Democratic Palestine : 5 (ص 34)

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Democratic Palestine : 5 (ص 34)

المحتوى

Suleman Mansour
Suleiman Mansour
Suleiman Mansour, one of the most
prominent Palestinian artists in the
occupied territories, was born in Ramal-
lah in 1947. He studied art at the Fine
Arts College in Bezallal in Jerusalem. He
left the college in his third year, dissatis-
fied with the preference of Israeli
teachers for abstract art and alienated
by increasingly serious political clashes
with his fellow students.
Symbolism is a key factor in Man-
sour’s art, asymbolism which unites his-
torical and present Palestinian history,
but the symbols are simple and under-
standable. The cultural history of the
Palestinian people, deeply rooted in love
for the land, is a recurring theme in Man-
sour’s art - in flowers, fruits, fish and
trees. History and identity are reflected
in the patterns of Palestinian national
dresses, handicraft and cultivating the
land. The ongoing struggle of everyday —
Palestinian life forges the determination,
dedication and seriousness of the
Palestinian people as well as the art of
Suleiman Mansour. Mansour calls him-
self a political artist «not because | want
to be, but because anyone who has feel-
34
ings here, cannot be anything but politi-
Cal.»
As dramatic political developments
suddenly became everyday life for ordi-
nary people on the West Bank, political
developments deeply influenced Man-
sour. The defeat of the Arab armies in
1967, the occupation of the West Bank,
Nasser’s death, the growing strength of
the Palestinian guerillas and the forma-
tion of the PLO meant a lot of changes -
days of hardship, but also hope. «The
pressure on people increased especially
from the land confiscations, and | began
to make paintings which expressed this
stress, and yet were hopeful.»
Yet awareness about using art in a
political context was still in its early
stage. It was between 1975 and 1982
that the plastic art form developed artisti-
cally as well as politically. This was also
reflected by the policy of circulating art.
In 1980, Palestinian artists in the
occupied territories joined to form a
‘league for plastic art. Five exhibitions
were held during this period in which
almost every artist showed several
paintings. In 1976, the artists sought an
international audience by holding an
exhibition in London, and in 1977 exhi-
bitions in the USA. Due to this, hundreds
of people abroad became familiar with
Palestinian art and life.
Mansour’s art cannot be separated
from the daily reality of oppression,
exploitation and war; neither can it be
separated from the reality of the
people’s unquenchable will to fight on. It
is definitely not in line with the bourgeois
ideal of art - ‘art for the sake of art’,
-where the intention of the artist is to
create a perfect harmiony of dreams and
beauty - a world to escape into, a drug or
a painkiller to make people forget their
worries and the reason for them, so they
will not so easily start to fight the condi-
tions of reality. Like the most shining
examples of political art, Mansour's
worksexpose the reality of suffering and
the reasons for the suffering. Also they
point the way forward. So it is not sur-
prising that official institutions abroad,
such as museums and banks in Europe,
have ignored this art, as the states and
Capitalist circles behind them are not in
the habit of supporting the struggle

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Democratic Palestine : 5

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