 The Artist: Ismail Shammout was born in 1930 in Lydda, Palestine. His family sought refuge in Khan Yunis after the Nakba. He studied at Cairo’s Fine Arts College and at Rome’s Fine Arts Academy. He was appointed in 1965 as head of the PLO’s fine arts department, and obtained a special Palestine Award in 1997. Shammout has exhibited widely throughout the world, and now lives and works in Amman, Jordan. His work: Shammout is considered to be a founder of modern Palestinian visual arts, holding the first stand-alone art exhibit in Gaza City in 1953. He is a prolific and consistent painter of realistic scenes of the Palestinian tragedy and struggle: The Nakba, the exodus of refugees, civilians’ massacres, the rise of resistance and the Fedayeen, as well as idyllic depictions of Palestinian rural life. Many of his works are widely reproduced in Palestinian publications, and became domestic icons of sorts. Shammout has been experimenting with computer art. He has written extensively on Palestinian art. For more information on Ismail Shammout, and to contact the artist go to: www.shammout.com |
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