Abdul Hay Zarara

Личная информация

Страна местожительства: Palestine

Пол: Male

Born in: 1933

Информация

Abdul Hay Musallam Zarara was a Palestinian/Jordanian artist . He was born in the village of Al-Dawayima in Hebron in 1933 and died on August 1, 2020 in Amman. He became an artist by nature and did not receive art education at art institutes. He held more than 35 solo exhibitions in the Arab world and internationally. Many journalists and critics wrote about him in Arab and foreign newspapers and magazines, discussing his special technique of using a mixture of sawdust and glue, from which the artist created his most beautiful paintings. Following the Sabra and Shatila massacre, he held an exhibition in Tokyo with thirty-three Japanese artists, whose theme was the massacre that took place in Lebanon in 1982 .

His upbringing and artistic beginnings

About the artist Abdul Hay Muslim, critic Muhammad Abu Zurayq wrote: “From the depths of the Palestinian village, Abdul Hay Muslim emerged laden with songs, mawwals, mijana, and ataba, which would be an important element in his artistic works. These works are naturally in character, and presented themselves with ease and simplicity, as they committed themselves to the Palestinian cause with a personal belief and a visionary approach, thus gaining sincerity in performance. He is a natural artist who expressed the memory of the Palestinian place in all its mythological and historical dimensions, evoking customs and traditions, mythical figures, and oral and non-verbal folklore, drawing on a memory rich with details of childhood in the Palestinian village, and from poetry and popular epics, and songs of the samer and weddings, recording all of that in a beautiful artistic language.”
Abdul Hay Muslim was born in 1933 in the village of Al-Dawayima, near Hebron, Palestine. Like many Palestinians, he left the village in 1948 before he turned fifteen. Muslim worked in various professions, but never considered becoming an artist until he was in his forties, after experiencing a series of tragedies and exiles. Muslim first channeled his emotions into clay, and later into glue and wood in the form of sunken and raised sculptures. He worked in the Jordanian army for several years before resigning and joining the Palestine Liberation Organization, which sent him and his family to Libya . The loneliness of the Libyan desert increased his pain and alienation, and he discovered a different field of resistance through beautiful and serious artworks, and he continued his experiment. His works are in relief and bas-relief, where he discovered his favorite material of glue and sawdust, mixing them in certain proportions and treating them with simple sculptural tools (which he later used to form bodies and objects, and within a few months he accomplished a good group of works, which combined in their technique between painting and sculpture, and participated with them in the Tripoli International Exhibition of Fine Arts) in 1971 , and from this date his long artistic career began.
“Thus, Abdel Hayy gets involved in a path open to the unknown,” Abu Zurayq writes. “He has no artistic weapons other than simplicity and instinct, which do not stem from any previous reference (he did not study drawing at the hands of a professor from Italy or France , so his hand remained Palestinian, with its authenticity, simply). Therefore, his eloquent answer when asked about his date of birth was not strange, when he said: ‘My real birth was in 1970, when I started drawing.’ Thus, his first stop will be Tripoli , then Beirut and Damascus , then he will tour with his exhibitions in various parts of the Arab world and world capitals, forming a network of artistic relationships across the globe , and receiving welcome and celebration for his honest, natural works, which seep into the soul, whatever its affiliation, with ease and simplicity.”

