Andree Sfeir-Semler


Andrée Sfeir-Semler is a German-Lebanese art historian and gallery owner. Her Sfeir-Semler Gallery has branches in Hamburg, Germany and Beirut, Lebanon, and both locations represent artists working in the field of conceptual art with a preference on political subjects. Since 2003, Sfeir-Semler Gallery has focused on contemporary art from the Arab World.

Early life and education

Sfeir-Semler studied fine art at the American University of Beirut and filmmaking at the "Centre for cinema and television" in Beirut. In 1975 she was awarded a Fulbright Program Scholarship and a DAAD German Academic Exchange Service scholarship to continue her studies as a filmmaker. She opted for the latter. She continued her studies at the universities of Munich, Bielefeld with Wolfgang Mager & Juergen Kocka and at the Sorbonne with Pierre Bourdieu. She finished her PhD in 1980 with a thesis entitled "Die Maler am Pariser Salon: 1791 - 1880". The book is a computer-based social history of the 19th-century French art scene.

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