AramcoWorld's Beliz Tecirli curated a survey of visual artists from the Middle East and beyond responding creatively to the COVID-19 pandemic, gathering brief statements and images from each contributor rather than writing extended individual profiles. Tagreed Darghouth is one of the artists included, speaking about how lockdown affected her studio routine in Beirut.
The piece quotes Darghouth describing lockdown as, in her case, an opportunity to focus, since her working pattern changed little from her usual studio discipline. Alongside her statement, the feature reproduces an untitled acrylic work on paper, measuring 21 by 30 centimetres, made during this period, a small-scale piece consistent with the more intimate, paper-based works she has returned to between larger canvas series.
Coming shortly before the 2020 Beirut port explosion reshaped much of her subsequent work, this piece is a useful marker of where Tagreed Darghouth's practice stood earlier that year. Readers wanting to see how her studio output developed from this smaller, paper-based work into her later large-scale painting series should look to her more recent solo exhibitions with Tabari Artspace.
