Abed Abdi

Abed Abdi (Arabic: عبد عابدي, born February 1942, Haifa, Mandate Palestine) is an Arab Israeli painter, graphic designer, sculpturer and lecturer of the arts.

Early Life

In April 1948, he, his mother, his brothers and sisters were uprooted from their home, while his father remained in Haifa. From Haifa the mother and her children traveled to Acre from where, two weeks later, they sailed on a decrepit boat to Lebanon. In Lebanon they were first housed in the “quarantine” transit camp in Beirut port, and later moved to the Mieh Mieh refugee camp near Sidon, from where they continued to Damascus. After three years of wandering between Palestinian refugee camps, the mother and her children were allowed back into Israel as part of the family reunification program. ^[1]

In his youth Abdi joined the Communist Youth Alliance in Haifa, where he also began his artistic journey. In this environment he was first exposed to Social Realism and Israeli artists who adopted this style and who, at the time, were close to the Israeli socialist-communist Left. In 1962 Abdi was accepted for membership in the Haifa Association of Painters and Sculptors, becoming its first Arab member, and also held his first exhibition in Tel Aviv. ^[2]

He then pursued academic studies at the Fine Arts Academy in Dresden (Germany). His professors were Lea Grundig, G. Bondzin and G. Kettner. His masterwork at the Academy received the 2nd prize, which allowed Abdi to spend another year at the Academy and specialize in murals and environmental sculpture.

Abdi was selected by his academic supervisor Prof. Gerhard Bondzin, along with a group of other graduating students at the Academy, to participate in the erection of a huge mural at the Cultural Palace see image ( Kulturpalast), built in 1968 in the center of Dresden, a mural which still remains a cultural landmark of this part of unified Germany. ^[3]

Abed Abdi's Art: Illustrations

In the years Abdi spent in Germany (1964-1971) he created a most impressive corpus of illustrations, lithographs and etchings mainly dedicated to either the Nakba or the Palestinian refugees. A group of the refugee works which Abdi created in Germany between 1968 and 1971, and which was published in 1973 as a set of twelve black and white prints entitled “Abed Abdi – Paintings”, offers a glimpse of central motifs that would later recur in many of his works. Curator Tal Ben Zvi commented that "in these and other works, clearly evident is the mark left by his childhood experiences when he moved between refugee camps, and from the period following his family’s reunification in Haifa. To depict the refugees Abdi adopted a Social Realism approach of the kind to which he was exposed prior to his departure for Germany, and which he refined while he was there".^[4]

In 1972 Abed Abdi returned to Haifa, and worked as graphic designer for a number Arabic publications that appeared in Israel, like Al Ittihad and Al Jadeed. He has created a vast quantity of illustrations, both black and white and in color.

His friend and colleague, Palestinian poet Samih Al Qasim stated that "Since he started out, Abdi’s brush has attracted my attention. He offered a unique approach. When I asked him for a print for the cover of my second collection of poems, Poems of the Roads, in 1964, he assented with loving enthusiasm. He recognized the harmony in our work: an array that is immersed in the national and human pain of the Palestinian people, and a poem inundated with that pain. His illustration constituted a sharp, deep and beautiful expression of the burning lyrical character of the poems of the time." ^[5]

A recent exhibition, titled “Wa Ma Nasina” (We Have Not Forgotten) contains a selection from his illustrations. Curator Tal Ben Zvi wrote that "This exhibtion is a personal journey in time, memory and history of Palestinians, which constituting an integral part of the life of artist Abed Abdi, who was born in Haifa." ^[6]

The exhibition contains paintings and lithographies which were published as photographic copies for 20 years, starting at the end of the 1960s, in Al Ittihad newspaper, Al Jadid literary magazine, on the covers of books, and as illustrations inside books. Among the books in which these illustrations were published are Emile Habibi's two books, "Sextet of Six Days" (1968) and "The Pessoptimist: The Secret Life of Saeed Abo el-Nahs al-Motashel" (1977), Salman Natour's "Wa ma nasina" (We Have not Forgotten) (1982), Felicia Langer's "With My Own Eyes" (1974), Joseph Algazi's (Galili) "Father, What Did You Do When They Demolished Nader's House?" (1974), as well as Moshe Barzilai's anthologies of poems. He also illustrated books by Muhammad Ali Taha, Anton Shamas and a book by his brother, Deeb Abdi.

