Dark Light. Realism in the Age of Post-Truths. Selections from the Tony and Elham Salamé Collection-Aïshti Foundation

The book assembles work of over 40 artists and more than 150 pieces from the Tony and Elham Salamé collection Taking its title from a 2017 painting by the American artist Nicole Eisenman held in the collection, this publication brings together recent acquisitions that question the meanings and functions of figuration in contemporary art.
As the very definitions of truth have eroded dramatically in recent years, many contemporary artists-especially those working in the United States-have proceeded to analyze, interrogate, and deconstruct the notion of realism. Dark Light brings together work from an emerging group of artists who are investigating new approaches to figurative imagery through autobiography, depictions of the body, and the influence of new technologies, along with contributions by important predecessors who have anticipated current discussions around representation and verism. The recent acquisitions featured in Dark Light include important works by established painters such as Etel Adnan, George Condo, Karen Kilimnik, Maria Lassnig, Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha, Peter Saul, and Joan Semmel, presented in dialogue with an intergenerational group of artists including Louise Bonnet, Cecily Brown, Shara Hughes, Lucy McKenzie, Laura Owens, Christina Quarles, Henry Taylor, and Matthew Wong.
Dark Light is the latest exhibition in a series of presentations of the Tony and Elham Salamé Collection at the Aïshti Foundation in Beirut, designed by the British architect David Adjaye in 2015 and now recognized as one of the most formidable institutions in the Middle East and beyond.
Dark Light follows major solo exhibitions at the Aïshti Foundation by Urs Fischer (2019) and Albert Oehlen (2018) and a trilogy of group exhibitions featuring works from the collection: The Trick Brain (2017), Good Dreams, Bad Dreams – American Mythologies (2016), and the Aïshti Foundation’s inaugural exhibition, New Skin (2015).