Sliman Mansour, Renowned Palestinian Artist, Dies at 79
Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour has died at 79, his family announced in an Instagram post on Monday. Mansour was one of the most influential figures in contemporary Palestinian art, and his work stood as a symbol of Palestinian identity, memory, and resistance across more than five decades.
“To the world, he leaves behind a life filled with beauty, memory, and a legacy that will continue to live through all those he touched,” the artist’s family wrote. “But to us, we lost a father, our source of love, strength, and home.”
Born in 1947 in Birzeit, near Ramallah, Mansour graduated from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem in 1970 and went on to become one of the defining figures in Palestinian art. He is perhaps best known for his 1973 painting “Jamal Al Mahamel,” or “Camel of Hardship,” depicting an elderly Palestinian porter carrying the city of Jerusalem on his back — an image that came to embody the Palestinian concept of sumud, or steadfastness, and remains one of the most widely recognized works in Palestinian art.
Throughout his career, Mansour drew on symbols rooted in Palestinian culture and history, including olive and orange trees, traditional embroidery, village life, and recurring images of the land itself. He co-founded the New Visions collective during the First Intifada, which encouraged artists to boycott Israeli art supplies in favor of locally sourced materials such as mud and henna. In 1994, he helped establish the Al-Wasiti Art Centre in East Jerusalem to preserve Palestinian art and connect artists at home with those in exile, and he later joined the founding board of the International Academy of Art Palestine in Ramallah.
Mansour reportedly died at Al-Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem, where he had been receiving treatment. His family had shared earlier that he was in critical condition due to an unnamed illness. No official cause of death has been disclosed.
