. But in 2015 the museum reopened after major reconstruction work which saw the 12 million dollar extension of two new basement floors. Two years later and once again, the museum is one of the most popular art destinations in Beirut.
The Sursock Museum is just one of many locations in the city that are enjoying newfound popularity. Around the corner from Achrafieh is Mar Mikhail, full of tree lined avenues and much-loved local restaurants like Tawlet, with a famous Lebanese buffet prepared by a different Lebanese grandma every Sunday. On the city’s Corniche, overlooking the Mediterranean sea, there’s the Phoenicia, the most popular and glamorous hotel when the Sursock museum was in its heyday in the 1960s. That verve still exists in this grand hotel: the mosaic pool, the luxe marble staircase and the thickly carpeted drinks lounge complete with water fountain have remained from the 1950s. The hotel recently produced a book on it’s history, from mid-century glamour to the Lebanese war, showcasing it’s impressive archive of photography and documents. Among hundreds of images there are black and white shots of Brigitte Bardot, Marlon Brando, Muhammad Ali and Joan Crawford.
In March, the Sursock Museum will hold two exhibitions that nod to Beirut’s creative past and future. The exhibition Through The Crowd shows a collection of photographs from The Fouad Debbas Collection, the world’s largest private collection of postcards and old photographs of Lebanon and the Middle East. On the same day, 33-year-old Lebanese artist Abed Al Kadiri will show his series The Story of the Rubber Tree, about long lived hardship and deprivation looked at through cultural heritage and the idea of belonging. It’s a nice nod to the history of Beirut’s art world, and a look to the future, too.
