Sliman Mansour (1947)
Sliman Mansour is one of the most distinguished and renowned artists in Palestine. His style embodies steadfastness in the face of a relentless military occupation. His work — which has come to symbolize the Palestinian national identity — has inspired generations of Palestinians and international artists and activists alike.
Born in 1947, Mansour spent his childhood around the verdant hills and fields of Birzeit — where he was born — and later his adolescence in Bethlehem and Jerusalem. These experiences left a significant mark on his work, heightening a sense of gradual loss in Palestine, especially after the occupation of the West Bank and Jerusalem in 1967. His early experiences also presented him with the symbols and images he would later use to preserve and highlight Palestinian identity.
Using symbols derived from Palestinian life, culture, history, and tradition, Mansour uniquely illustrates Palestinians’ resolve and connection with their land. His pieces epitomize art as a form of resistance. With orange trees, he represents land lost in the Nakba of 1948. With olive trees, he represents land occupied in 1967. With women wearing traditional embroidered dresses, he represents Palestinian land and the Palestinian revolution. With the landscape of Palestine and its stone terraces, he represents the mark of Palestinian farmers on the land. With images of Jerusalem and the glistening Dome of the Rock, he represents the Palestinian homeland and the dream of return.
Sliman Mansour’s art deftly reflects the hopes and realities of a people living under occupation for the better part of a century. Since the early 1970s, he has translated his experiences of isolation, displacement, community, and rootedness using imagery and symbols that have contributed to the development of an iconography of the Palestinian struggle. Paintings such as “Jamal al-Mahamel” (Camel of Hardships or Camel of Burdens) — with its iconic porter whose heavy and precious load is the Jerusalem that all Palestinians yearn for — were made into posters, cards, and stickers. Such images were popularized in direct defiance of Israeli military authorities, who frequently confiscated artwork and posters and closed exhibitions and galleries.
Mansour’s artistic mediums have varied throughout his long career — changing to match his experience of displacement in his homeland and the developments and transformations of the Palestinian national movement. Mansour and artists Vera Tamari, Tayseer Barakat, and Nabil Anani founded the New Visions movement in 1987. The movement was formed in response to the first intifada and called on artists to boycott Israeli art supplies and instead utilize local natural materials such as coffee, henna, and clay. Mud — the basis for human life in many cultures and religions as well as an actual piece of Palestinian land — was a tool of choice for Mansour. Using mud, he created symbols of identity that celebrated the rich and varied Palestinian culture. At the same time, Mansour captured the essence of Palestinian rootedness as well as the fragmentation in the Palestinian political landscape and geography — echoed in the cracks growing in the mud as it dries.
In addition to playing a key role in developing the Palestinian national visual identity through his rich and multi-faceted oeuvre, Mansour has also greatly contributed to developing the artistic movement in Palestine. In 1973, he co-founded the League of Palestinian Artists, which he led for several years. In 1994, he co-founded al-Wasiti Art Center in Jerusalem, which was established to build a bridge between Palestinian artists and their compatriots in exile and other international artists to archive and preserve art in Palestine. Mansour is a founding Board member of the International Academy of Art, and he has taught at several Palestinian cultural and educational institutions, such as Al-Quds University.
Sliman Mansour has showcased his artwork at national and international exhibitions, including the Inaugural Exhibition, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris 1987; “Occupation and Resistance,” the Other Museum, New York 1990; the Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah 1995; “Seven Palestinian Artists,” Darat al Funun, Amman 1997; “Made in Palestine,” the Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston 2003; “Art Palestine,” Meem Gallery, Dubai 2011; and “Abstraction and Calligraphy — Towards a Universal Language,’ Louvre Abu Dhabi in collaboration with Centre Pompidou, 2021. In 1998, Mansour received the Palestine Prize for the Visual Arts and the Grand Nile Prize At the Seventh Cairo Biennial. In 2019, he was awarded the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture for highlighting Palestinian and Arab cultures internationally.
