The Lost Paintings, a Prelude to Return

Application summary

The Lost Paintings, a Prelude to Return is a group exhibition showcasing the forefront of contemporary Palestinian art from across the world, bringing together emerging young artists, alongside established pioneers. Tracing the memory of paintings lost to the Palestinian Nakba in 1948, the project contemplates on loss and destruction and on the power of imagination and art as part of decolonial processes. The Lost Paintings is an imagined recreation of the last exhibition held in Palestine by Palestinian-Lebanese artist Maroun Tomb, which opened on November 29, 1947 in Haifa. The opening coincided with the very day in which the UN approved the Partition Plan of Palestine, igniting the war and events that will later become known as the Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe). The fate of the 53 oil paintings displayed in the exhibition, as well as Tomb’s pre-1948 body of work, was lost to the war and its pillage. The sole surviving records of the exhibition are an invitation to it, an inventory of the paintings, and a letter in which Tomb describes the opening event in the context of the devastation of the war. 53 artists are invited to create their own interpretation of a single painting from Tomb’s lost exhibition, based on the only surviving information – the painting’s title. Through their work, each artist will offer their unique perspective on the events of 1948 through a contemporary lens – on the one hand examining the past, and on the other, contemplating on the present. The curatorial vision is for the sum of all works to converge into a symbolic resurrection of what was lost to the war. The exhibition will be launched at the P21 Gallery in London in 2025 and later will tour internationally, including in the Metropolitan Art Centre in Belfast in January 2026. In each venue, the exhibition will include a public program inviting the audience to partake in the discussion through various events, such as artist talks, screenings and workshops.