Sliman Mansour

In 1987, he was part of the New Visions collective that boycotted Israeli supplies and instead used local natural Palestinian materials. Palestinian artist and scholar Samia Halaby has identified Mansour as part of the Liberation Art Movement and cited his important work as an artist and cultural practitioner before and after the First Intifada.

• Native Name — سليمان منصور • Born — 27 July 1947 • Birthplace — Birzeit, Ramallah, Mandatory Palestine • Died — 24 August 2026 • Place of death — East Jerusalem, Israeli-occupied Palestinian Territories • Resting Place — Birzeit, Ramallah and al-Bireh, Palestine • Other Names — * Suleiman Mansour • Suliman Mansour • Occupation — * Visual artist • author • cartoonist • Field — * Painting • sculpture • Notable Works — The Camel of Hardships (1973) • Education — Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design • Style — Contemporary Palestinian art • Movement — Liberation Art Movement • Website — https: slimanmansour.com/

Mansour was born on 27 July 1947, one year before the Nakba, in Birzeit north of Jerusalem. He studied art at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, graduating in 1970. At the academy, he was taught abstract expressionism, a trend he did not want to study since he wanted to paint more realistic subjects from life. He developed a realist style of painting, depicting the daily life of those living and rooted in Palestine. In 1987, together with other Palestinian artists such as Vera Tamari, Tayseer Barakat, and Nabil Anani, Mansour founded "New Visions", a collective formed in response to the First Intifada (1987–1993). This collective turned to earthworks and mixed media and assemblage using natural materials derived from the Palestinian environment in order to boycott Israeli art supplies in protest of the ongoing occupation. Mansour used mud for the soil. His childhood memories of working with his grandmother when she was building beehives and ovens with mud inspired him. He was always around her, trying to help: "So when I thought about material that I could use, mud was the first thing that came to my mind. After a while, once I started making figures, I realized that the mud also reflects the human fate with the cracks, people waiting to disappear, fall down and go away." In 1988 he made a series of four paintings on destroyed Palestinian villages, the four villages being Yibna, Yalo, Imwas and Bayt Dajan. He was a co-author of the book Both Sides of Peace: Israeli and Palestinian Political Poster Art, published in 1998 by the Contemporary Art Museum with University of Washington Press. Mansour wrote two books on traditional Palestinian clothing and embroidery. Mansour contributed extensively to the development of an infrastructure for the fine arts in Palestine. He taught at numerous cultural institutions and universities, including Al-Quds University. He was the head of the League of Palestinian Artists from 1986 to 1990. In 1994, Mansour co-founded al-Wasiti Art Center in East Jerusalem. He was a member of the Founding Board of Directors of the International Academy of Art Palestine, established in 2004. He was a contributing artist to the I Witness Silwan art installation in East Jerusalem. Mansour died in Jerusalem on 24 August 2026, at the age of 79, having been treated at Makassed Hospital for a long illness. A funeral was held two days later at St. Peter's Anglican Church in his native Birzeit, where his body was buried.