Sliman Mansour born in Birzeit, Palestine in 1947. He is an important figure among contemporary Palestinian artists. Mansour spent his childhood at boarding schools on Bethlehem.
He studied fine art at Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem from 1967 to 1970, and has been involved in the Palestinian art scene since the 1970’s.
Mansour is considered an artist of the Intifada whose work gave visual expression to the cultural concept of sumud 1. He is a co-founder of the League of Palestinian Artists and the artist group ‘New Visions’ which was established during the first Intifada in 1987. This group particularly tied notions of land to political suppression through artist’s materials such as henna, clay and natural pigments, advocating a continuous claim to land through these. The group was formed by four prominent Palestinian artists: Tayseer Barakat, Vera Tamari, Nabil Anani and Sliman Mansour.
Since the seventies, he has contributed to the development of an iconography of the Palestinian struggle through his works on paper. Uniting Mansour’s body of work is the depiction of the orange tree (considered to symbolize the 1948 Nakba), the olive tree (considered to symbolize the 1967 war), traditional Palestinian embroidery, village life, and the figure of the Palestinian woman as the mother figure of Palestine, giving birth to and protecting the Palestinian people. One of Mansour’s most recognized works is the 1974 painting, Camel of Hardship. In this image, the figure of the porter bends under the weight of his satchel, which is significantly shaped like an eye and holds the city of Jerusalem as identified by the Dome of the Rock. Personifying Palestine through the figure of an old, weary, and isolated man, Mansour captures the concept of sumud, or steadfastness, and the continuing endurance of the struggle despite hardship. Before its international acclaim, the piece resonated locally as it was printed as posters in 1975 and displayed in homes and public venues throughout the West Bank and Gaza.
In 1988 he made a series of four painting on destroyed Palestinian villages, the four villages being Yibna, Yalo, Imwas and Bayt Dajan.
For Mansour, art aids the continuation and revival of Palestinian identity, particularly as it captures images of the land and people working in the land. By keeping roots in the ancestral homeland, Mansour enables Palestinians to continue to lay claim to it.
Mansour – also a cartoonist, art instructor and author –has contributed greatly to art education and promotion in the West Bank. He is now regarded as a pivotal cultural leader in Palestine. Co-founder of the Wasiti Art Center in Jerusalem, Mansour’s work has been exhibited in Palestine Israel, the United States, Japan, Korea and across the Arab world and Europe. He is a co-author of Both Sides of Peace: Israeli and Palestinian Political Poster Art.
Mansour has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions throughout the Arab world, United States, Europe, and Asia. Notably, he participated in the 1997 French Palestinian spring exhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. In 1989, he received the “Nile Award,” at the 1998 Cairo Biennial for the series, I am Ismail and the Palestinian Prize for Visual Arts.
Awards and Honors
1998 Palestine Prize for the Visual Arts
1998 Grand Nile Prize, Seventh Cairo Biennial
Sliman Mansour´s work
Further reading:
– An Interview with Palestinian Artist Suleiman Mansour
– The return of “Jamal Al Mahamel”
http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2014/03/palestinian-art
Source:
http://www.barjeelartfoundation.org
http://www.cca-glasgow.com/programme
http://www.encyclopedia.mathaf.org
Reference
1 Sumud means “steadfastness” or “steadfast perseverance” is an ideological theme and political strategy that first emerged among the Palestinian people through oppression and resistance in the wake of the 1967 Six-Day W
