A Lebanese Gallerist Marks 40 Years in the Industry With Three Shows
In 1985, Andrée Sfeir-Semler opened a small gallery bearing her name in the northern German city of Kiel. A Lebanese immigrant who had fled her country's 15-year-long civil war, Sfeir-Semler wanted to make her way in the European art world.
Some 20 years later, during a visit to her home country as it was still healing from that war, she opened a second gallery among the bombed-out ruins of Beirut, Lebanon, the city of her birth, and began to embrace art and artists from the Arab world, having previously focused mostly on European artists.
Now, Sfeir-Semler seems to be everywhere all at once. Her galleries will be a major presence at Art Basel this week, and, later this summer, exhibitions are planned at each location to mark their 40th and 20th anniversaries. Both venues will host a version of 'The Shade,' a show with works from 20 artists to honor the Beirut gallery, which has persisted even as Lebanon has fended off continued attacks from neighboring countries, dealt with an economic crisis and survived the Beirut port explosion in 2020. ('The Shade' begins Aug. 21 in Beirut and Sept. 4 in the German branch of the gallery; both iterations are currently scheduled to run until the end of the year.)
Sfeir-Semler, 71, left Beirut with her family and immigrated to Germany in 1975. She studied at the University of Munich, the Sorbonne in Paris and Bielefeld University in Germany, where she earned her Ph.D., before opening her gallery in Kiel, with a focus on European artists. In 1998, she moved that gallery to Hamburg, continuing to work primarily with European artists. Her shift to representing mostly Arab artists came around the time that she opened the gallery's Beirut branch.
This week at Art Basel, Sfeir-Semler Gallery's main booth will feature nine established and emerging artists from the Arab world, in what she described in a video interview as a 'dialogue between established voices and younger artists from my roster.' Also this week at the fair, two artists that the gallery represents, Walid Raad and Alia Farid, will be featured in the Unlimited sector, a portion of the fair devoted to large-scale work.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Florian Wirtz looks ready-made to be a key piece of the puzzle at Liverpool
When the Bayern Munich charm offensive starts in earnest, few players are impervious to it. When months of public flattery and declarations of interest in Florian Wirtz continued past the Rekordmeister's title celebrations in Marienplatz and the departure of Xabi Alonso from Bayer Leverkusen, the whole of German football felt they knew which way the wind was blowing. So it is an unpleasant surprise to Munich's finest to see the red jersey Wirtz is holding up for the camera is not theirs, but that of Liverpool, who have signed him in a record £116m deal. Make no mistake: this is an authentic coup for the Premier League champions. How Wirtz came to choose a future in north-west England rather than southern Germany tells us much about the personality, as well as the player. Advertisement Related: Florian Wirtz seals Liverpool move from Bayer Leverkusen in club record £116m deal The 22-year-old has been in the full glare of the limelight since he was 16. He made the controversial move from Köln to Leverkusen, was fast-tracked to the first team and given a full debut by Peter Bosz to surpass Kai Havertz as the club's youngest player a fortnight after his 17th birthday. Nineteen days later he became the club's youngest goalscorer in a defeat by Bayern. Wirtz has made every stage – becoming a regular starter, playing European football, making his Germany debut at 18 – look easy without the peacocking that often goes with such extravagant talent. When his pre-Euro 2024 ranking of potato dishes on the German football federation's TikTok account went viral (he put a 'normal' potato at No 1, with much public amusement following), he grumpily remarked: 'I don't find it entertaining at all.' No one needs to tell Wirtz that what he is doing on the pitch is what pays the bills. His father, Hans, is his agent and adviser but Wirtz Jr knows his own mind. Hans has had a number of conversations with Bayern's honorary president, Uli Hoeness, in recent months and it has been reported that when Vincent Kompany felt Florian was not convinced by Bayern's pitch, Hans convinced his son to sit down with the Bayern brass for one more meeting. Florian agreed to do so but was not swayed. Liverpool remained his choice. A move to Munich would have been understandable, even if it would have been a miserable sight for many Bundesliga fans. Staying in Germany a year before the World Cup, and reprising the partnership that he and his friend Jamal Musiala have for the national team as dual No 10s under Julian Nagelsmann, would have had much to recommend it. Not to mention, as many in Germany have, the possibility of a lighter physical load playing for the most dominant team in the Bundesliga as opposed to the clatter and crunch of a debut season in the Premier League. Wirtz is 5ft 10in but is relatively slight and, having taken 10 months and then plenty of match practice to come back to his best after an anterior cruciate ligament injury in 2022, there is the feeling that he will need to be looked after, protected and carefully managed. Advertisement This, along with his game-winning ability, is why Alonso told the Guardian in November 2023 that, while all his Leverkusen players had the remit to interpret their roles as they saw fit, 'Flo gets a bit more freedom'. Wirtz has proved worth every bit of that extra licence to thrill, whether as a No 10, drifting in from an inside-left position, or even nominally employed as a false 