Abed Abdi's Art: Caricatures

Abdi created many caricatures, that were published mainly in the Al-Ittihad newspaper in Haifa between the years 1972 to 1981. (View images)

Abed Abdi's Art: Paintings

Abdi painted a number of color paintings during his studies in Germany, and has continued do so, especially from the late seventies. In the paintings from the late 1990's Abdi starts mixing color with other materials, such as glass, wood, metals, etc.

(see images)

His paintings include portraits (see images), figures (see images) and compositions (see images).

However, his main themes center around his childhood refugee experience(see images here and here, Haifa (see images), the Gallile (see images) and other places (see images), the Intifada ((see images here) and (here), and the windows and doors (see images) in the tiny alleys of the Arab neighborhood of Wadi Nisnas in Haifa, where the artists resides. Of special interest is his Ecce Homo series (see images).

Abed Abd's Art: Monuments

After studying in Dresden, Abdi became the first Palestinian to build monumental art on native soil. His allegorical monuments in Galilee, honoring human fortitude and resistance, include a narrative mural depicting Elijah¡s defiance and survival and a bronze monument dedicated to six Palestinians who were shot on Land Day.

Land Day Monument

In the course of the years following the Land Day events, Abed Abdi and Gershon Knispel decided to build a monument commemorating the Sakhneen Land Day, with support from the Sakhneen mayor at the time, Jamal Tarabeih. On the 30th of March 1977, exactly one year after the demonstrations, the artists presented a model of the monument to the Arab Municipalities Committee and to the wide public. The monument was constructed at the end of March 1978, and the construction itself took several hours with the joint effort of a large number of construction workers from Sakhneen. Tamir Shorek (see LINKS, Shorek Tamir, 2002), notes that Jamal Tarabeih, mayor of Sakhneen at the time, was arrested by the police in the course of the construction and accused of granting an illegal construction permit, but he was released within several hours.

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The monument was built in the shape of a sarcophagus, a rectangular marble sepulcher, on which motifs of faces and ornaments were inscribed and which characterize classical Greek and Roman funerary art. ^[8] (see images)

His collaborator, Israeli artist Gershon Knispel wrote that "Each of us summarized the completion of the monument in Sakhnin in his own way. I wrote: “With my friend and colleague Abed Abdi I erected this monument to ‘drive out the evil spirit’ and leave traces… of the acts of wrongdoing, robbery, murder and dispossession for the future generations that found it hard to believe that ‘it really happened”. And you, Abed, added: “Our joint work was the realization of a vision of cooperation between the two peoples in order to prevent a repetition of the tragedy…” ^[9]

A recent exhibition commemorates the erection of that monument, curated by Tal Ben Zvi, who wrote that "this monument, which is identified as one of the turning points in the Palestinian presence in the public arena inside Israel, became a particularly significant and influential factor in everything pertaining to the formation of the national collective memory in general, and the visual memory in particular, of the Palestinian minority in Israel." ^[10]

Other Monuments

Abed Abdi has erected a number of other memorial monuments and murals: In 1984 -- the memorial to commemorate 75 years for the existence of the Galilean municipality of Shefa Amr (see images), in

Abed Abdi's Art: Murals and environmental sculptures

in In addition, he has painted a number of murals in Haifa, Jaffa, Ebellin and Nazareth. In 1998 Abdi Erected an Environmental Sculpture "Homage to Amman" at the piazza of the Jordan National Gallery of fine art in the city of Amman.

Abed Abdi: Exhibitions

Abed Abdi has exhibited in Qatar, Jordan, Germany, Belgium, France, Hungary, Israel, Belgium and Bulgaria. He has participated in over 45 group exhibitions, among them the joint Palestinian-Israeli exhibition "It's possible" which toured the USA and Germany between 1988 and 1990. In 1995 he participated in the second exhibition for Palestinians and Israelis in Germany. His work appeared in the "Solidarity with the Palestinian People" exhibit in Tokyo, Havanah, Berlin, Moscow, Brussels, Belgrade and Athens. He also organized and participated in exhibitions with Israeli and Palestinian artists in Tel-Aviv, Haifa and West Jerusalem in the period between 1980 and 1987 defending the freedom of expression and creativity.

