(1923 - 2009)
Born in 1923 in Pennsylvania to a Lebanese American family. he started her painting career at the age of 21; when illness forced house rest, she began to draw. On a visit to Lebanon in 1946 she met and married a young Lebanese poet, Yusuf al-Khal (they later divorced), and remained in the country to study art at ALBA from 1946 to 1948.[1] She returned to the United States briefly but in 1963, after moving back to Lebanon, she established Lebanon's first permanent art gallery. With the encouragement of her colleagues, notably well-known Lebanese artist Aref Rayess, Khal pursued her art and she held her first individual exhibition in 1960 in Galerie Alecco Saab in Beirut. Her other one-woman shows took place at Galerie Trois Feuilles d'Or, Beirut (1965); Galerie Manoug, Beirut (1968); at the First National Bank, Allentown, Pennsylvania (1969); in Kaslik, Lebanon (1970); at the Contact Art Gallery, Beirut (1972, 1974 and 1975) and at the Bolivar Gallery in Kingston, Jamaica in 1975. Her work also appeared in the Biennales of Alexandria and São Paulo. She also taught art at the American University of Beirut from 1967-1976 and at the Lebanese American University from 1997-1980. On May 20, 2009, Helen Khal suffered a stroke and died.