Samia Halaby @ Art in America
Some 60 years ago, during her undergraduate studies at Michigan State University (MSU), Samia Halaby’s interest in abstract painting began to take shape. Now, at 87, the influential Palestinian painter is realizing her first United States retrospective: “Samia Halaby: Eye Witness,” at MSU’s Broad Art Museum. In a homecoming of sorts, the show introduces the artist at her alma mater via some of those earliest undergrad forays into abstraction. Two examples are Lilac Bushes (1960) and House (1959): both boast thick layers of warm colors that contrast with olive greens and cool blues.