Contemporary Art Of The Middle East

CONTEMPORARY ART OF THE MIDDLE EAST Introduction The artwork under consideration, Perseverance and Hope, is the masterpiece of Sliman Mansour, a Palestinian, which was presented in his work in 1976. The artwork is present in the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, Qatar (MATHAF). The primary reason for the selection of this artwork is its alignment with the contemporary views of MATHAF. Figure 1 in the study represents the artwork by Sliman Mansour. The primary theme of the painting is hope, perseverance, and strength. It suggests these three elements for survival and helps people to understand the importance of these essential factors in reshaping their lives. They helped people in ancient time to survive and to struggle for their existence and progress. The artwork is significant because it has a firm relationship with the modern age, where people are prone to losing hope. It inspires faith in them and encourages them to hope for the best and to explore their strengths to improve their lives. Through this artwork we can highlight the background of its creation and connect it to Prieta Meier’s argument regarding its relationship with modernism. Additionally, looking at the most important subject matters of the artwork, the quantitative literature review on the study shows that in times of absolute terror, pain and desperation, it is paramount for one to always have hope, perseverance and remain strong in order to make it in life.[Sarah Rogers, “Sliman Mansour,” Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar, 2010] [Perita Meier, “Authenticity and Its Modernist Discontents: The Colonial Encounter and African and Middle Eastern Art History,” The Arab Studies Journal 18, no. 1 (2010): 12-45] Biography of Sliman Mansour Sliman Mansour was born in 1947 in Birzeit, a town in Palestine located north of Ramallah and later enrolled to studying fine art in Bezalel Art Academy in Jerusalem. Not only has he contributed to the visual representation of Palestine in the single artwork under review in this paper, but also in his several other works since the 1970s. In addition, to promote his career, in 1987, he and other close artists namely, Vera Tamari, Tayseer Barakat and Nabil Anani, founded what came to be termed as a political collective called New Visions whose aim was to respond to the First Intifada that occurred in Palestine between 1987 and 1993. In 1994, Mansour aided in the founding of the Al Wasiti Art Center located in East Jerusalem and was give the title of the Director where he served for two years from 1995 to the end of 1996.[Ankori, Gannit. "Earth: Sliman Mansour and the Poetics of Sumud," Palestinian Art (London: Reaktion Books, 2006), 60-92.] Sliman Mansour’s art was viewed as being unique and it is agreeable since he only used mud as his primary medium where he made layers and molded them in to a figurative composition of an object on a wooden framework to depict the country of Palestine, its people and their culture. He made objects of different shapes and sizes and through the cracks and distortions that the objects displayed over time in the sun when they were drying, it showed the gradual passage of time and the temporary nature of materials. In 1996, Mansour made one of his important series of mud painting...