Ibrahim el-Salahi

Ibrahim El-Salahi (born 5 September 1930) is a Sudanese artist painter and former politician and diplomat.

Life and career

El-Salahi was born on 5 September 1930, in Omdurman, Sudan. He studied Art at the School of Design of the Gordon Memorial College, currently the University of Khartoum. On the basis of a scholarship, he subsequently went to the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1954 to 1957. He also stayed in Perugia in Italy for some time, to enlarge his knowledge of renaissance art. Back in Sudan, he taught at the School for Applied Arts in Khartoum.[1][2]

In 1962 he received a UNESCO scholarship to study in the United States, from where he visited South America. From 1964 to 1965 he returned to the US with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, and in 1966 he led the Sudanese delegation during the first World Festival of Black Arts in Dakar, Senegal.[1][2]

El-Salahi was assistant cultural attaché at the Sudanese Embassy in London from 1969 to 1972, when he returned to Sudan as Director of Culture, then Undersecretary in the Ministry of Culture and Information until September 1975, when he was imprisoned without charge for six months. Afterwards he left the country, working for some years in Doha, Qatar, before settling in Oxford, England.[1][2]

Art

External video
Ibrahim El-Salahi,[3]

He is considered a pioneer in Sudanese art and was a member of the "Khartoum School" that was founded by Osman Waqialla. In the 1960s he was associated with the Mbari Club in Ibadan, Nigeria.[1][2]

He developed an own style and was one of the first artists to elaborate the Arabic calligraphy in his paintings. His work has developed through several phases. His first period during the 1950s, '60s and '70s is dominated by elementary forms and lines. Then his work becomes rather meditative, abstract and organic. Subsequently, his work is characterized by lines, while he mainly uses white and black paint.[1][2]

In 2001, Ibrahim el-Salahi was honored with a Prince Claus Award from the Netherlands.[4][5]

In the summer of 2013 a major retrospective show of El-Salahi's work was mounted at Tate Modern, London, running from 3 July to 22 September 2013, The Tate's first retrospective dedicated to an African artist.[6]

Solo exhibitions

Group shows

Fellowships and awards

Education

Employment

Other cultural activities

Literature

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Ryle, John, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo & Jok Madut Jok (eds), The Sudan Handbook, "Key Figures in Sudanese History, Culture & Politics", James Currey, 2011, p. 205. ISBN 978-1847010308
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Culture Base (2003), biography
  3. ↑ "Exhibition curator Salah Hassan explains the Sudanese artist's crucial role in African Art", BBC Radio 3
  4. ↑ Ibrahim el-Salahi: a visionary modernist, Prince Claus Fund (2012).
  5. ↑ Profile, Prince Claus Fund.
  6. ↑ Hudson, Mark (3 July 2013). "Ibrahim el-Salahi: from Sudanese prison to Tate Modern show". The Guardian.

External links

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