Ibrahim Ghannam
Ibrahim Ghannam
Born
Ibrahim Hassan Kheite

1930
Haifa, Palestine
Died1984 (aged 53–54)
Beirut, Lebanon
NationalityPalestinian
Known forPainting
MovementPlastic art

Ibrahim Hassan Kheite (1930–1984), also known as Ibrahim Ghannam, was a Palestinian visual artist and painter. Born in the coastal town of Yajur near Haifa in Palestine, he lived in Tal Al-Za'atar refugee camp, north of Beirut in Lebanon.[1]

Biography

Ghannam contracted Gout as a child and used a wheelchair throughout his life.[2] Thanks to a UNWRA nurse providing him with painting materials, Ghannam was able to continue painting. Ghannam depicted scenes of village life in Yajur, in a naïve style using bright colours and a meticulousness approach to detail reminiscent of the Islamic minaturists.[2][1] Ghannam's choice to paint evocative village life, a far cry from his room overlooking an open sewer, and his subsistence diet of canned foods. In transcending his reality to paint vibrant rural scenes, he was able to preserve the visual memory of bountiful Palestinian countryside for a generation of children born in the refugee camp.[1] Further to this visionary approach to his own work, Ghannam was also one of the founding members of the General Union of Palestinian Artists and the General Federation of Arab Artists.[3]

Ghannam is the subject of Adnan Mdanat's 1977 documentary film Palestinian Visions.[4] He said in an interview: "I feel that my life stopped at the age of 17, because that is how old I was when I left, and I only live when I dream of those days."[5] Ghannam found solace in playing the oud (as pictured here).

Exhibitions

  • 2020, The Naïve Arab Artist: Naïfs, Outsiders, L’art Autre, and L’art Brut in the Middle East, American University of Beirut Art Galleries, Beirut, Lebanon

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Boulatta, Kamal (2005). ""Art", in Philip Mattar, ed. The Encyclopedia of the Palestinians (New York: Facts on File, 2005)".
  2. 1 2 Gannit Ankori, Palestinian Art, Reaktion Books, 2006, p. 54. ISBN 1-86189-259-4
  3. ↑ Dalloul, Ramzi (18 November 2023). "Ibrahim Ghannam, Palestine, 1930-1984". Dalloul Foundation.
  4. ↑ Nurith Gertz, George Khleifi, Palestinian Cinema: Landscape, Trauma and Memory, Edinburgh University Press, 2008, p. 71. ISBN 0-7486-3408-8
  5. ↑ The Palestinians, by Jonathan Dimbleby Archived 2010-09-17 at the Wayback Machine

Sources



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