by Fatima Aruri
RAMALLAH, June 29 (Xinhua) -- "This exhibition comes 30 years late," said Khaled Hourani at the opening of the first retrospective solo exhibition of the renowned Palestinian artist Samir Salameh, who now battles with cancer.
Hourani, also an artist with a worldwide reputation, curated the exhibition, saying that 90 percent of the displayed works are on show in Palestine for the first time.
One gallery space was not enough for the 150 selected works, so they were hosted in four galleries in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem, Hourani said.
Salameh's fans, students, colleagues and family members filled the showroom, with gratitude and appreciation for the artist.
The works tell the rich experience of the artist who worked for the Palestinian issue from exile in Damascus, then Paris and different spots in the world, showing his contribution to plastic arts, use of Arabic mother tongue and bright colors.
Artists and critics say Salameh's experience outside of Palestine allowed him to make use of his domestic heritage and open up his painting methods to cultural diversity across the world.
Local artists who remained in the occupied territories after the 1948 and 1967 wars were under severe restrictions on the use of materials and colors, so they resorted to raw and local material, unlike Salameh, whose nostalgia in the exile created the bridge toward the artistic movement.
Nabil Anani, one of the founders of Palestinian artist movement, said that Salameh's art works from abroad inspired Palestinian artists in the occupied territories, because it tackled Palestinian sentiments and issues of injustice without drowning in pessimism.
Hourani told Xinhua that he was personally immersed in a process of joy as he was working on the exhibition and selecting only 150 pieces for the exhibition through hundreds of Salameh's works, who has gained a reputation of "elegant painter" and "one of the seven masters of Palestinian art."
The seven masters of Palestinian art are artists who anchored the Palestinian artistic scene locally and internationally in spite of the politically charged struggle.
"Despite his in-depth engagement in the Palestinian cause and the burdens of his people, he maintained his high spirit and method, coloring as if suggesting a different reality of aesthetics unlike the reality Palestinians go through, and this is his generous spirit," said Hourani.
Salameh was forced to live as a refugee when he was four years old and lived in exile until he settled to his by-choice exile in Paris where he continued his higher education and held several exhibitions, without parting from his Palestinian identity and identifying his works as part of Palestinian art scene.
Hourani said Salameh's continuous reassurance of the power of light over darkness is exemplary to the art scene and politically dominated rhetoric.
In recent years, Salameh was finally able to return to Palestine, where he held lectures and took part in group exhibitions.
Palestinian Cultural Minister Ehab Bseiso attended the opening and said that to celebrate the works of Salameh is to compete with death, as he struggles with his illness.
"The strength of Salameh is to provide an important message about hope, a future of freedom, and a Palestinian culture that is honored to have Salameh to be among its artists," Bseiso said.
