Ibrahim El-Salahi
He is one of the foremost visual artists of the Khartoum School,[1] considered as part of African Modernism[2] and the pan-Arabic Hurufiyya art movement, that combined traditional forms of Islamic calligraphy with contemporary artworks.
"[4] Ibrahim El-Salahi was born on 5 September 1930 in El-Abbasyia, a neighborhood of Omduran, Sudan, to a Muslim family and is considered to be one of the most important contemporary African artists.
[2] His father was in charge of a Qur'anic school, where El-Salahi learned to read and write and to practice Arabic calligraphy, that later became an important element in his artwork.
[2] Studying in London also allowed him to take formal and ideological cues from modernist painting, which helped him to achieve a balance between pure expression and gestural freedom.
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.
As he became more advanced with incorporating Arabic calligraphy into his work, the symbols began to produce animals, humans, and plant forms, providing new meaning to his artwork.
El-Salahi learned to combine European artistic styles with traditional Sudanese themes, which resulted in an African-influenced kind of surrealism.
[8] The color selection that El-Salahi chose in this formative period reflected the landscape of Sudan, trying to attempt to connect larger concerns of society, whilst creating a unique Sudanese aesthetic through his work.
Writing in the Financial Times, critic Jackie Wullschlager said much of El-Salahi's works from this period "are infused with the relentlessly bright Sudanese light, earthy colour and a palpable sense of a parched landscape and dry hot air," noting that works like Vision of the Tomb (1965) typify this style, with "half-perceived shapes and colours emerg[ing]" from the dusky background.
[citation needed] Some of his works like "Allah and the Wall of Confrontation" (1968) and "The Last Sound"(1964) show elements characteristic of Islamic art, such as the shape of the crescent moon.
[1][16] Other members of this artistic movement in Sudan were poets, novelists, and literary critics of the "Desert School", that also sought to establish a new Sudanese cultural identity.
Following his return to Sudan in 1957, he was disappointed at the poor attendance at his exhibitions and reflected on how to generate public interest: Even at more than 90 years of age, El-Salahi continued his artistic production: As a new form of expression, he created tree-like sculptures for Regent's Park in London, which are modeled on the haraz trees of his homeland.
[14] As scholar Salah M. Hassan pointed out: "The 'Trees' series has demonstrated not only El-Salahi's resilience and productivity, it also reveals the artist's ability to reinvent himself while remaining on the forefront of exploration and creativity.
El-Salahi has been remarkable for his creative and intellectual thought, and his rare body of work, innovative visual vocabulary, and spectacular style have combined to shape African modernism in the visual arts in a powerful way.According to an article in the academic journal African Arts, El-Salahi holds a strong faith in Islam and is a member of the Khatmyia Sufi order.