His works

The beginnings were simple works, consisting of a human element in Palestinian dress. Then his painting/sculpture developed to express characters, scenes, battles and complex formations. Then came the introduction of symbols, mythical animals, mythical worlds, poetic writings, songs and various tools such as weapons, the flute, the plow, harvesting tools and utensils, and trees such as palm trees, cactus, pomegranates , grapes and olives . All of this was employed in the artwork to express an aesthetic and ideological discourse, and both discourses support each other. Muslim relies on his simple nature and honest sense, and therefore his works are easy to receive and appreciated by the educated and the common person. They do not require elaborate interpretation or explanation, and are rich in their connotations and implications. The majority of the artist's works tell the story of his childhood in his occupied village (Al-Dawayima), his displacement in exile and diaspora, and ending with the loss and shattering of dreams, all within a tape of flowing and haunting memories, kneaded with his golden dough, to chronicle and document the private and the public, in a cohesion and interdependence between art and humanity. Thus, (his works are full of human groups, resembling the legendary rituals of the ancient Canaanites, where the figures line up, as if they are moving within a single rhythm... as his painting constitutes a visual narrative of what he remembers). His characters are popular and he treats them with great sympathy. He embroiders the Palestinian dress with colors, and blends written sung text with sculptural formations. Scenes and experiences based on customs, traditions , history and the future have a miraculous epic spirit. Muslim is a purely documentary artist, and his body of work is a complete library of the traditional and popular history of Palestine before 1948, and its history of struggle and resistance after 1948. In a press interview, Muslim says: “I lived in the village for fifteen years before the migration , and I sought to document the memory of that village. I try to present the memory through most of what I do. Every morning I enter the studio and feel like I have returned to the village, and I inspect the works hanging on the walls, which represent a part of daily life rooted in memory.”

Women in his works

Women have a strong presence in the works of Abdul Hay Muslim: she is the legend , the beloved, the fighter, the mother , the land , and the homeland . She is movement , impulse, steadfastness, return, reproach , and beauty . Her composition is spontaneous, her dress is Palestinian, and her features match those of Abdul Hay. The women in his works have unlimited power; they transcend the pain of Palestinian reality and come close to the women of legend. (In one work , she symbolizes the land , in another the revolution , and in a third, giving... She is fertility, the land, and the struggle. She carries her child in one hand and her rifle in the other.) Abdul Hay reinforces his works with popular poetry, especially that spoken by village women :
I brought you my embroidery handkerchief
Your love is in my heart without fear
Oh my, Rawida, our luck is bad
We will not take the scoundrel to the lions and regret it
Or when she protests that her lover has turned away from her:
I wish I fell into Gaza and was struck by a sword
They did not tell me that your clan is a guest with someone else
I wish I fell in Gaza and was hit by a weapon
They didn't tell me that your family is with someone else

gold shavings

A name given by director Mohammed Mawas to a video he made about some of Abdul Hay Muslim's works in 1986 in Damascus. Abdul Hay says: "I truly appreciate this material (sawdust) as if it were gold shavings . I discovered this material in 1970 when I started my artistic career. It came about by chance and practice, and since that day until now, I have not used any other material, as I found it to be a beautiful and flexible material that I either color after completing the work or leave it as it is. This is the technique I use to create my artwork. It consists of sawdust mixed with white glue, which I shape on a previously prepared piece of wood . Regarding this technique, I have not encountered any artist I have met in the Arab world or around the world who uses it in the way I do. Perhaps there are people who use it and I have not had the luck to meet them."

Palestinian folklore in his works

The artist published his book “Palestinian Folklore in the Works of the Artist Abdul Hay Muslim Zarara” in 2005, which includes more than forty works detailed with pictures and texts (Arabic , English and German ) about life in the Palestinian village, especially the Dawayima, Palestinian costumes, proverbs and folk songs. Between reproach and flirting, love and longing, return from the fields, Eid al-Shigur and others, the artist wrote: “Some of the works I completed from the Heritage series are not large in size, each work contains one, two or three people. They are inspired by folk songs. I tried, or tried, to understand the content of these songs and what they relate to. The people who memorize these songs, women or men, repeat them in individual parties, on harvest days, during the olive picking season , while plowing the land or in the Dalaouna. Among the songs of the Samer are the Dabke, Tarawid , Hadhra and Zarif al-Tool.” He drew:
Khasht al-Dar, henna of the bride , the bride's procession on a camel , the bride in the groom's house - the wedding night, the girls' dance, the groom and bride, the popular dabke, the popular poet, Ramadan fasting , returning from the vineyards and figs, and more.

