Mustafa al-Hallaj

Mustafa al-Hallaj (1938 – 17 December 2002) was a Palestinian-born visual artist, primarily working as a graphic designer, painter, and printmaker. Al-Hallaj was a pioneer in the Arab art world, known as an "icon of contemporary Arab graphic arts." His work was often devoted to his lost homeland, Palestine, and he is also said to have tried to turn Palestine into the form and content of his artistic school.

Biography He was born in Salama in the Jaffa region of Mandatory Palestine. He studied sculpture at the College of Fine Arts in Cairo and attended the Luxor Atelier for Postgraduate Studies. His art included paintings, graphics, murals, illustrations, cover designs and etchings, with specializations in graphic art and sculpture.

After 25 years in Egypt, al-Hallaj travelled to Beirut, which was the centre of "revolutionary and artistic activity". Al-Hallaj contributed to defining the fan al-muqawama (or, "the art of resistance"). The stark colour palette, beautifully rendered figures and use of mythologies are emblematic of al-Hallaj's work, making it instantly recognisable.

Self-portrait as Man, God, the Devil is a Masonite-cut print by al-Hallaj wide and high in which he represents himself with a long, white beard, a peacock pattern of white hair and enlarged eyes staring in awe at the events depicted. He used it as a way to honour lost comrades; of this work al-Hallaj said "we Palestinian artists are an orchestra. We are one choir… We have many friends and many died. We are a walking graveyard of these personalities who left." Tex Kerschen calls it "... a master work, a continuum of fantastic and folkloric imagery that spans ancient and modern times. He juxtaposes a vast and often idiosyncratic menagerie of symbols — bulls, camel men, birds, lizard-like creatures and fish, with fantastic landscapes and episodes of ancient and modern Palestinian life ... Scenes from Al Nakba and the universal history of human oppression, such as mass hangings and forced marches, spill into representations that draw from his extensive erudition and his own syncretic imagination."

Al-Hallaj successfully rescued this work from an electrical fire in his home studio, but he died after running in to save other works. He was buried in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus.

Al-Hallaj has won several local and international awards and prizes.