Democratic Palestine : 23 (ص 34)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 23 (ص 34)
- المحتوى
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to ‘state security’. The judge held that
despite the personal problems of the
defendent who provides for seven peo-
ple, the court could not ignore the
danger of the crime, and had decided to
execute the law fully...»
GABEN’S ORIGINS
«Fathi Gaben had become a hero. He
never had a formal art education. He is
from a family who used to live in Her-
bia, near the area of the kibbutz Yied
Murdachai. In the 1948 war, his family
fled to Gaza, as did all the village in-
habitants. Since then, Herbia has been
only a memory to its inhabitants who
became refugees.
«The details of the story should be
known in order to penetrate Gaben’s
personal and artistic life. The story has
become old, but its repercussions on his
life and art continue to develop. In a
dialogue, Fathi revealed other dimen-
sions of his experience.»
Name: Fathi Gaben
Date of birth: 1947
Place of birth: Herbia, Gaza Strip
In 1969, Gaben began to work as a
professional artist. He is a member of
34
Fathi Gaben
painting
the Plastic Arts Union in the Occupied
Land. He has had several exhibitions of
his own, and participated in many
others with other artists in the occupied
land. His works have been confiscated
by the Zionist authorities many times.
“Identity”
He started his art work with oil pain-
tings which showed the beauty of
nature, in addition to the Palestinian
heritage. He then turned to more pur-
poseful works based on the experience
of everyday life and the Palestinians’
sufferings under occupation.
Gaben worked as a house painter for
several years. Later, he turned to art.
At first, he copied magazine pictures,
but then started drawing from his im-
agination. When asked why he turned
to drawing, he said, «This is like asking
why do you play soccer... God gave me
this talent; there are some people who
studied drawing in universities, but did
not succeed.»
The contents of his paintings, and
those of every honest Palestinian artist,
are Palestine’s tragedy. He says, «We
take from this tragedy all the contents
of our art works, but the one painting
that identified me to the audience is the
one called Identity. This painting ac-
quired a broad local and international
reputation.» Gaben’s works are usually
classical in style, but sometime cubist,
because «this reaches the hearts of the
masses.»
«We Palestinians,» says Gaben,
«have a cause, and my artistic aspira-
tions will not be fulfilled until our cause
is justly and honorably achieved... The
artistic complexity and symbolism that
appear in some art works are the
natural consequence of civilization’s
advancement in the 20th century, a fact
that no one can deny or ignore. Human
beings do not like complexity, but they
are attracted to it and plant it in their
subconscious. The more complicated
life becomes, the more mysterious it is.
Ultimately this benefits the arts. Maxim
Gorky said that the abundance of
complexity in different environments
creates few characters - few in quantity,
but rich and positive in suffering. The
contemporary artist’s mission is to pick
up these complexities, develop and then
surpass them, because life’s nature is
complexity. Ultimately, this affects art
which is created from life.»
THE SCHOOL OF
SUFFERING
Fathi Gaben’s artistic career has
yielded 22 paintings that are in public
circulation, 27 paintings which are kept
in his own collection and 170 paintings
that have been sold. All express the
Palestinian people’s heritage and suf-
fering. Gaben’s own financial situation
and the repression practiced against - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 23
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