Awards and Honors
2019 – UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture
1998 – Palestine Prize for the Visual Arts
1998 – Grand Nile Prize, Seventh Cairo Biennial, Egypt
Collections
The British Museum, London, UK
Mathaf: Museum of Fine Arts, Doha, Qatar
Guggenheim Museum, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE
The Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon
Dar El-Nimer for Art & Culture, Beirut, Lebanon
Bank of Palestine Collection, Ramallah, Occupied Palestine
Birzeit University Museum, Birzeit, Occupied Palestine
The Palestinian Museum, Birzeit, Occupied Palestine
The Khalid Shoman Collection: Darat Al Funun, Amman, Jordan
Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman, Jordan
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2017 – Sliman Mansour: Terrains of Belonging, a retrospective at Art Dubai, Dubai, UAE
2011 – Sliman Mansour: Terrains of Belonging, a retrospective at al-Hoash, Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine
2007 – Sketches, Al-Mamal Gallery, Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine
2003 – The Fabric of Memory, Sharjah Museum, Sharjah, UAE
2001 – Ten Years in Mud, a solo traveling exhibition shown in Ramallah, Nazareth, and Gaza, Occupied Palestine
1998 – I Ismael, Cairo Biennial, Cairo, Egypt
1996 – Palestinian Art: Suleiman Mansour, Stavanger City Hall, Norway
1993 – Ritz Carlton Hotel, Washington DC, USA
1992 – Roots, United Nations, New York, USA
1981 – Sliman Mansour Exhibition, Gallery 79, Ramallah, Occupied Palestine
Selected Group Exhibitions
2019 Challenges of Identity, Dar El Nimr, Beirut, Lebanon
2019 Intimate Terrains: Representations of a Disappearing Landscape, The Palestinian Museum, Birzeit, Occupied Palestine
2018 El Beit, Tabari Artspace, Dubai, UAE
2018 Jerusalem: 51 Years of Occupation, Zawyeh Gallery, Ramallah, Occupied Palestine
2018 Subcontracted Nations, A. M. Qattan Foundation, Ramallah, Occupied Palestine
2018 A Century in Flux, Highlights from the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah, UAE
2018 There Is A Light That Never Goes Out, organized by Darat Al Funun, at the Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center and Bab idDeir Art Gallery, Bethlehem, Occupied Palestine
2017 Reviewing Oneself & The Art of Living, The Walled-off Hotel Gallery, Bethlehem, Occupied Palestine
2017 A Sight of Disjunction, organized by A. M. Qattan Foundation (AMQF), Manjam – Haifa Culture Lab, Haifa, Occupied Palestine
2017 Jerusalem Lives, Inaugural exhibition of the Palestinian Museum, the Palestinian Museum Birzeit, Occupied Palestine
2017 Mathaf Collection, Summary, Part 2, MATHAF (Arab Museum of Modern Art), Doha, Qatar
2016 Our Homeland is Our Homeland, Yaser Arafat Museum, Ramallah, Occupied Palestine
2016 Rendez-vous, Zawyeh Gallery, Ramallah, Occupied Palestine
2016 Walls and Margins, Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE
2016 Unlike Other Springs, Birzeit University Museum, Birzeit, Occupied Palestine
2016 Winter Collective, Zawyeh Gallery, Ramallah, Occupied Palestine
2015 Narratives, Zawyeh Gallery, Ramallah, Occupied Palestine
2015 Rituals of Signs and Transitions (1975-1995), Darat al Funun, Jordan
2014 In Memory, Zawyeh Gallery, Ramallah, Occupied Palestine
2014 Colors of life, Zawyeh Gallery, Ramallah, Occupied Palestine
2014 Sky over the East, Barjeel Art Foundation, Emirates Palace, UAE
2011 Framed – Unframed, The Changing Representation of Women in Palestinian Visual Arts, Ethnographic & Art Museum, Birzeit University, Occupied Palestine
2011 Art Palestine: Nabil Anani, Sliman Mansour, Tayseer Barakat, Meem Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2010 Contemporary Graphic Art from the Arab World, Nabad Gallery, Amman, Jordan
2010 Residua, Barjeel Art Foundation, Maraya Art Centre, Al Qasba, Sharjah, UAE
2009 Rafia Gallery, Damascus-Syria
2008 Never part, Brussels, Belgium
