Title:

Ibrahim El-Salahi: At Home in the World – A Memoir

Editor:

Salah M. Hassan

Publisher:

The Africa Institute (Sharjah, UAE) and Skira Editore (Milan, Italy)

Year:

2022

Ibrahim El-Salahi: At Home in the World – A Memoir is a thought-provoking documentation of his contributions as a Sudanese artist within a global history of modern art.

For more than a half-century, Ibrahim El-Salahi has been at the forefront of African modernism in the visual arts. A renowned artist, writer, critic, and teacher, El-Salahi continues to refine his unique modernist vision, which combines and challenges Islamic, African, and western paradigms of modernism in the visual arts. In this engaging memoir, El-Salahi recalls some of the most formative experiences of his career. From Khartoum to London to São Paulo to New York to Doha, and many places in between, El-Salahi shares his wide-ranging intellectual curiosity as he seeks out significant artwork and interesting conversations on several continents.

El-Salahi introduces his readers to encounters he had with figures such as the African-American modernists Hale Woodruff, Jacob Lawrence, and members of the Spiral Group; the legendary leader of the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad; and the Mexican painter Rufino Tamayo. His memories of passing acquaintances are equally thought-provoking. El-Salahi also documents his contributions to Sudanese public culture, his unjust imprisonment under a military government, and subsequent exile from Sudan. In this important work, El-Salahi offers new perspectives on his development as an artist and on his foundational contributions to African and Arab modernism.

The book is edited by Salah M Hassan, who in his introduction contextualizes El-Salahi’s artwork within a global history of modern art and expands its narrative. It also includes a foreword by Hoor Al-Qasimi, who writes about her first encounters with Ibrahim El-Salahi’s work as part of the Sharjah Biennial as well as his exceptional oeuvre over the years – has stood out to be a transformative figure in the global art world.