Published articles and studies on his works

From a study of the artist Ismail Shammout , Occupied Palestine magazine , Beirut , No. 284, April 7, 1980 : “He travels on his heart, and with his hands and eyes he engraves the images of the long journey to Palestine with all sincerity and awareness, almost carving in the eyes of the viewers of his artwork a specific Palestinian identity, clear and bright as the sun. This is Abdul Hay Muslim... an Arab Palestinian visual artist ... He did not study painting at the hands of a professor from Italy or France , so his hand remained Palestinian, with authenticity, simply... In his sculpted painting, Abdul Hay Muslim found himself and knew how to share the pain and hopes of his people. For Abdul Hay, the painting is a sculpture at the same time , and he does not care what it is called... It is a visual artwork... a painting with raised relief, and on some of it he writes poetry, sometimes in classical Arabic and other times in colloquial Arabic, and on some he writes his thoughts. He strives for all these elements to be a harmonious unit for one goal: the spontaneous, honest, beautiful work of art. Abdul Hay realized the depth of the relationship between the Palestinian people and the land , so he made the tree , which in his paintings has become like his signature, a sacred tree. In his works, we can discern the roots of our authentic Arab art. He was able to combine painting with sculpture, introduce the written word, and disregard perspective, which are characteristics that distinguish our Arab artistic heritage.
Testimony of journalist Mahmoud Al-Labadi during the siege of Beirut in 1982 , in the book Beirut 82: Siege and Steadfastness, Dar Al-Jalil, pp. 94-100: “Abdul Hay was brave and did not fear death. I was afraid for him because of his stubbornness. He was unshaken by a shell or a plane. During the most intense bombing, he would sit on his chair at the entrance of the building he had made his headquarters to create his paintings without anyone moving. Abdul Hay did not leave his previous position. When the sun was about to set, he would bring his paintings inside, carry his machine gun, and go to perform his nightly guard duty. His most important painting was the one he called “City of Beirut,” which he did not complete. It was an artistic epic composed of young men and women carrying weapons , their arms bulging and their bodies strong. The painting expressed pride and steadfastness in the face of the invaders. The presence of Abdul Hay, the artist, beside us was of great importance. His presence expressed a civilized phenomenon of a people who decided to stand firm and decided to live. His presence also impressed everyone who passed by Al-Ilam Street .”
An article by the Syrian writer Nadia Khost , Al-Mawqif Al-Arabi magazine, January 9, 1983 : “In the artist’s home and studio, while you are drinking a mixture of tea and mint , you notice the difference between the mood of the common man who carries the general concern of the homeland while living the details of life and is not broken, and the mood of the intellectual who is surrounded by abstractions, so he twists on the faces of that concern and loses his freshness… He breathes his forms into that simple material and creates them… The mawwal enters the artistic form with its poetry and authenticity of spirit, he inserts it into the lines of the body and the grace of the woman and her braids and enchants us with them… The captivating female body that meets modern beauty standards is the body of a peasant woman with a long dress and thick braids, a body that moves in impossible positions without seeming unreal and without seeming abstract and cold or losing its warmth and human condition.”
Dr. Izz Al-Din Manasra's book , Encyclopedia of Palestinian Fine Art in the Twentieth Century , Majdalawi Publishing and Distribution House, Amman: "You don't need an ideological or cultural introduction to read the visual discourse of the artist Abdul Hay Muslim... a folk artist who presents you with his three-dimensional paintings with naked spontaneity... Abdul Hay doesn't cut out the folk heritage and transform it into an Orientalist décor, but rather dives into himself and into life to restore innate folk features from the agricultural life in southern Palestine , where he lived his childhood, and re-models and summarizes them in easy-to-read popular symbols. He moves away from the Orientalist perspective ... to formulate himself, or rather the depths of his innate self... according to a mythical folk anatomy by breaking the realistic form ... He also decorates... his three-dimensional sculptures with verses of folk poetry that suit the occasion, and he doesn't invent any artificial modernization in the poetic lines, but leaves them as the old folk painter drew them in the popular biography ... There is no complex symbolism in his sculptures, but rather a collection of traditional folk signs. Abdul Hay Muslim, in short, is a simple, spontaneous, innate, glowing and beautiful artist ."
