Juliana Seraphim

Juliana Seraphim (1934–2005)

Lebanese-Palestinian painter and draftsman Juliana Seraphim was born in Jaffa, Palestine. Her family was forced to flee to Lebanon during the Nakba (1947–1948). In the 1950s, the Seraphim family obtained Lebanese citizenship, which at the time was granted mainly to Christian Palestinians. This privileged status enabled the artist to travel abroad and represent Lebanon in international art exhibitions, including the Alexandria Biennale (1962), the Paris Biennale (1963), and the São Paulo Biennale (1965).

Although she is often described as a Lebanese artist, Seraphim consistently emphasized the influence of her Palestinian childhood, shaped by the seascapes of Jaffa and the architecture of Jerusalem. These elements recur throughout her work, notably in her solo exhibition Espaces marins (Marine Spaces) at the Centre d’Art2 in Beirut (1974).

A sensitive and introspective individual, Seraphim turned to visual art as a means of expressing her deep emotions and inner life. She described her creative process as emerging from her subconscious, with images and memories surfacing involuntarily. Her work—marked by dreamlike, metamorphic figures—has often been associated with Surrealism, though she never formally identified with the movement. During her studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence (1959–1960), Madrid (1960–1961), and Paris (1965–1967), she developed a fascination with European surrealists while forging her own distinct visual language.

Following her debut at the Autumn Salon at the Sursock Museum in Beirut (1961), Seraphim became a notable figure in the city’s artistic scene. Dividing her time between Paris and Beirut throughout the 1970s, she finally settled in Jounieh in 1987. Rejecting societal expectations and gender constraints, she chose not to marry, asserting that domestic life would compromise her artistic vocation. Her work frequently explored themes of female sexuality and bodily transformation.

Seraphim’s prolific output is distinguished by her use of black ink—as seen in her print series inspired by a Nobel Prize in Literature (1971)—and her vibrant oil paintings, characterized by candy pinks, turquoise blues, and other unexpected hues. In works such as Untitled (1980), female figures merge with flowers, butterflies, and marine creatures, embodying her fascination with the intersection of the feminine and the monstrous.

Although she enjoyed some commercial success during her lifetime, Seraphim’s work initially received little critical attention. This has changed in recent years thanks to her inclusion in major exhibitions, such as:

• Beirut and the Golden Sixties: A Manifesto of Fragility (Gropius Bau, Berlin, 2022; Lyon Biennale, 2022; Mathaf, Doha, 2023)

• Présences arabes – Art moderne et décolonisation – Paris 1908–1988 (Arab Presences – Modern Art and Decolonization – Paris 1908–1988, Musée d’Art moderne de Paris, 2024).

Source:
Alessandra Amin, trans. Lucy Pons, Juliana Seraphim, published by AWARE: Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions, in partnership with the Beirut Museum of Art (BeMA), 2025.
Available at: https://awarewomenartists.com/artiste/juliana-seraphim/