Ibrahim el-Salahi
 Ibrahim El-Salahi, |
Ibrahim El-Salahi (born 5 September 1930) is a Sudanese artist painter and former politician and diplomat.
El-Salahi was born on 5 September 1930, in Omdurman, Sudan to a Muslim family and is arguably one of the most important modern African artists. His father's career was running a Qur'anic school, which transpires to be the place where El-Salahi learned and practiced his calligraphy, which is predominant throughout his artwork. As a result of his lack of interest and his marks in school prevented him from pursuing medicine, which fortunately led to him beginning his art career. He studied Art at the School of Design of the Gordon Memorial College, currently the University of Khartoum. On the basis of a scholarship, he subsequently went to the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1954 to 1957. At the Slade School of Fine Art, El-Salahi was exposed to European schooling, modern circles, and various historical artist that unintentionally alters the constructions of his artworks. Studying here also allowed him to take formal and ideological cues from modernist painting, which helped him learned to balance pure expression and gestural freedom. Additionally, in 1962 he received a UNESCO scholarship to study in the United States, from where he visited South America. From 1964 to 1965 he returned to the US with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, and in 1966 he led the Sudanese delegation during the first World Festival of Black Arts in Dakar, Senegal.
Due to the completion of his education training, he returned to Sudan. During the duration of his stay, he channeled calligraphy and elements of the Islamic culture that played a role in his everyday life. Trying to connect to his heritage, El-Salahi began to fill with symbols and marking of small Arabic inscriptions. As he became more advanced with incorporating Arabic calligraphy, the symbols began to produce animals, humans, and plant forms, providing more meaning to his artwork allowing viewers to connect to his work. El-Salahi learned to combine the European styles with the traditional Sudanese themes in his art, which evokes a transnational African-influenced surrealism.
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