In an introduction to the artist’s exhibition at Dar Al-Karamah, Damascus , on November 24, 1990 , critic Mahmoud Khalili wrote : “Abdul Hay, the instinctive artist, is not bound by rules or artistic schools. He did not pay attention to artistic results simply because he chose Palestine first and Palestine last. From one station to another, he stops and the subject changes, but the concern is one and the goal is one… He was certain that returning to the past, rich in its heritage and authenticity, is an attempt to awaken the dormant memory and save the present. His photographic memory, which has archived all the seasons of life, helped him in this… He was able to present to us a group of important heritage works that record the customs and traditions of the Palestinian village.” The artist Nazir Nabaa also wrote : “An artist emerged from the heart of the Palestinian revolution suddenly and seriously in a time when culture was lost in the catacombs of sayings and ideas, the roads were cloudy, and gossip spread like the wind ... In such a difficult time, Abdul Hay Muslim emerged like a missile, clean of all the impurities that had clung to culture and intellectuals, free, simple, clear, and honest. He did not acquire these important qualities through effort, but rather they are elements of his nature that you find depicted in him as a human being, still in all his artistic production, which takes from you love and admiration outside the prevailing frameworks and the common aesthetic theories, but he creates his own aesthetics.”
The late artist Mustafa al-Hallaj Abd al-Hay Muslim participated in the management and operation of the studio in the Yarmouk camp in Damascus, and wrote about his work for the Palestinian Encyclopedia , Part Two: Special Studies, Volume Four: Civilization Studies , pages 920-921: “For Muslim, artwork is a tool and a means to embody concepts, values, ideas, and issues. Sometimes he chooses a path and writes in regular handwriting what he wants to express. He does not close the circle, but rather opens it to the widest range of connotations... A popular, rural person to the core , he possesses a vast memory and a great capacity for observation. This is evident in his works, which are rich in fine details, and in his use of writing. He often writes the name of the work or the name of the person who was the subject of his work, and he writes within the fabric of the artwork, sometimes in regular handwriting, as we practice writing in our daily lives, and sometimes in a decorative manner... He reached a stage in which the circle of expression expanded to become comprehensively human, linking his Palestinian struggle obsession with the Arab and global struggle obsession.”
Art critic Asaad Arabi's study , Al-Hayat newspaper , January 21, 1992 , London , in which he wrote: “Abdul Hay maintains his serenity in the hustle and bustle of Europe , moving within the rhythm of a face shaped by six exhausting decades that reflects the harshest meanings of Palestinian displacement. The world gave him a bag of flour, a sea of sadness, and a ticket valid for only one trip.” Abdul Hay speaks with two hands that have blue tattoos bearing the seals of his upbringing in the city before he left it in 1948 ... and in these tattoos we see the Canaanite ear of corn... his painting is a refuge for his colorful dolls and a haven for his paradises that alleviate the burden of frustration. His plastic sensitivity surpasses his obsession with struggle, just as his creative intuition transcends his political discourse and its committed content... his art belongs to what is usually called raw, uncultured art, and perhaps it is closer to the formulas of popular traditions in their raw states, like the well-known Damascene painter Abu Subhi al-Tinawi. Rather, we may find some inspiration from his well-known formulas, especially in the scenes of love stories in Carmel , which are reminiscent of the stories of Antar and Abla, Majnun Layla, and others... perhaps the characters of the two are basically close in their formulation to the features of the characters of the shadow play... and the characters of Abdul Hay are connotations of absolute meanings of love, oppression, longing, injustice, separation, the torment of loneliness and displacement, which he supports with extremely sweet zajal writings that he picks from... His memory.
