Sudanese artist, writer, critic, cultural diplomat Ibrahim El-Salahi (born 1930) is one of the critical figures of African and Arabic modernism. While serving as Sudan’s Undersecretary of Culture in 1975, El-Salahi was imprisoned without trial and endured six months of deprivation in the notorious Cooper (now Kober) Prison. During a period of house arrest that followed, he exorcised his experience in the Prison Notebook, an intensely personal work that is both a major historical document and a masterpiece of drawing, its pages filled with remarkable pen-and-ink drawings that demonstrate the artist’s graphic mastery. This bilingual English-Arabic volume, published by The Museum of Modern Art and the Sharjah Art Foundation, comprises a facsimile of the Prison Notebook (recently acquired by MoMA); an English translation of its prose; a contextualizing essay by art historian Salah Hassan that addresses the social and political milieu in which it was produced; and contemporary commentary by the artist, captured in a recent interview.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Ibrahim El-Salahi: Prison Notebook.'
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"I was released from Cooper Prison in March 1976, and months later I was still under house arrest. I just sat there … I could move around but only within limits. The experience I had been through, I wanted to record it. I have always been in the habit of jotting down whatever happens to me—I make notes. It had been a very bitter and also a rather enriching experience, in a strange way. So I started jotting it down in writing and drawing—the different images and the different places and the people I had met and what happened within those very, very high sandstone walls. You couldn't see anything except the sky and the kites flying, flying above … I started to record it so as not to forget. Not only for me but for anyone who is innocent and has been imprisoned under false pretenses. Just to remember what can happen." — Ibrahim El-Salahi, Prison Notebook continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 7 x 11.5 in. / 148 pgs / 76 duotone. LIST PRICE: U.S. $29.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $39.95 ISBN: 9781633450554 PUBLISHER: MoMA/Sharjah Art Foundation AVAILABLE: 7/24/2018 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Published by MoMA/Sharjah Art Foundation. Edited with text by Salah Hassan.
Sudanese artist, writer, critic, cultural diplomat Ibrahim El-Salahi (born 1930) is one of the critical figures of African and Arabic modernism. While serving as Sudan’s Undersecretary of Culture in 1975, El-Salahi was imprisoned without trial and endured six months of deprivation in the notorious Cooper (now Kober) Prison. During a period of house arrest that followed, he exorcised his experience in the Prison Notebook, an intensely personal work that is both a major historical document and a masterpiece of drawing, its pages filled with remarkable pen-and-ink drawings that demonstrate the artist’s graphic mastery. This bilingual English-Arabic volume, published by The Museum of Modern Art and the Sharjah Art Foundation, comprises a facsimile of the Prison Notebook (recently acquired by MoMA); an English translation of its prose; a contextualizing essay by art historian Salah Hassan that addresses the social and political milieu in which it was produced; and contemporary commentary by the artist, captured in a recent interview.
