80 Year of Art from the Arab Region
Abed Abdi is one of the most important Palestinian artists.
Born into a long-standing Haifa family in 1942, his mother
and siblings were uprooted from their home in 1948, while
his father remained in Haifa. After three years of wandering
between Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria,
they were allowed back into Palestine. Abdi is an artist and
educator, and has been consistently promoting Arab culture
for over 40 years. His contribution to the visual culture of the
Palestinian minority is unprecedented.
In 1964 he went to study in Dresden. On his return to Haifa
in 1971 he was appointed chief graphic designer and
illustrator of the Al-Ittihad newspaper and the Al-Jadid
literary journal, which were the main platforms of Arab
culture and society. It was then that Abdi created hundreds
of illustrations and prints – images of refugees, exile and
homeland – the majority of which illustrated the literary
works of Emile Habibi, Salman Natour, Samih al-Qasim,
and others.
His broad artistic range encompasses painting, graphic
design, monuments, and illustrations. Abdi has been a pillar
of the development of Al Dakhel contemporary art and the
creation of a new collective memory within his community
through the building of memorial monuments and the
circulation of prints through newspapers. In 1994, Abdi
was one of the Founding Members of the Khalil el Sakakini
Cultural Center in Ramallah. He has received numerous
awards and has exhibited extensively in Europe and
Palestine. He currently lives and works in Haifa, Palestine
Auction at Al Bahie Auction House
5 December 2021 7:30 PM DOHA time
