Iconic Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour has died at 79.
He's best known for his Camel of Hardship painting.
His art has always sought to map Palestinian identity, exile and dislocation.
Sliman Mansour, a famous Palestinian painter who traced over six decades his country’s fight for liberation, is dead at 79. He passed away in his beloved Jerusalem. His family announced the news in an Instagram story post on Monday, August 24, following an earlier announcement that the artist was in “critical condition.” The cause of his death hasn't been shared.
“The final chapter has been written,” the family said. “With hearts heavy beyond words, we share that our beloved father has passed away. “To the world, he leaves behind a life filled with beauty, memory, and a legacy that will continue to live through all those he touched. But to us, we lost a father, our source of love, strength and home.”
Sliman Mansour's Best-Known Paintings
His best known painting is Jamal Al Mahamel, widely known as Camel of Hardship or Camel of Burdens. The iconic work depicts an elderly porter carrying Jerusalem on his back. It succintly evokes the crushing weight of heritage and the fight for a homeland. Other renowned paintings include The Olive Picking, The Mother and Child and And The Convey Keeps Going...
Sliman Mansour's Trajectory
Mansour was born in 1947 in Birzeit, Palestine, few months before the mass displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people began under the Nakba and the formal establishment of the State of Israel. He has lived a life under constant attack and harassment by the Israeli government.
Mansour’s work is linked to the idea of sumud — the Palestinian concept of steadfastness and resilience. Mansour was a founder of the League of Palestinian Artists and its leader from 1986 to 1990. During the First Intifada, he co-founded the New Visions collective with Vera Tamari, Tayseer Barakat and Anani. The artists boycotted Israeli art supplies and turned to materials found locally, including mud and henna. The group sought to weave the Palestinian landscapes into their art. His work is internationally feleted, including the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture in 2019, as well as the Palestine Prize for the Visual Arts and the Grand Nile Prize at the Cairo Biennial.
“Anything that is Palestinian, even just being here, breathing and thinking, is a sensitive matter to the Israelis because they built their narrative around denying our existence,” Mansour insisted to Hyperallergic in a 2023 interview. “Our work not only as painters but as intellectuals — in culture, in everything — is to express that we are here.”
