A traveling exhibition titled "The Lost Paintings, A Prelude to Return" is on view at the Brookline Arts Center and Unbound Visual Arts in Brighton through December 17. The show reimagines 53 oil paintings by Palestinian-Lebanese artist Maroun Tomb, which were lost in the chaos of the Nakba and the 1948 Arab-Israeli war after his 1947 exhibition opened in Haifa on the same day the UN adopted the Partition Plan. Curators Rula Khoury, Haidi Motola, and Joëlle Tomb—Maroun's granddaughter—commissioned 53 contemporary artists from Palestine and the diaspora to create new works inspired by the original titles, using mediums including textiles, prints, paintings, sculptures, and video.
This exhibition matters because it reclaims a lost chapter of Palestinian art history and gives voice to artists whose stories have been erased or marginalized. By centering personal narratives of displacement and resilience, the project challenges political obstacles that made it difficult to secure larger institutional venues in the U.S. The curators' serendipitous discovery of a letter and drawing connecting their grandfathers underscores the power of art to bridge generations and histories, offering a platform for audiences to engage with the Palestinian experience through a cultural rather than purely political lens.