Two Diagonals

Born 1936, Jerusalem

Halaby, a Palestinian artist, scholar, and art historian, is known for her abstract works, which draw on her deep and long-standing interest in the act of seeing and visual perception. Her abstractions are often inspired by nature and, in particular, by the landscapes, textures, and native trees of Palestine. Halaby, who lives in New York, was raised in Jaffa until her family emigrated to Lebanon after the occupation of Palestine and exodus of 1948 (Al-Nakba). In 1951 she moved to the U.S., first to Ohio and then to Indiana, where she earned an MFA in painting from Indiana University. From 1972 to 1982 she taught at the Yale School of Art, where she was the first female full-time associate professor. Through her art, writing, and curating, Halaby has actively advocated for the rights of Palestinians. In the 1980s she experimented with electronic media, teaching herself computer programming languages and collaborating with musicians to create live kinetic performances. Her work has been featured in many solo exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad, and her paintings are held in several museum collections, including those of the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman; British Museum, London; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; and Detroit Institute of Arts.

Titled Two Diagonals, this geometric painting by Halaby may seem abstract at first glance. However, it emerges from a careful, prolonged observation of two tubes placed on a box, viewed from a top-down frontal perspective, where geometry and perception converge.