Amir I. M. Nour

Andrews, he worked and taught Fine Art in Chicago, where he lived until the end of his life in 2021.

• Born — 26 April 1936 • Birthplace — Shendi, Sudan • Died — 2021 • Place of death — Chicago, United States • Education — Yale University, University of St. Andrews, Scotland • Style — Contemporary African art, Minimalism • Website — https: www.amirnour.com/

In 1957 Nour graduated from the School of Fine and Applied Art in Khartoum, whereupon he became an art teacher from 1958 to 1959 and 1963 to 1965. Following this, he studied sculpture and African art at the Slade School of Fine Art of the University of London, United Kingdom and at the Royal College of Art in London. In 1967, he obtained a Rockefeller scholarship to continue his studies of sculpture and lithography at Yale University in the United States, which he finished with a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Fine Arts. After this, he became an art teacher at the City Colleges of Chicago. In 2006, he took a sabbatical leave and received a Ph.D. in African Art History from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Nour frequently chose geometric forms related to the history, environment and tradition of Sudan, relating to Nubian culture and the country's Afro-Islamic culture. His sculptures, made of such materials as concrete, fibreglass or steel, are abstract and minimalist, citing animals, landscape and architecture of the country of his birth. Nour's works have been internationally presented in museums and through publications, with some of his sculptures in the collection of the National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C. In 2002, the Museum of Modern Art's P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York exhibited Nour's sculptures in The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945–1994, a comprehensive exhibition exploring African culture through art, film, photography, graphics, architecture, music, literature, and theatre. In 2016, the Sharjah Art Foundation presented the exhibition "Amir Nour: Brevity is the Soul of Wit: A Retrospective (1965-present)".

Nour was married to Ann Morrison from Edinburgh, Scotland, whom he had met as a student in London. She was a physical therapist at the Schwab Rehabilitation Institute, and from 1980 onwards, director of Rehab Medicine at the Osteopathic Hospital in Hyde Park, Chicago. Amir Nour died in Chicago at age 84 in 2021.