Sliman Mansour has died at 79 after a long illness, his family announced on Monday, Al Jazeera reports. He was born in Birzeit, near Ramallah, in 1947, and became one of the founding figures of contemporary Palestinian art.
His best-known painting is Mount of the Bearers, described by Al Jazeera as the most iconic Palestinian painting. Other works include Patience and Hope (1976), Desert Melodies and The Renaissance (both 1977), Symbol of Hope (1985), Rituals Under Occupation (1989), The Shrinking Piece (1996), The Sea is Mine (2016) and Wild Lily of Galilee (2020).
The decision that defines him
During the first Intifada, Mansour co-founded the New Vision group and stopped using Israeli-made art supplies. Rather than stop working, he changed what he worked with: mud, straw, wood and henna.
That is a rare thing in the history of political art, because it is a choice made in the material rather than in the subject. A painter can depict resistance in oils bought from anyone. Refusing the supply chain means learning a different craft, accepting that the surface will crack and the colours will be those the ground provides.
It also produced work that is physically made of the place it is about, which is a stronger version of the argument than any image could carry on its own.
What he drew on
His visual language borrowed from Canaanite, Pharaonic and Assyrian art, from Islamic tradition, and from Palestinian village life, combining local forms with themes of resistance and freedom.
A career spanning six decades, from Patience and Hope in 1976 to Wild Lily of Galilee in 2020, is unusual in any art tradition. In one interrupted repeatedly by war and closure, it is its own kind of statement.
Of his work, admirers say: "His brush...carried the homeland." We are reporting that as the sentiment expressed about him rather than as an assessment of our own.
What we could not establish
We could not establish where he died, the cause beyond a long illness, the year Mount of the Bearers was painted, where his major works are held, or details of his exhibitions and teaching. We verified this account from a single publication, which is a photo gallery rather than a full obituary.
