The Pioneers of Palestinian
Contemporary Art

The disastrous events of 1948 had a jolting effect on Palestinian talents. Rather than succumb to a life of destitution in refugee camps, they would find their way into art academics and institutes.

One of those was Ismail Shammout. In 1948,this young man of 18 years joined his Lydda townfolk in their infamous march to exile. After two years of life in a Gaza refugee camp, he managed to go to Cairo, where he was enrolled in the College of Fine Arts. However, he would soon discover that he was only physically removed from the refugee camp and that the "Palestinian" in him prevailed. His work in the College would be influenced by images of human suffering, which were captured by his artist's eye during his people's exodus and later during their life of misery and despair in the refugee camp. The Egyptian models which he drew or painted during study, with their distinctive Egyptian features and dresses, would automatically be converted into Palestinian "themes" or "Palestinian looks"...

In 1953, Shammout carried a large collection of paintings and drawings which he produced in Cairo and proceeded to Gaza to hold his first exhibition there. The exhibition which was opened on 29/7/1953 was the first exhibition ever to be held by a Palestinian artist on Palestinian land. Over 60 works (oil, water colour and drawings) were put on display, including his now famous "Whereto".

The exhibition was not only successful but had become a Palestinian "event". People of all walks of lire rushed to visit. To the young promising talents, the exhibition constituted a source of inspiration and motivation to go out and develop their talents. To the public, it was a moment of intense emotional feelings coupled with pride, as they saw one of their kin graduating to the ranks of established and recognized artists. To Shammout, it was a great boost to his self-confidence as well as to his belief in art, its inspirational capabilities and its value as an instrument of national struggle.

In 1953, another Palestinian artist arrived in Cairo. Tamam Al-Akhal, born in Jaffa in 1935, had taken refuge in Lebanon, and was eventually sent by her parents to study art in Cairo. There she met Shammout and participated, along with a third Palestinian artist, Nihad Sibasi, in Shammout's second exhibition, which was held in Cairo in 1954. This exhibition,' the first Palestinian joint exhibition to be held outside Palestine, was inaugurated by President Jamal Abdel Nasser on 21/7/1954. The exhibition drew the attention of both Palestinian and Arab art circles, and was given sizeable coverage in Cairo papers and magazines, which had the widest pan -Arab circulation at the time. The Palestinian painting had celebrated its Arab debut.

The initial encounter between Shammout and Akhal led to a more durable union between the two artists. In 1959, they were married and, as the years went by, they became a very well-known husband/wife team in Arab and international art circles.

Despite the fact that art work, form-wise, is unfamiliar to the Palestinian eye, especially in terms of identity and belonging, yet it was received with enthusiasm by all Palestinians. This could be attributed to the fact that the painting was not just a means of beautifying one's life, albeit essential in such harsh and agonizing environment, but it was an expression of hope, an embodiment of the Palestinian wound, a mirror reflecting the Palestinian's yearning for salvation and return.

In the mid fifties, and in the footsteps of Shammout and Akhal, numerous Palestinian talents proceeded to study arts in whatever academies and institutes of fine arts that could be made available to them. By the early sixties, there were scores of arts graduates who became quite active in the Palestinian congregation centres in both the West Bank and Gaza strip as well as in other Arab countries.

Individual and group exhibitions were held by the newcomers, often at their own expense, and some would participate in periodical Arab exhibitions whenever their meagre means would so permit. The prominent names of this period were Tawfiq Abdul 'Aal and Michel Naijar in Lebanon, Ibrahim Hazima and Samir Salamah in Syria, Samia Taqtaq, Mohammad Bushnak and Afaf Arafat in Jordan, Mahmoud Abu Askar, Abdul Aziz Al'Uqaili, Shafa Sha'ath and the three Shammouts, namely, Jamil, Omar and Amin in Gaza, and Mustapha AL- Hallaj in Egypt.

Paintings of the fifties belonged to the realistic expressionist school, with little application of symbolism. The reasons were two-fold. Firstly, Arab art academies taught art in accordance with academic methods, i.e. imitating the visual perspective of objects. Secondly, the artists of that period were the survivors of the terrible 1948 war, the dwellers of squalid refugee camps. They studied art not as fine art, nor for art's sake, but to better convey their feelings through it, to portray their suffering as Palestinians, to express their aspirations as people striving to regain their homeland.

The Palestinian artist of the fifties had another constant. He has always been and continues to be fully dedicated to the Palestinian cause. His dedication is a matter of personal choice, coupled with total freedom of expression and completely devoid of any political or ideological constraints.

New Climate- New Horizons

With the advent of the sixties, a new climate-a change of wind - was being felt by the Palestinians. The Palestinian personality, the lost Palestinian identity, were being reasserted. Armed organizations were formed. Palestinian men and women rushed to fill their ranks. The Palestine Liberation Organization was declared, the first shot was fired and the Palestinian revolution-the Palestinian armed struggle - was underway.

The Palestinian artists stood at the forefront of the budding movement. Their works during the period reflected images of a dawning revolution. They provided a foretaste of the coming events. This constituted a clear, unmistakable evidence of the Palestinian artist's oneness with the Palestinian cause, of his capacity to foretell his people's course of action, a capacity derived from his constant involvement with his cause and full awareness of all developments pertinent thereto.

After the war of 1967, which again resulted in the defeat of three Arab states, the victorious Israelis occupied the remaining parts of Palestine (West Bank and Gaza Strip) as well as other parts of Arab lands. The stunning Arab defeat, tragic and painful as it might have been, was not without benefits as far as the Palestinians were concerned . It helped exonerate the Palestinians and their legitimate representative, the Palestine Liberation Organization, as Arab masses and governments were awakened more fully by the Zionist threat. The "Feda'yeen" actions which came at the heels of the "ceasefire" dramatically enhanced the PlO's stature and influence. Its responsibility for, and authority over, the Palestinian people was solidified, and was no longer contested by the humiliated "host" governments. The PLO had become a virtual "government" in exile.

This signalled a new era for the Palestinian artist. Prior to the establishment of the PLO, the Palestinian art activity was exclusively dependent on the artist's own effort, his own capability, however limited. After the PLO, his lot greatly improved, as he became, for the first time, the eligible recipient of institutional patronage and support. The Following facilities and opportunities were also provided.

1 - Special PLO units to support and patronize artists activities and help propagate their works,
2 - Employment of many artists in cultural and information functions within the PLO and other Palestinian resistance movements,
3 - Formation of the General Union of Palestinian Artists(1969), which has undertaken, in co-operation with the Information and Cultural Department of PLO, the task of organizing the artists capabilities, consolidation of their efforts and propagation of their works through individual or group exhibitions held locally and abroad.

4-Allocation of grants for promising young talents to study art in colleges and institutes of friendly donor countries.

These new developments had a marked effect on the Palestinian art output, both in form and in content. In form, the painting broke loose from the realistic or expressionist realistic style. It would explore new horizons and new styles. Symbolism, surrealism, naivete and colorific styles were used, but that was as far as the painting went and it stopped short of the absolute abstract.

As to content, the Palestinian theme would remain the core around which all other secondary themes would rotate. The painting, however, had been freed from the "tragedy" tone, which characterized the works of the early fifties.

The flow of young Palestinian talents, seeking to study art in Arab and foreign arts academies and institutes went on unabated. A recent census revealed that in the period from 1948 to the mid-eighties, a total of 340 Palestinian men and women had enrolled in arts, applied arts and art education classes, including more than fifty females. Two-thirds of those joined Arab colleges, while close to one hundred students sought education abroad.