Contemporary Art Of The Middle East

CONTEMPORARY ART OF THE MIDDLE EAST Introduction The artwork under consideration, Perseverance and Hope, is the masterpiece of Sliman Mansour, a Palestinian, which was presented in his work in 1976. The artwork is present in the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar (MATHAF). The primary reason for the selection of this artwork is its alignment with the contemporary views of MATHAF. Figure 1 in the study represents the artwork by Sliman Mansour. The primary theme of the painting is hope, perseverance, and strength. It suggests these three elements for survival and helps people to understand the importance of these essential factors in reshaping their lives. They helped people in ancient time to survive and to struggle for their existence and progress. The artwork is significant because it has a firm relationship with the modern age, where people are prone to losing hope. It inspires faith in them and encourages them to hope for the best and to explore their strengths to improve their lives. Through this artwork we can highlight the background of its creation and connect it to Prieta Meier’s argument regarding its relationship with modernism. Additionally, looking at the most important subject matters of the artwork, the quantitative literature review on the study shows that in times of absolute terror, pain and desperation, it is paramount for one to always have hope, perseverance and remain strong in order to make it in life.[Sarah Rogers, “Sliman Mansour,” Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar, 2010] [Perita Meier, “Authenticity and Its Modernist Discontents: The Colonial Encounter and African and Middle Eastern Art History,” The Arab Studies Journal 18, no. 1 (2010): 12-45] Biography of Sliman Mansour Sliman Mansour was born in 1947 in Birzeit, a town in Palestine located north of Ramallah and later enrolled to studying fine art in Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem. Not only has he contributed to the visual representation of Palestine in the single artwork under review in this paper, but also in his several other works since the 1970s. In addition, to promote his career, in 1987, he and other close artists namely, Vera Tamari, Tayseer Barakat and Nabil Anani, founded what came to be termed as a political collective called New Visions whose aim was to respond to the First Intifada that occurred in Palestine between 1987 and 1993. In 1994, Mansour aided in the founding of the Al Wasiti Art Center located in East Jerusalem and was give the title of the Director where he served for two years from 1995 to the end of 1996.[Ankori, Gannit. "Earth: Sliman Mansour and the Poetics of Sumud," Palestinian Art (London: Reaktion Books, 2006), 60-92.] Sliman Mansour’s art was viewed as being unique and it is agreeable since he only used mud as his primary medium where he made layers and molded them in to a figurative composition of an object on a wooden framework to depict the country of Palestine, its people and their culture. He made objects of different shapes and sizes and through the cracks and distortions that the objects displayed over time in the sun when they were drying, it showed the gradual passage of time and the temporary nature of materials. In 1996, Mansour made one of his important series of mud paintings, an ancient tombstone, called ‘I am Ismail’ which manifests the story of a figure in the Bible, called Ismail. This was done as a form of commemorating and relating the figure and his story of being exiled with the land. Additionally, in the next series of his artwork, the artist continued to reveal his intimate concerns with visualizing the struggle of Palestine, its hardships and abstract aspirations of regaining peace and harmony. Moreover, with the use of only natural components of art such as clay, henna and coffee, Sliman Mansour as the head of all renowned Palestinian artists, has contributed to the efficient provision of public services and the development of Infrastructure in West Bank apart from teaching several subjects in many cultural schools and institutions in the region. Finally, Mansour has participated in numerous exhibitions hosted in several continents including the Arab Nations, Europe, the United States of America and Asia. For instance, he participated in the most notable French Palestinian Spring Exhibition in 1997 held in Paris and having participated in many others. Mansour has also won numerous awards including the Nile Award in 1989 and the Palestinian Prize for Visual Arts in 1998 in Cairo, Egypt. Figure 1. Perseverance and Hope by Sliman Mansour. The Relationship of the Artwork with the History of its Creation and Exhibition The artwork, Perseverance and Hope, has a forty-year history of impeccable representation of the Palestinian cultural and political identity gaining its recognition both nationally and internationally as well as a broad history with its place of creation and Exhibition. Sliman Mansour created the artwork in Palestine in 1947, and it is available at the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar. Palestine is a Muslim nation, but it is under crisis due to foreign interventions and lack of good governance. Hence, the people are losing hope due to the adverse political instability, poor living conditions and cruelty of war present in the country. In the time of its creation, Sliman Mansour created this artwork to encourage his country fellows to hope for the best in such times of pain and suffering. He created the artwork when most of the people were leaving their homeland, and moving to other places for to seek greener pastures, peace and pleasant settlements. The artwork highlights the condition of his fellow citizens to the entire world and from a clear observation of the content, it is evident that there are ruins resulting from massive destructions that occurred in the country during times of war.[Sarah Burns, “The 'Earnest, Untiring Worker' and the Magician of the Brush: Gender Politics in the Criticism of Cecilia Beaux and John Singer Sargent,” Oxford Art Journal 15, no. 1, (1992): 36-53] The painting shows a family, preferably a father, a mother and their son standing at a stone with their hands tied using a rope at their backs in what seems to them as prisoners in captivity. The woman in the middle stares up in the sky at a white dove, followed suit by the rest of her family members to show that they have hope that the hard times, oppression and captivity will end. In the background, behind the family, there are people who are also tied and bound with ropes but their mouths are covered and gagged using clothes, rendering them speechless. Behind the people are ...