Artist:

Mustafa Hallaj (1938–2002)

Curator:

Mirna Bamieh

Description:

A pioneer of the Palestinian plastic art movement, especially resistance art, this exhibition of thirty works and archival material from Syria and Palestine sheds light on the life of this “Shaykh of artists.” The exhibition has four main sections: “Myth,” with its abstract and symbolic dimension in an important collection of prints that reveals the attributes of Palestinian resistance art. Works that use direct allegories and symbols to build their own “Landscape of Palestine.” “The Mural”: Hallaj died in an attempt to rescue this mural from a fire at his studio at Gallery Naji al-Ali in Damascus in 2002.  The exhibition presents three meters of the mural, accompanied by a video that shows the whole mural before it was damaged. “Research and Archival Material”: much of the work of this artist was lost due to his frequent relocations, shown here as reproductions in sketches and light boxes, and through writings and filmed interviews.