ArtDayME: Renowned Lebanese artist Samia Osseiran Junblatt passed away at the age of 80.

Samia Osseiran Junblatt was born in Saida, and lived and worked for much of her life at her house in Bramiyeh, Saida. She graduated from Beirut College for Women with a BA in Fine Arts in 1965 and received her MFA in 1967 from the Pius XII Institute in Florence, Italy. She returned to Lebanon, where she taught from 1971 to 1973 at BUC (now LAU). Shortly after, she received a scholarship and enrolled at the University of Fine Arts in Tokyo in 1974 as a graphic art student. In 1977, Osseiran founded the “Artisana of Saida and South Lebanon” organization to encourage women artists.

Osseiran Junblatt’s work was deeply influenced by the 1960s abstract painting and informed by Japanese art as a result of her time in Tokyo as well as her training in graphic design. Her practice was profoundly shaped by major and tragic events throughout her life, such as the untimely death of her brother in the early 1970s, and the passing of her father and mother later on.

Some of the recurring themes of her oeuvre are the natural, the anthropomorphic, the populous, or the cosmos, returning each time with a completely different take. Her work has been shown in galleries and exhibitions around the world.

You can see some of Samia Osseiran Junblatt's enduring works here.