Speaking about his art and the 1973 War, Abdi said: "Out of my worldview and my loathing of war, and also out of my profound concern for the future of relations between the two peoples, Arab and Jewish, I have shown my two works here in the exhibition [entitled “Echoes of the Times” in which artists from Haifa and the north of Israel participated]. When the cannons thundered on the Golan [Heights] and the banks of the [Suez] Canal, and when the future of the region was at risk, I recalled the words of Pablo Picasso and in my work I said “no to war” in accordance with my artistic beliefs; art must be committed and play a role.... In the same way that an artist lives the events of the past, present and future, he also lives the conflict between Man and the forces of evil and destruction. And when society and humankind are in crisis, the artist is required to express himself harmoniously by means of the artistic vehicle at his disposal […] and so […] the role of the artist in his work, thoughts and worldview is to reinforce the perpetual connection between himself and the society in which he lives. I was brought up according to this approach and thus I understand the connection between my artistic work and the role defined by Kokoschka, who sought to remove the mask for all those who want to see reality as it is. The role of fine art is to show them the truth".

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Abed Abdi's other activities

Abdi is the first Arab member of the Haifa branch of the Israeli Association of Painters and Sculpturors, and he is also active in the Jewish-Arab Center of Beit Hagefen. This has enabled him to unite Palestinian and Israeli artists, and organize joint exhibitions, bringing the prospects of peace closer. From 2004 to 2009 Abdi Served as President of the Al Medan Theater in Haifa, and from 1996 to 2000 was a Member in the Committee for Arts and Culture in Israel.

Since 2007, Abdi is the co-curator of the open air art exhibition bringing together Israeli, Palestinian and foreign artists, attached to the “Holiday of Holidays” multicultural event, taking place in Haifa each year through the whole month of December, celebrating the Christian, the Muslim and the Jewish holidays.

Teaching Arts:

Abed Abdi began teaching art ever since he came back from his studies in Germany. He taught arts in various Palestinian community centers and schools in the Galilee (eg. in Haifa, Nazareth, Kufor Yaseef, Acre, Jaffa and Shafa Amr). In addition, he has been teaching fine arts in the Arab Pedagogical College in Haifa since 1985, until his retirement in 2008.

Abdi is the Founder of "Ibdaa" Association (1994) for the Advancement of Visual Arts among Israeli Arabs, and of "Arabelle" Association (2006) for deepening the dialogue between Arabs and Jews through Arts, and was one of the Founding Members of the "Khalil el Sakakini" Cultural Center in Ramalla (1998) (link).

He is teaching art and ceramics in the Workshop attached to his studio in Haifa since 2006, offering special courses for young children.

Art critic Said Abu Shakra wrote that "there can be no doubt that Abed Abdi’s importance is in his being the first to cross the sea to study in the certain knowledge that the city of his birth needed him to return to act and lead in an unfamiliar sphere of endeavor, and in fact to create something ex nihilo in the complex reality... His importance is in the fact that he acknowledges and is conscious of this reality, and came back to it out of a sense of responsibility, mission and commitment....He is an artist whose name is etched on the Palestinian collective memory and the nascent Palestinian culture both in Israel and beyond." ^[12]

Awards and honors

- The city of Haifa awarded Abdi the "Hermann Struck Best Artist of the Year" Prize in 1973 and for a second time in 1999 .

- The Young Artist's award at the Berlin International Youth Festival.

- A number of awards from local Rotary clubs in Haifa, Nazareth.

- In 2010, the municipality of the city of Haifa awarded him the "honorary citizen of Haifa" Title.

- In 2008 Abed Abdi became the first Arab artist living in Israel to win the Minister of Science, Culture and Sport Award, together with six other artists, all of whom were Jews and younger than him. The Jury stated in their decision that "Abed Abdi's Contribution in the making of collective visual culture among the Arab Israeli minority is unprecedented, and could be described as equivalent to Nahum Gutman's extent works." ^[13]

Replying to a question from an interviewer regarding the excitement generated by the event in the Israeli media, Abdi said, “If I really am the first Arab artist, it is neither a compliment to me nor to 60 years of the State of Israel”. ^[14] Israeli curator Tal Ben Zvi commented that "Indeed, it seems that thus Abdi faithfully summed up the attitude of both the state and the Israeli art establishment towards Palestinian art inside the Green Line. Abdi, the prolific and groundbreaking artist in so many respects in the sphere of Palestinian art, was forced to wait until he was sixty-six to gain this recognition." ^[15]

- Abdi received a honorary mention from the Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue Between Cultures for for his activities in fostering Euro Mediterranean dialogue through the arts, having been selected as one of the 5 finalists in the Euro-Med Award for the Dialogue between Cultures for 2008.

Abdi is married to a Hungarian wife (Judit), and is father to 3 sons.

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• Kamal Boullata / The Encyclopedia of the Palestinians/ Philip Mattar, ed. The Encyclopedia of the Palestinians. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2000.

• www.abedabdi.com