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An Article by DM (552 words, 3 min. read)
Beirut has always carried art like a pulse. Even in difficult years, the city kept producing moments of sincerity, exhibitions that felt necessary, works that spoke beyond decoration. Yet today, something has shifted. The exhibition scene has grown quieter in spirit, louder in number, and weaker in substance. This is not a collapse, but a slow dilution. A fatigue of vision.
The reason we stopped writing for a while is simple: it became harder to find what truly deserves reflection.
When art loses urgency, silence becomes the only honest criticism.
The Repetition of the Familiar
A growing number of artists are no longer taking risks. The same gestures return again and again, the same compositions, the same themes, the same comfortable aesthetic formulas. What once felt like a signature now feels like an echo. Beirut’s exhibitions have become crowded with work that repeats instead of renews.
Art becomes routine when creativity is replaced with production.
Repetition may fill walls, yet it empties meaning.
Technique Without Discipline
A deeper issue hides below style: the decline of craftsmanship. Watercolor appears on untreated canvas, bleeding into surfaces without intention. Acrylic works demand precision, yet lines remain careless. Oil paintings require patience and structure, yet many pieces reveal haste instead of mastery.
This is not experimentation. This is weakness presented as freedom.
Technique is not a luxury, it is the spine of serious art.
Mediocrity Given a pedestal
Some respected galleries now exhibit works that would once have remained in the studio. Mediocre art is framed with professional lighting and curatorial language until the public feels obligated to admire it. A collective agreement is formed, not around excellence, but around politeness.
Everything becomes “beautiful.” Everything becomes “important.”
When everything is praised, nothing is truly seen.
The Confusion of the Public Eye
The public no longer knows what to trust. Standards have blurred. The line between strong and weak work grows harder to detect when no one dares to speak clearly. Viewers are told to accept rather than question, to applaud rather than discern.
An art scene without criticism becomes a marketplace of impressions.
A culture without judgment becomes a culture without direction.
Galleries Driven by Material Logic
While some curators and gallerists still fight to preserve quality, others have surrendered to easier economics. Newcomers bring revenue, novelty brings attendance, quantity brings visibility. The exhibition calendar becomes more important than the exhibition itself.
Art turns into circulation rather than conviction.
When money leads to the vision, the soul exits quietly.
The Collective Lie
Perhaps the most dangerous shift is the silence around all of this. Public opinion has changed. Truth has become impolite. Honest criticism is treated as aggression. A collective lie is being built, carefully, politely, steadily.
The lie says: everything is fine. The lie says: this is culture.
The greatest threat to art is not failure, it is false applause.
A Call for Restoration
Beirut holds great talent. Beirut holds artists who work with depth, discipline, and genuine fire. The city does not lack potential. It lacks honesty. It lacks standards defended with courage.
The return of a strong art scene begins with truth, not cruelty, not scandal, not attack. Truth as clarity. Truth as respect for the art itself.
Art survives through excellence, not through agreement.
