Jumana El Husseini

Jumana El-Husseini (; 2 April 1932 – 11 April 2018) was a Palestinian painter and sculptor born in Jerusalem, who later lived in Paris. She won many medals and has an extensive international exhibition record. Jumana El-Husseini died in her home in Paris on 11 April 2018 at the age of 86.

She studied painting, sculpture and ceramics in Beirut and Paris. Noted for figurative paintings of Palestinian women and geometric houses in Jerusalem and Jericho, her style evolved from realistic to geometric and, since 1987, to abstract, with wavelike overpainted drawings evoking Arabic calligraphy.

Personal life Jumana El-Husseini was born to a prominent Palestinian family. Her grandfather, Hajj Amin El-Husseini, was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in the Mandate era and an important figure in the resistance against British and Zionist colonial rule.

In 1948, El-Husseini and her family were forced to leave Palestine as a result of the 1948 Nakba and they resettled in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1950, El-Husseini married Orfan Bayazod.

In 1964 and 1967 she also participated in Sursock's Salon d’Automne and in the Biennali of Alexandria in 1969, Kuwait in 1973, Baghdad in 1974 and in Venice in 1979. and the Dalloul Art Foundation.

Artistic Style El-Husseini's art is centred around depictions of Jerusalem, often using geometric patterns and repetitive motifs. Throughout her artistic career, her work explored her relationship to her home city, Jerusalem, and her relationship both with the city and her forced displacement from it. In 1991 while living in Paris, she began to experiment with stained glass and studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts.

Notable exhibitions

Solo exhibitions Galerie Joëlle Mortier Valat, Paris, France (2004)

Darat Al Funun, Amman, Jordan (2002)

Al Ma’mal Gallery, Jerusalem, Palestine (2002)

Qattan Foundation, Ramallah, Palestine (2002)

Anadil Gallery, Jerusalem, Palestine (1993)

Arab Heritage Gallery, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (1984)

Woodstock Gallery, London, UK (1965)

Group exhibitions Rituals of Signs and Transitions (1975-1995), Darat Al Funun, Amman, Jordan (2015)

Tajreed, CAP, Kuwait, Kuwait (2013)

Nabad Gallery, Amman, Jordan (2008)

Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman, Jordan (2002)

Institut du monde arabe, Paris, France (1989)