Sliman Mansour

Sliman Mansour (1947 to 2026) was a Palestinian artist who worked in painting, mud relief and mixed media in Ramallah. Born in Birzeit, he painted the Palestinian landscape, its villages and farmers, olive and orange trees, and Jerusalem. Women in embroidered dress and the Dome of the Rock recur often. From the late 1980s he moulded layers of mud over wooden frames, letting the surface crack as it dried. He also used henna, straw, coffee, tea, leather and natural dyes.

Jamal al-Mahamel (Camel of Hardship) shows an aged porter bearing Jerusalem in an eye-shaped bag on his back. Yaffa (1979) depicts a woman in traditional dress carrying oranges through a grove. In 1987, during the First Intifada, he formed New Visions with Vera Tamari, Tayseer Barakat and Nabil Anani. The group refused Israeli art supplies and worked with local materials. The mud relief series I am Ismail (1996) shapes Ismail like an ancient tombstone. On the Wing of an Angel (2024) is a clay, straw and henna mural, 12 by 6 metres, for the Palestinian Museum, Birzeit.

He studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, from 1967 to 1970. In 1973 he joined in founding the League of Palestinian Artists and was its head from 1986 to 1990. He helped set up the al-Wasiti Art Center, East Jerusalem, in 1994. Solo exhibitions include The Fabric of Memory, Sharjah Art Museum (2003), and Terrains of Belonging, Palestinian Art Court al Hoash, Jerusalem (2011). Group shows include the Sharjah Biennial (1995), the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (1997), and Louvre Abu Dhabi (2021). His prizes include the Grand Nile Prize, 7th Cairo Biennial (1998), and the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture (2019). Collections include Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, the British Museum and the Barjeel Art Foundation.