Study by Dr. Mahmoud Shaheen , Tishreen newspaper , July 20, 1989 : “The most important thing that distinguishes the artist Muslim’s production is his sincere and intimate commitment to his just Palestinian cause. He has dedicated all of his artistic works, which number more than hundreds, to this cause, which remains the concern of the Arab nation and its ever-bleeding wound. Perhaps the most important thing that distinguishes this artist is his fertile memory and his superior ability to record the relationship of good people with each other and with the land, climate, environment, and Palestinian Arab heritage that comes from the womb of life...and continues in it through its various manifestations.”
A study by critic Khalil Safiyya , Al-Thawra newspaper , Damascus, January 2, 1983 : “Abdul Hay’s experience was generally characterized by a certain spontaneity that we usually encounter in the achievements of folk art, and it took on a spontaneous, emotional, and expressive dimension... This is because the artist, in his long, continuous treatment, his constant dialogue with artists, and his participation in many group exhibitions, worked to move relatively outside the circle of his beginnings, in which we found a model of folk art... But where were the emotions and feelings revealed to us... They are in this primitive expressive color momentum that inhabits its elements and symbols... We also see them realized spontaneously and spontaneously in the soft sculptural dough like clay during the completion, which he deals with with the utmost simplicity...Abdul Hay stands at the forefront of Palestinian Arab artists capable of defending the first Arab cause in a special style that has historical roots... He is a model for an entire generation of contemporary Palestinian artists.”
A study by critic Muhammad Khair Mahdhiyya , Contemporary Palestinian Art, Part One, October 13, 1997 : “Thus, Muslim began to work and produce his art. He began as an adventurer, returning to the period he lived in Palestine and inspired by the living model of those days. In this work, he reflected the feeling that lived within him and the dream that he lived with pain. For Muslim, art is how he expresses it as it is. The local environment is what produces the form and spirit of this art, and as long as he lives his memories and childhood dreams, immersed in the nectar of the past, his art will be within this open vision.”
An article by critic and artist Hussein Da'sa, Al Rai newspaper , January 31, 2001 : “ Heritage flows quietly and beautifully into Muslim’s paintings and engravings, who touches with his hands the sensitivity of forms and their aesthetic values... as they came through the accumulation of life experience. He says: “Drawing first of all made him embody and personify many of the stages of his work and art, and he sees himself within the landmarks of the heritage that he experienced in his grandfather’s house and his family, where there are mementos of the orchard, the threshing floor, the wedding, and the image of the mother in her embroidered dress and her feminine world saturated with the features of the homeland, the land, and the people... and for this reason we see the heritage dimension prevailing in his aesthetic achievement, far from the subjective evaluation that some artists try to alienate and hide its main features.”
A critical study of the poet Youssef Abdel Aziz , Amman Magazine, Issue 87, September 2002 , Amman: “The artist’s first concerns derived their material from the atmosphere of Palestinian folklore, and his paintings opened up to the atmosphere of the Palestinian village, so he began to paint everything in it…. The artist’s exploration of the worlds of folklore was only the beginning from which he set out, as he began to extend his art to the deep regions of the Palestinian soul, drawing inspiration from the Canaanite heritage with all its fertility and myths…. There are different formations of Baal riding the clouds , there are ancient boats that cut through the waves of water , women who fly or turn into trees in the paintings, there is a special celebration of the woman who rises with all her charm and fullness as another image of the earth.”

Exhibitions

Abdulhay Musallam's work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions internationally. Most recently, he held a solo exhibition in Sharjah, as well as exhibitions at the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Darat al Funun, the Association of Fine Artists, Dar al-Anda, and Zara Gallery, all in Amman, where he resides. His work has also been featured at the Jean Genet Gallery in Nottingham, UK, and at the New Museum in New York in the exhibitions "Here and There" and "A Nervous and Unintentional Guide to the Love of the Land," curated by artist Alaa Younis, who has been working with him to document his work and collect and digitize his documents since 2003.

His death

He died on August 1, 2020, in the Jordanian capital, Amman , at the age of 87, and was mourned by the Palestinian Ministry of Culture.

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