During the Lebanese Civil War which broke out in 1975 and raged for 15 years with unabated violence killing more than 100,000 with many more injured and destitute, Kanso had made several trips to his native war-torn land. Throughout the period of the conflict, he executed a wide range of major paintings on the Lebanon war whose portrayal and theme evolved to universal expressions on human brutality and suffering. The paintings constitute a major part of The Split of Life interrelated series comprising works dealing with contemporary themes of war realized on large scale format. Among the works in the Split of Life are the series Vietnam (1974), Lebanon (1975–1990), One Minute: Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1978–79), South Africa (1979–80), America 500 Years (1989–91), Living Memory(1992–94).