2007 Santa’s Ghetto, Bethlehem Manger Square, Occupied Palestine
2006 Palestinian Art, Um Al-Fahem Gallery, Um Al-Fahem, Occupied Palestine
2005 Three Cities Against the Wall, Ramallah, Tel-Aviv, New York, at ABC No Rio and 6th Street Community Center, New York, USA, Al-Hallaj Gallery, Ramallah, and Beit Ha’omanim, Tel Aviv, Occupied Palestine
2005 Virtual Book, Library of Alexandria, Egypt
2005 Inaugural Exhibition of the Jordan National Gallery Complex, Under the patronage of Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania Al – Abdullah, Jordan National Museum, Amman, Jordan
2004 Colors of Life and Resistance, UNESCO, Paris, France
2003 Made in Palestine, Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, Texas, USA
2003 35 artists against the Occupation. Israeli and Palestinian artists. Jaffa – Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine
2002 From the Ocean to the Gulf and Beyond: Arab Contemporary Art, on the occasion of: Amman the Arab Cultural Capital 2002, Jordan National Gallery of Fine Art, Amman, Jordan
2002 Between Legend and Reality: Modern Art from the Arab World, organized by Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, at: The Dossari Hall, Kuwait City, Kuwait, Akureyri Art Museum, Iceland and the Reykjavik Art Museum, Iceland
1999 Palestinian Artists Today, Drammens Museum, Norway
1998 Seventh International Cairo Biennial, Cairo, Egypt
1998 50 years of Nakbah, Nazareth, Occupied Palestine
1997 Artistes Palestinians Contemporains, as a part of The Palestinian Spring, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, and various locations in France
1997 Seven Palestinian Artists, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan
1996 Building Bridges, Ministry of Culture, Luxembourg, Belgium
1994 Sans Titre, French Cultural Center, Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine
Building Bridges, Meridian House, Washington, D.C. USA
1992 Seven Palestinian artists: Suleiman Mansour, Tayseer Barakat, Nabil Anani, Khalil Rabah, Jawad al Mahli, Yacoub al Kurd, Vera Tamari, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan
1990 Occupation and Resistance, The Other Museum, New York, USA
Festival d’Asilah, Asilah, Morocco
1990 Trial & Creativity” (Palestine): Nabil Anani, Suliman Mansour, Tayseer Barakat, and Vera Tamari, Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman, Jordan
1989 First Festival of Palestinian Culture, Cairo, Egypt
1989 Contemporary Art from the Islamic World, organized by the Jordan
1989 National Gallery of Fine Arts, In cooperation with the Islamic Arts Foundation, The Barbican Center, London., London, UK
1988 It’s Possible, Cooper Union, New York, USA
1987 Stop the Occupation, Israeli and Palestinian artists, Artists House, Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine
1987 The Inaugural Exhibition, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
1985 Palestinian Spring, Al Hakawati Theatre, Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine
1984 Festival of Birzeit, West Bank, Occupied Palestine
1982 Down with Occupation -Israeli and Palestinian artists, Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine
1982 Art under the Occupation, National Museum, Kuwait City, Kuwait
1981 Kunsternes Hus, Oslo, Norway
1980 State Museum of Oriental Arts, Moscow, USSR
1979 The Third World and Japan, Tokyo, Japan
1978 International Art Exhibition for Palestine, Beirut, Lebanon
1975 The first group exhibition of Palestinian Art under occupation, YMCA Jerusalem, Occupied Palestine
Contribution as Cartoonist
1981-1993 – Mansour was a contributor of cartoons in Al-Fajr English Weekly, once published in Jerusalem.
Publications
Sliman Mansour, Monograph by Faten Nastas Mitwasi
Sliman Mansour, Monograph by Palestinian Art Court-Al Hoash, Jerusalem, with essays by Bashir Makhoul, Nicola Gray, and Tina Sherwell
Catalog of the Palestinian Embroidery motifs, co-authored with Nabil Anani