On Mohammad El Rawas’ “The Library”

To support the activities of ASSABIL and public libraries in Lebanon, the artwork The Library (1999), donated by Mohammad El Rawas, will be used to raise funds for the association.

To mark the fundraiser, a conversation between author Nazik Saba Yared and poet Antoine Boulad will take place at the Sursock Museum. They will present on El Rawas’ practice and The Library, a lithography work which was produced exclusively for the founding of ASSABIL.

The Library will be on display at the Sursock Museum for the one-day occasion. If you would like more information on the fundraiser and artwork, please call ASSABIL at 01-664647.

Antoine Boulad  (b. 1951, Lebanon) is a poet. In 1997, he and his friends founded ASSABIL, which aims at developing public reading in Lebanon and created the first public library in Beirut. In 2009, he cofounded Kitabat, an association that develops writing workshops in Lebanon. His publications include, Le Passeur (1987, 2004 Saqi Books), Rue de Damas (2007 Saqi Books), and La Poésie et A nu(e) (2009, 2011 Dergham). Since 2015, he hosts a page dedicated to contemporary poetry in the Beirut Cultural Agenda.

Nazik Saba Yared (b. 1928, Jerusalem, Palestine) is a Lebanese novelist and academic. She received a B.A. in philosophy from Fouad I University in Cairo, and a Ph.D. in Arabic literature from the American University of Beirut. She taught in several schools, and many of her books are integrated into the educational curriculum of Lebanon. She is member of the researcher group Bahithat, and the author of many novels and essays including The Art of Rawas published by Saqi Books (2004).

Mohammad El Rawas (b. 1951, Beirut, Lebanon – lives and works in Beirut, Lebanon) is a painter and printmaker. He graduated from the Institute of Fine Arts at the Lebanese University in Beirut, Lebanon with a B.A. in painting in 1975, and from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, UK, with an M.A. in printmaking in 1981. He started teaching at the Institute of Fine Arts at the Lebanese University in 1982, and taught at the Department of Architecture and Design at the American University of Beirut from 1992 until 2004, where he founded the etching, engraving, and silkscreen studios. El Rawas’ work has been shown in many solo and group exhibitions in Lebanon and abroad. His works are part of many private and institutional collections around the world.

ASSABIL is a non-governmental organization established in 1997 to promote reading and sharing of knowledge and culture, in particular through the establishment, promotion, and support of public libraries in Lebanon that are free and open to all.