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Arab Women in the Visual Arts: Palestine

© Aida Hasan

This month I wanted to write an article on Arab visual artists in general. But in doing my research into the various artists from around the Arab world, I realized that there is a growing amount of artists today who are women. Yet, we don’t often hear much about Arab female artists. Since one article would simply not be enough to provide an adequate introduction to the diversity of Arab female artists, this will be the first of a series of spotlights on the names and work of Arab artists, beginning with Palestine.

What follows is a brief description of some Palestinian artists, and links to places where you can learn more about them and their work:

Tamam Aref Al-Akhal:
Born in Jaffa Palestine in 1948; studied at the higher Institute of Fine Arts in Cairo in 1953. She is one of the first Palestinian women to be formally trained in the arts, and her artwork is very expressive of the Palestinian tragedy in everyday life. She met and eventually married another Palestinian visual artist, Ismael Shammout, and together they have exhibited their work in various countries around the world. Her artwork includes paintings, and sketches. To view her paintings go to http://www.shammout.com/tam-oil/oil-tam....
Her sketches can be found at http://www.shammout.com/sketches/sket-ta...

Fay Afaf Kanafani
Fay Afaf Kanafani is an internationally known writer, artist, human rights activist, and defender of Palestine. Afaf was in Haifa during the fall of Palestine in 1948, and has published her Memoir Nadia, Captive of Hope, about that loss. Ms. Kanafani, in her effort to support the organization Al-Awda, which protects the rights of the Palestinians in refugee camps, has donated a number of beautiful and inspiring original digital art pieces for purchase. It is because of her artwork that Afaf was chosen as the recipient of one of three United Nations Awards for Digital Art for 2001.
To view and/or purchase Ms. Kanafani's work go to http://www.al-awda.org/kanafani/art.htm

Mona Hattoum
Mona Hattoum was born in Beirut in 1952 to a Palestinian family. She attended Beirut University College from 1970 to 1972. In 1975 when civil war in the Lebanon made her return home impossible, she settled in London and studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art from 1975 to 1979 and at the Slade School of Art from 1979 to 1981. Hatoum's artwork contains confrontational themes such as violence, oppression and voyeurism, often in reference to the human body. Conflict arises from the juxtaposition of opposites such as beauty and horror, desire and revulsion. Prior to 1988, Hatoum worked mainly with video and performance. From 1989 on she has concentrated on making installations, the first group of which were exhibited in 1992 at the Chapter Gallery, Cardiff. She has created a number of works using metal grids which convey physical violence and imprisonment, notably Light Sentence (1992).

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