9. Whereas many in his role are there to feed a star striker, his ability to be decisive in any ways needed, be it the last pass, the finish or a silky dribble to open up the opposition, means he is the star that the team should revolve around. He has reached double figures in goals and assists in each of the past two seasons (10 and 12 respectively in the league alone last term) and turns up in the big matches. Wirtz adapted to his first season in the Champions League in 2024-25 as if he had always played there, scoring six times in nine starts before injury curtailed his involvement. It was his hat-trick against Werder Bremen in April 2024 that clinched Leverkusen's first Bundesliga title. He will be stepping into an existing, and winning, hierarchy at Liverpool. His social media rubbishing of reports he wanted Alexis Mac Allister's No 10 shirt showed his respect for that. Yet it is not a leap to imagine him as an instant key piece. A front three of Wirtz, Mohamed Salah and Luis Díaz or Cody Gakpo would bring the champions in line with the amorphous attacking trios looking set to dominate the Champions League. Wirtz dropping into a 10 role to allow Salah plus one to create a de facto front two could work well, and relieve the Egyptian of some of his creative load. When it comes to a big decision, the Wirtzes take their time. That was the case when he joined Leverkusen in January 2020. Indignant as Köln were – believing their near neighbours had reneged on a tacit agreement not to take one another's players – they knew Wirtz's departure was in the post when, as with this move, the player and his family spent time running the clock before deciding to move 15 minutes up the road to the BayArena. When Wirtz takes his time to make a decision, it usually works out. When it's time to take the field, he is far more speedy and decisive.
New York Times
6 hours ago
- New York Times
A Lebanese Gallerist Marks 40 Years in the Industry With Three Shows
In 1985, Andrée Sfeir-Semler opened a small gallery bearing her name in the northern German city of Kiel. A Lebanese immigrant who had fled her country's 15-year-long civil war, Sfeir-Semler wanted to make her way in the European art world. Some 20 years later, during a visit to her home country as it was still healing from that war, she opened a second gallery among the bombed-out ruins of Beirut, Lebanon, the city of her birth, and began to embrace art and artists from the Arab world, having previously focused mostly on European artists. Now, Sfeir-Semler seems to be everywhere all at once. Her galleries will be a major presence at Art Basel this week, and, later this summer, exhibitions are planned at each location to mark their 40th and 20th anniversaries. Both venues will host a version of 'The Shade,' a show with works from 20 artists to honor the Beirut gallery, which has persisted even as Lebanon has fended off continued attacks from neighboring countries, dealt with an economic crisis and survived the Beirut port explosion in 2020. ('The Shade' begins Aug. 21 in Beirut and Sept. 4 in the German branch of the gallery; both iterations are currently scheduled to run until the end of the year.) Sfeir-Semler, 71, left Beirut with her family and immigrated to Germany in 1975. She studied at the University of Munich, the Sorbonne in Paris and Bielefeld University in Germany, where she earned her Ph.D., before opening her gallery in Kiel, with a focus on European artists. In 1998, she moved that gallery to Hamburg, continuing to work primarily with European artists. Her shift to representing mostly Arab artists came around the time that she opened the gallery's Beirut branch. This week at Art Basel, Sfeir-Semler Gallery's main booth will feature nine established and emerging artists from the Arab world, in what she described in a video interview as a 'dialogue between established voices and younger artists from my roster.' Also this week at the fair, two artists that the gallery represents, Walid Raad and Alia Farid, will be featured in the Unlimited sector, a portion of the fair devoted to large-scale work. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
6 hours ago
- New York Times
A Science-Minded Artist Shrinks the Universe to Human Scale
Katie Paterson's work has always been about Earth, and the great vastness beyond. A Scottish multidisciplinary artist, she has worked with scientists across the globe on exhaustively researched projects, including The Future Library, an anthology of 100 previously unpublished books written by some of the 21st century's most celebrated writers. In 2022, astronomers helped her count the times the sun has risen since the Earth was formed — to the most accurate level scientists can — for a piece titled '—there lay the Days between—.' Years earlier, she had worked with scientists specializing in light at the firm Osram to develop lightbulbs that simulate the lunar glow. And yet, 'I never want to go into space,' Paterson said in a video interview. Asked whether her works are portraits of Earth or of us, she said, 'It's going to be us.' 'If all those cosmic sequences hadn't happened, we wouldn't be here breathing and talking together,' she explained. Ultimately, she said, in all her work, she has always been trying to 'get a little bit closer to that understanding of quite how precious life is.' That lifetime pursuit underpins three current projects: a series of paintings on view in an exhibition in Cumbria, England, and 'Afterlife,' which will soon be installed at the Folkestone Triennial 2025 in Kent, England; and 'True North,' which has taken Paterson from Japan to the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, where she has just completed a residency. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
