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Abu Shaqra (1960-1990) was Born in the Galilee in the town of Um
El Fahim. He had a short but brilliant artistic career. He lived
and worked in Tel Aviv in poor financial conditions, pushing him
to execute his works with oil on paper (instead of canvas). His
talent was soon recognized, and he was able to obtain a teaching
position at his alma mater the Israeli Kalisher Academy, exhibit
at important Israeli venues, and win important Israeli art awards.
His works sold very well after his death, acquired by Israeli
collectors as well as art institutions. The Tel Aviv Museum held a
major posthumous retrospective exhibit of his works in 1990. The
Sakakini held an exhibit of his works in 1999.
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His work:
Besides obvious talent, his success owed much to the leitmotif
of Abu Shaqra' s works: The potted cactus. It was hijacked by
some prominent Israeli critics as signifying Abu Shaqra' s
variations on the Israeli Sabra (the Hebrew word for cactus,
referring to Israelis born in Palestine). Other critics reduced
Abu Shaqra's thorny cacti to a mere reflection of the pain of
the cancer that was eating him away. |
The original Palestinian
specificity of the symbol of the cactus (Sabbar) and its
emblematic national connotations were expressly denied. It makes
sense that for Abu Shaqra -a young man of rural Galillean
background- the cactus would be fraught with symbolism,
especially after his transplant to Tel Aviv, where he lived
close to the ruins of Arab buildings destroyed in 1948. We can
also see that with the progress of his illness, the depiction of
the potted cactus became more stark and tortured, as a joining
of the three traits in Abu Shaqra's life: His Palestinian
identity, his foreignness in Israel, and the progress of his
disease. Further, it is sad to note that while he had refused to
participate in an Israeli 40th anniversary art exhibit, after
his death, his works were featured in the Israel Museum's 50th
anniversary of Israel art retrospective...
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